Dopamine Nation

Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

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Dopamine Nation

By: Anna Lembke

Narrated by: Anna Lembke

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About this listen

All around us people are looking at their phones too much, eating too much, drinking too much. Our world is addicted to fleeting distracting pleasures that get us nowhere. Dr Anna Lembke provides a clear way back to a balanced life.

This audiobook is about pleasure. It's also about pain. Most importantly, it's about how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why now more than ever finding balance is essential. We're living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting... The increased numbers, variety, and potency is staggering. The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation. As such we've all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption.

In Dopamine Nation, Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and author, explores the exciting new scientific discoveries that explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain...and what to do about it. Condensing complex neuroscience into easy-to-understand metaphors, Lembke illustrates how finding contentment and connectedness means keeping dopamine in check. The lived experiences of her patients are the gripping fabric of her narrative. Their riveting stories of suffering and redemption give us all hope for managing our consumption and transforming our lives. In essence, Dopamine Nation shows that the secret to finding balance is combining the science of desire with the wisdom of recovery.

'Dr Anna Lembke is a whiz on why we get hooked on things - and how we can enjoy pleasurable things in healthier doses.' - The Guardian

(P) 2021 Penguin Random House Audio©2021 Anna Lembke

Biological Sciences

Neuroscience & Neuropsychology

Physics

Psychology

Psychology & Mental Health

Science

Social Sciences

Inspiring

Thought-Provoking

Health

Mental Health

Biological Sciences Neuroscience & Neuropsychology Physics Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Science Social Sciences Inspiring Thought-Provoking Health Mental Health

Critic reviews

Anna Lembke's stories of guiding people to find a healthy balance between pleasure and pain have the power to transform your life (Lori Gottlieb, bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone)

Brilliant . . . No matter what you might find yourself over-indulging in-from the internet to food to work to sex-you'll find this book riveting, scary, cogent, and cleverly argued. Lembke weaves patient stories with research, in a voice that's as empathetic as it is clear-eyed (Beth Macy, bestselling author of Dopesick)

Radically changes the way we think about mental illness, pleasure, pain, reward, and stress. Turn toward it. You'll be happy you did (Daniel Levitin, bestselling author of The Organized Mind and Successful Aging)

[An] eye-opening survey on pleasure-seeking and addiction . . . Readers looking for balance will return to Lembke's informative and fascinating guidance.

fascinating case histories, and a sensible formula for treatment.

Dr Anna Lembke is a whiz on why we get hooked on things - and how we can enjoy pleasurable things in healthier doses

Explore[s] the dichotomy between seeking a readily accessible hit of dopamine - from our phones, gambling, or a bag of Fritos - and maintaining healthy, productive, stable lives. (The New York Times)

[An] eye- opening survey on pleasure - seeking and addiction . . . Readers looking for balance will return to Lembke's informative and fascinating guidance. (Publishers Weekly)

Most relevant

The author is notably empathetic and instills self-belief in the reader by assuring us that not only are we capable of enduring the initial stress of abstinence, but also can potentially find value and joy in the process itself, rather than just focusing on the extrinsic end goal.

The delivery is patient, concise and, unlike the vast majority of modern authors, spares us that sense of urgency that the self-help cult always insists on. She does that by also avoiding superlatives, exclusive and categorical statements.

There's a refreshing perspective on relapses, wherein she makes them an opportunity to learn right then, rather than when we've regained clarity and exited hypofrontality, so to speak...but, it does stray on the lenient side at times and leaves room for justifying a relapse if the reader comes across a certain chapter during a so-called open crisis.
E.g. Having listened to about half of the book, I paused to binge a bit of that toxic youtube shorts vortex, which turned into four hours...when I realized it, not only did I snap out, but I also felt a kind of self-compassion, undoubtedly instilled into me by the book...the next evening while listening to the book, I felt the urge to go in youtube, paused the book and just...witnessed the urge...it was unpleasant to the point of making me dizzy and nauseous..but there was still that one synapse, that one axon in my pfc goin "I'm stronger thsn this jedi mind trick"...and I was.

The neuroanatimical breakdown is just enough to reinforce the explanation of some phenomena, but not too arduous with the nomenclature...in fact, I was surprised she didn't use the term hedonic adaptation when talking about pain or hypofrontality when talking about making decisions with our limbic system. I know that just knowing these two terms has helped me immensely, so I'd say there's an opportunity to just insert those in the next edition.

I could go on, but..it's just a wonderfully insightful book, quitr balanaced and what I like the most is it doesn't promise to change your life. Also, kudos for the self-disclosure...that really bridges the typical "I'm a shrink, therefore I'm normal and you're not, so listen up" elitist propensity that some psychoanalysts, psychiatrists and neyroscientists have.

I've offered to translate this book into Serbian, but haven't heard from the publisher yet...fingers crossed. The rate is preposterously low, but I know I'd do a great job and would enjoy the process.

Sorry for such an extensive review, it's just that the quality of the book is multilayered.

Oh yeah, perhaps most importantly - rather than focusing on the benefits of getting help from others, fiiiinally an author that emphasises our own capacity to just, pathetic as it may sound, love our past, present and future self enough to not resort to escapism...and it also makes us aware of how gradual and non-linear the process of recovery can be, thus equipping us with the insight crucial for those bad days. It feels like she's right here yslking ti me, rather than just me reading a very good book. I wish I could convey that when writing.