Judson Brewer Books

Every human brain, ancient or modern, is wired for survival through the process of reinforcement learning. This system evolved to help our ancestors remember what led to pleasure and avoid what caused pain. The mechanism depends on a neurochemical called dopamine—a messenger that signals the brain w...

From The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love—Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits

When I first started teaching mindfulness to people struggling with addiction, I noticed something striking. Rather than telling people to resist cravings, we invited them to get curious about them. Instead of fighting the urge to smoke, for instance, we asked them to notice what the craving felt li...

From The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love—Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits

Anxiety starts innocently. Something uncertain arises—a thought, an email, a bodily sensation—and the mind searches for relief. That search, driven by discomfort, is the very engine of habit formation. In my lab and clinical practice, I’ve seen how worry acts as a behavior within a reward-based lear...

From Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind

To unwind anxiety, you must first see the threads that create it. Triggers come in many shapes—external events like deadlines or social interactions, and internal sensations like a racing heart or intrusive thought. When I teach patients to identify triggers, I encourage them to practice awareness w...

From Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind