The Neuroscience of Reducing Chronic Pain and Everyday Addictions | Eric Garland

What It Covers

Neuroscientist Eric Garland explains his Mindfulness Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) protocol — a three-part system combining mindfulness, reappraisal, and savoring — backed by 16 clinical trials and $90 million in federal funding, designed to reduce addiction, chronic pain, and emotional distress in everyday life.

Key Questions Answered

• •The STOP Technique: Before engaging in an addictive habit — scrolling, overeating, drinking — pause, take 30–60 seconds of mindful breathing, observe thoughts and cravings without judgment, then proceed with conscious intention. This interrupts the automatic neural loop driving the behavior and, with repetition, weakens craving intensity over time without requiring lengthy formal meditation sessions.
• •Mindful Pain Relief (Zoom In/Out): Focusing attention directly on pain sensations and breaking them into subcomponents — heat, tightness, tingling — rather than resisting them reduces acute pain by roughly 30% on average, comparable to 5mg of OxyContin. Toggling between breath focus and pain sensation reveals that pain is impermanent and less solid than catastrophic thinking suggests.
• •Reappraisal via ABCDE Framework: When stress arises, identify the Activating event, Beliefs driving distress, emotional Consequences, then Dispute those beliefs by asking what a trusted advisor would think, whether a hidden benefit exists, and how the challenge builds personal growth. Evaluating the outcome completes the cycle. This process measurably reduces skin conductance stress responses in clinical trials.
• •Savoring Rewires the Reward System: Addiction and chronic pain desensitize the brain to natural pleasure. Spending 20–60 seconds deliberately focusing on pleasant sensory experiences — sunlight on skin, a child's laughter — then turning attention inward to amplify the resulting positive feeling retrains the brain's reward circuitry. MORE clinical data shows this practice directly reduces opioid craving and chronic pain scores.
• •Self-Transcendence as a Craving Substitute: Briefly expanding awareness outward during meditation — sensing whether inner and outer space feel separate, or extending attention toward the horizon — produces inherent positive reward states. These self-transcendent moments offer what researcher Judson Brewer calls a "bigger, better offer," giving the brain a natural alternative to addictive behavior by generating well-being from within rather than seeking it externally.