A period of feeling safe is required for individuals to stop prioritizing survival and allow the dopamine system to readjust to working for rewards.

“If a human or an animal um sadly uh is raised in conditions or spends enough time in conditions where true rewards aren't there and survival itself becomes the reward, the dopamine system will adjust its baseline so that it's just fighting for the survival. And it's important when you're fighting for survival to recognize and anticipate negative events. And so the Anderman's work shows that it does prediction on the outcome that's going to be negative and it gives you a positive pulse for that.”