Dr Brian Pennie has a fascinating life story. In October 2013, following over 15 years of heroin addiction, the Dublin man fought to get clean and turn his life around. Not only earning his sobriety but returning to education to become a neuroscientist and lecturer at Trinity College.
Knowing all too well the horrors of addiction, he has dedicated his impressive career to studying the brain, working to understand trauma, resilience, and how our minds can be changed for the better.
Now, he hopes to distill his hard-earned knowledge as the host of RTÉ One's brand new docu-series, Hooked.
The three-part show will lift the lid of how both substances and modern addictions are rewiring our brains. Looking at everything from phones and gaming, to drugs and alcohol, he hopes to understand what makes our minds tick.
Speaking with Dr Pennie ahead of the show, we wanted to find out just how addictive our day-to-day habits have become - especially when it comes to our phones.
"I consider myself to have pretty much bullet-proof mental health," he says. "But the phone still grabs me from time to time.
"I have to be so strict and stringent with my phone because we can be slaves to it. What chance do young, lonely, anxious, depressed kids have against the power of the phone?"
Although phone addiction is not yet listed in the DSM (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), the Dublin man says it's "only a matter of time" due to the addictive nature of the devices and the way they can 'hijack' your brain.
"It hijacks the reward systems of your brain and when you try to pull away from your phone it is going to pull you back in," he explains. "There are experts working to hijack your brain and hook you back in. This is the challenge."
Comparing phones to cigarettes, Dr Pennie says that the long-term concequences will likely be "long and enduring", with studies showing increased screen time linked with sleep disruption and mood disorders as well as neck and back pain.
To be clear, Dr Pennie acklowledges that phones are a way of life in 2025, but insists that we all need to become more savvy when it comes to how phones and social media algorythms at large are influencing our thoughts and behaviours.
As well as carving out good habits for ourselves, he says that parents should be mindful of their childrens phone use, and encourages strong boundaries to be put in place.
"It's important to have house rules," he says. "Very simple: no phone at the dinner table, no phone in the bedroom." He also suggests setting phones to greyscale (getting rid of all colour) and switching off certain notifications.
Read more: 6 tips for spending less time on your smartphone
The neuroscientist is particularly worried that young children are building life-long habits: "Young kids are spending anything from four, six, eight, 10 hours a day on their screens," he notes. "That's problematic in itself, but what's being replaced? What are they not doing for those four to 10 hours?"
Finding fun alternatives - whether it be getting outside, reading a book, baking, or crafting - is a great way to encourage kids to step away from screens without it feeling like a punishment.
"Change is possible but change is bloody hard," says Dr Pennie. "Our brains do not give a crap about how happy we are, it doesn't care. Our brains want to avoid pain and experience pleasure. That's the survival mechanism: we'll survive if we avoid pain and if we chase pleasure."
However, in what Dr Pennie calls an "evolutionary mismatch", our brains have not caught up with our modern environments where dopamine can be triggered by social media feeds, online games and colourful notifications.
In order to change our patterns of behaviours, the neuro-structure within our brains must change - this, says Pennie, takes up a lot of extra energy.
"Our brains nearly resists that," he explains. "You're nearly trying to change the structure of our brain, so it is difficult but it is doable."
He suggests making small and manageabe changes over time such as removing phones from the dinner table and from the bedroom. Once those habits becomes commonplace, try to reduce it from other areas or set times. Before long, these heathier habits will become the "path of least resistance".
"It's about being disciplined for a certain amount of time until those changes take hold," he says.
Watch Hooked on RTÉ One, Wednesday, 2 April at 9.35pm.
If you have been affected by issues raised in this story, please visit: www.rte.ie/helplines.
