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Dr. Trish Leigh Podcast
Episode #221: How Sports Betting and Porn Affect Your Brain the Same Way
00:09:30
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Have you ever noticed how something that used to feel exciting just doesn't hit the same anymore? Well, I was thinking about it this past weekend when I was watching the Kentucky Derby, which I love. I was thinking about when you go to the races and you're at a horse track, there's something difficult to replicate about it. There's the noise, the crowd, the energy building as post time gets closer and closer. You walk up to the window, you place a bet. You've got that ticket in your hand, and for moment, it feels like you're part of something truly exciting. This episode is brought to you by my Harper Collins published book, Mind Over Explicit Matter. Learn how artificial stimulation miswires your brain and what you can do to rewire it back to purpose, intimacy, and connection. Go to drtrishley.com backslash book, book. Then the horses line up, the gate opens, and for those couple of minutes, even when I was watching it on TV with my friends, your whole system is locked in. Your heart rate is up, your eyes are tracking. Every second feels like it matters, because here's what's actually happening in that moment, and this is something that Jordan Peterson talks about, is that your brain is often more responsive to the possibility, possibility of something good happening rather than the reward itself. It's not just the win. It's the anticipation of the win, the window where it could go either way, where your brain is tracking the uncertainty, the possibility, the outcome. That's where the intensity lives. Anticipation. That's the hijack. It's the part that trains your brain to keep coming back, not for the outcome itself, but for the feeling of what could happen next. And for a little while, it works. You're in it. Time moves differently. You feel engaged. But then something shifts, and it's subtle. Maybe it's the next race or the one after that. You're still placing bets. You. You're still watching, you're still going through the motions, but it's like the intensity drops just enough that you notice it. The same track, the same crowd, the same stakes, but your system is no longer responding the same way. It's not bad per se. It's just not landing the same. And that's the part that stuck with me, because when you step back, nothing in the environment has actually changed. The race didn't change. The odds certainly didn't change. Right? You did. You changed. And that's the interesting part. I think it's so interesting to see that exact same pattern show up in something completely different. Desire. Not as a moral issue, not As a relationship issue, but as my favorite thing, a brain pattern issue. Scott Galloway talks about how men are wired to be more risk aggressive, historically pushing toward hunting and mating opportunities. And now we're living in a time where that stimulation is Everywhere. Apps like DraftKings and FanDuel live odds on ESPN while you're watching the game. Instant payouts, constant updates, even influencers like Kendall Jenner normalizing it. Your brain is getting trained on anticipation spikes. Not just reward, but rapid repeated anticipation. And that matters more than people realize. Because your brain doesn't separate bedding scrolling fantasy stimulation. It just learns. This is the level of intensity. I need to feel something. So now let's bring this into something people don't expect. Real life connection, real life desire, real life intimacy. Because what starts happening is your brain begins to compare predictable, slower relational experiences to fast, high intensity, uncertainty driven spikes. And guess what? It chooses the spikes not because it's broken, but because it was trained that way. It's like the difference between live betting and just watching the game. When you're live betting, every single second matters. Every play has stakes. Your brain is locked in. But when you just sit down to watch, it can feel slow. Not because the game changed, but because your brain got used to the constant stakes. That's what's happening. Real connection doesn't feel empty. It just doesn't have a scoreboard updating every second. From a neuroscience standpoint, you're training your dopamine system around unpredictability, fast feedback and constant novelty. And over time, your baseline shifts. So now effort feels heavier, presence feels harder. Engagement drops. Engagement drops faster. And that's where people start saying, I don't feel as into it anymore. But here's the part I really want you to hear. This isn't about failure. This isn't about discipline. It's not even about willpower. Your brain did exactly what it was designed to do. It adapted to the environment that you gave it. And if you zoom out, this isn't just about betting or desire. This is about something much, much bigger. What your brain expects life to feel like. Because we're living in an always on environment where everything is immediate, responsive and designed to keep you hooked and engaged. And over time, your brain adapts to that very thing. So now it's not just that you prefer intensity, it's that your brain has been trained to expect it. So you're not really choosing the experience anymore. Your brain became the algorithm. And when that baseline gets high enough, anything normal, anything steady, anything real starts to feel like it's missing something. So the shift isn't stop everything. The shift is, can your brain tolerate lower stimulation again? Can it stay present without needing the spike? Can it relearn what real engagement feels like? Because when that resets, everything changes. Your energy comes back. Your focus is there. Desire and connection. They're there for you again. Most people think they've lost something. They haven't. You haven't, my friend. Your brain just got trained on something else. And the moment you understand that, guess what? You're unstuck. You're not stuck anymore. If you felt this shift not just in one area of your life, but across it, that's when it's worth really looking at your brain and seeing what the brain pattern is in there. Because once you see it, you can then change it. And this is exactly what I do in my brain mapping service. Because what we've been talking about here, it's not just a concept. It is a true neurological pattern that is running your brain. Your brain is running on it. And most people are trying to fix it from the outside in, changing your behaviors using willpower, pushing through, but they're not actually seeing what their brain is doing underneath. When you map your brain, you can actually see how it's been trained, where the overstimulation is where the regulation is off, how your system is responding to reward, to focus, to connection, desire and intimacy. And once you can see it clearly with your own eyes, you're not guessing anymore. You're working with your brain instead of against it, like you may have been for a long time. So if you've been feeling this, like, things don't hit the same, like your energy or desire or maybe even your focus has shifted. That's where you start. Okay? So if you're up for it, go over to Dr. Trishleigh.com, schedule a private meeting with me so that we can take a look at your brain. It will show you what's going on and what you can do about it next. It's like the map, because this is not permanent. It is patterned. But patterns can change. So remember, you must control your brain or it will control you. I'll see you next time.