The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits 1st Edition

by Judson Brewer (Author), Jon Kabat-Zinn Ph.D. (Foreword)

77 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0300223248

ISBN-10: 0300223242

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A leading neuroscientist and pioneer in the study of mindfulness explains why addictions are so tenacious and how we can learn to conquer them

We are all vulnerable to addiction. Whether it’s a compulsion to constantly check social media, binge eating, smoking, excessive drinking, or any other behaviors, we may find ourselves uncontrollably repeating. Why are bad habits so hard to overcome? Is there a key to conquering the cravings we know are unhealthy for us?

This book provides groundbreaking answers to the most important questions about addiction. Dr. Judson Brewer, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who has studied the science of addictions for twenty years, reveals how we can tap into the very processes that encourage addictive behaviors in order to step out of them. He describes the mechanisms of habit and addiction formation, then explains how the practice of mindfulness can interrupt these habits. Weaving together patient stories, his own experience with mindfulness practice, and current scientific findings from his own lab and others, Dr. Brewer offers a path for moving beyond our cravings, reducing stress, and ultimately living a fuller life.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“It has a lot of practical advice, combining mindfulness training with patient testimonies and clinical practice. . . [A] great book everyone should read.”—Irvine Welsh, Metro

“[The Craving Mind] is informative, has practical clinical utility, and offers a very realistic view of addictions and an insightful look at a viable treatment option.”—Robert Perna, PsycCritiques

“Accessible and enjoyable. The Craving Mind brilliantly combines the latest science with universal real-life experiences—from falling in love to spending too much time with our phones.”—Arianna Huffington

"This masterful, personal, friendly, compelling, humorous, and erudite book offers us a radically new perspective on learning, on breaking habits of mind not by force or through the application of will power or the desire for a reward, but by truly inhabiting the domain of being."—Jon Kabat-Zinn, from the Foreword

"Entertaining and profound, Judson Brewer’s book brings our everyday addictions into clear view, helping us see how we get caught up in our habits, and giving us simple, grounded steps that we can take to overcome them. Wisdom infuses his research as he offers us a path of exploration to better our lives."—Jewel, Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, and author

"The core perception that 'something is missing' drives us to addiction and deprives us of the chance to live fully. By bringing together cutting-edge Western science, the radical insights of Buddhist psychology, and mindfulness practices, Judson Brewer offers a direct pathway to freeing our minds from the domination of craving."—Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge

"The Craving Mind is a remarkable book, one that will help free us from the powerful habits of craving and addiction. Brewer lays out a practical and empirically based pathway to greater freedom and ease in our lives. For many readers, this book will be life-transforming."—Joseph Goldstein, author of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening

About the Author

Judson Brewer, M.D., Ph.D., is director of research at the Center for Mindfulness and associate professor in medicine and psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Yale University and a research affiliate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press; 1 edition (March 7, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0300223242
ISBN-13: 978-0300223248
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 77 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #314,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #82 in Smoking Recovery
- #360 in Drug Dependency Recovery
- #539 in Psychopathology

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Focuses mostly on scientific studies, with little in the way of practical advice

December 26, 2016

Format: HardcoverVine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

I was really eager to read this book since I recently completed an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) class at a local university-based mindfulness center, and, while I loved all that I learned in that class, still feel like I need help managing my internet and shopping addictions. Dr. Brewer's book is interesting to be sure, but I had really been hoping that it would have more practical suggestions.

The book is a fast read, and it focuses a lot on Dr. Brewer's personal experiences with mindfulness -- both through his own life experiences and in those of his patients who see him in clinical practice and also in those who have participated in his research studies. The author discusses the findings of many research studies in neuroscience throughout the chapters, but the book, as a whole, lacks as many specific tips as I had been hoping it would contain.

In one of the early chapters about smoking addiction, Dr. Brewer does introduce the RAIN model popularized by meditation teacher Tara Brach as a way to handle the waves of craving. I have used this model since I first learned about it a few years ago from Brach, but had been hoping for more strategies to really help with my addictive behaviors. In the closing chapter, he also does talk about how to learn to use your own internal compass to feel when you need to find the correct path, but this explanation felt like it could have been longer and more detailed. Also, I was a bit put-off that Dr. Brewer plugged the smoking-cessation and emotional-eating apps that his company has developed in the closing paragraphs of the book.

