Overcoming Addiction
This page describes a binaural-beat track made with overcoming addiction in mind. Binaural beats are an auditory illusion: when a slightly different tone plays in each ear through headphones, the brain perceives a third, pulsing tone.
The notes below come from the binaural-beat tradition. They are not established medical findings, and this audio is not a treatment for addiction. Any effect varies from person to person and may be small or absent. It complements, and does not replace, care from a doctor or mental-health professional. If you are struggling with substance use or another addiction, a doctor or addiction professional can help. If you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 (the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US) or your local emergency number.
As we go through our lives, we pick up emotional, psychological, and spiritual baggage. Things attach themselves to us, and we attach ourselves to things. We develop dependencies, needs, wants, and desires. These feelings can be pleasurable at first, fulfilling various gaps and holes that we might have in our experience. But, over time, they begin to cause us a great deal of trouble and pain.
This is one way of understanding a complex mechanism like addiction. It’s often not as simple as having an “addictive personality,” or a single traumatic event that results in an addictive habit. Rather, addiction often creeps up on us. Something is missing from our lives, and we fill in the empty space as best we can with a dependency on some particular thing. Whether it’s alcohol, an illicit drug, food, or even a person or relationship, addiction affects many people.
Binaural beats and addiction
This mindfulness exercise is built around a binaural beat. A binaural beat is a kind of auditory illusion: when two sine waves less than 40 Hz apart (and both below 1500 Hz) are heard separately, one in each ear, as with headphones, a third “illusory” tone appears that equals the difference between the two frequencies. This third tone is described as deep and grounding.
Proponents of binaural beats say they may help with negative emotions, including depression and anxiety, and that this one may help with addictive tendencies and feelings. This page offers no study showing that. Some people pair binaural beats with mindfulness meditation: noticing what sensations arise, how they feel in the body, breathing deeply, and being gentle with themselves.