I stuck with the book through its entirety because I had been hoping for more practical advice and found the research to be interesting, but there is little here that I feel like I can actually use. While I realize now that the intent of this book wasn't to be a workbook, including sample meditations or exercises like those found in The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness (Book & CD),Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha, or Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself would have been much more useful to me personally. Dr. Brewer obviously has many skills and lessons that he has learned through his many years of meditation, and I just wish that he had shared more of those with us.

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Amazon Addict

Intentionally withholds information

October 5, 2017

Format: Audible Audiobook

"The Craving Mind" by Judson Brewer includes interesting results from numerous neuroscience and medical/behavioral studies undertaken by the author and others. In his discussion of the research into cravings, the book really shines. As someone who has both taken graduate school-level neuroscience classes, and spent some "time on the cushion" (meditating), it was a fascinating book. However, it was deeply disappointing in one important sense, and unfortunately I am not able to recommend it. The critical problem is that it doesn't fulfill the second half of its title, "How We Can Break Bad Habits." The book begins well and describes the methodology the author used to test mindfulness as an aid to cigarette cessation. He describes the protocol his program used to help the smokers. Great! The entire rest of the book, however, is about research and without practical steps that people can use to conquer their own addictions. Most books of this sort begin with research (building their case for the program they outline), and then they transition to active next steps suggested for the reader. These active next steps never happen. I started wondering if perhaps this book just outlines research and if perhaps the author hasn't formulated practical suggestions for his readers. The author mentions near the end of the book, however, that he DOES have a program. Brewer states that a former businessman met with him and outlined how the author could market the program to more people by starting a company that could help people stop smoking, quit emotional eating, etc., and this program has been out since 2013 (I believe). This book was released in 2017. If you want the practical steps that can really help you, you need to pay a $26/month subscription. If this book were intended to simply outline research in the field, I would've given it five stars. But knowing that he intentionally withholds his help from the readers of this book is something I find unethical. He offers readers nothing concrete they can do other than modify his smoking cessation program to their addiction. A better title would be: "The Craving Mind: ...Why We Get Hooked and How You Can Pay My Company $26/Month to Help You Break Bad Habits."

Furthermore, as an appendix to the book, the author mentions an ancient Buddhist text that defines character types with the intent to know what their individual struggles will be with respect to meditation and best be able to tailor their meditation training accordingly. The author has included a quiz you can take to see what your personality type is. Cool! Who doesn't love a good quiz?! But once the quiz is over and you have your results, that's the end of the book. Literally. There is no discussion AT ALL of what meditation struggles each personality type will have, or any specific tips. Why even include the quiz if he's not going to say what the results of the quiz mean? He doesn't even suggest a book or other resource that could give you the information.

The author comes across as a genuinely caring human being, and it is puzzling to me that he doesn't offer people the help he's spent his adult life researching. I wish he would've at least given readers a list of suggested books or internet resources that could give people practical suggestions.

P.S. I did not purchase the audiobook, but listened to it through an excellent (and free) program through my local library called "Hoopla." This is why Amazon doesn't show it as a "verified purchase."

171 people found this helpful

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Michael Irish

Groundbreaking: Must Read for Parents

March 22, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Every parent, teacher and person who doesn’t know why they fall into cravings and habits should buy this book. Cravings and addiction have reached new, epidemic heights and our youngest are the most vulnerable. Children are walking into traffic because they can’t disconnect from their smartphones. Parents are alienating their families and friends because their phones and facebook control them. And, distracted behavior (enabled through smartphones and social media) is the “new normal,” not the exception. With this book, Dr. Brewer reviews the challenges many of us face, and then provides a clear roadmap that shows how to reduce craving, addiction and suffering (with ourselves, our children and families). He shows how mindfulness can easily short circuit destructive habits and addictions. Building on this, he discusses how to reduce distraction and increase focus so that we can better concentrate, learn, grow and be more complete human beings. He illuminates meditation techniques used 2500 years ago to deal with craving, and then he tests these techniques (and their effectiveness) with Western science and technology in neuroscience and clinical laboratories with fMRI machines. The scientific proof is in the book. This book can change your outlook, your behavior and your life. Dr. Brewer has provided us with a gift that can help us be better to ourselves, and more complete, focused and happier with our families and society. For me, I really loved the part of the book discussing states of effortless “flow,” that can naturally make us more joyful, focused, content and integrated as human beings. This book is brilliant: powerful, simple, elegant and complex. I have never bought so many copies of a book to give to family and friends in my life. Read it.

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