Dopamine Nation: Why our Addiction to Pleasure is Causing us Pain Paperback – 19 Jan. 2023

Fantastic read, well paced and taken some significant learnings from the book. Would recommend.

We have gone from a world of scarcity, short-lived lives in often brutal conditions to a world of utter pleasure, all the comforts that could only have been dreamed of in the past and where we seek pleasure at all cost and hits of the neurotransmitter hormone that is dopamine fuels this pleasure seeking world in which we have a lot of time and a lot of resources. In a lot of ways we have gone from avoiding pain to now seeking pleasure at all costs without any awareness of what is going on and how the world and we work.- We have become all consuming and seeking addiction in a myriad of ways; whether it be shopping, alcohol, drugs, consumerism, spending too long on social media and basically seeking pleasure at all cost. An interesting part that we have learnt recently is that pleasure and pain occur in the same part of the brain. And as we have become a nation of addicts addicted to at least something, particularly seeking distraction from normalised behaviour, we can learn a lot about how society and individuals with addictions can help with understanding everything else around us.- We're also sociable animals and what we see for example on the Internet has almost normalised values and behaviours that previously we would've found obscene or difficult to handle. This when mixed with dopamine can cause a heady cocktail.- This is from the book: “Seventy percent of world global deaths are attributable to modifiable behavioural risk factors like smoking, physical inactivity, and diet. The leading global risks for mortality are high blood pressure (13 percent), tobacco use (9 percent), high blood sugar (6 percent), physical inactivity (6 percent), and obesity (5 percent). In 2013, an estimated 2.1 billion adults were overweight, compared with 857 million in 1980. There are now more people worldwide, except in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, who are obese than who are underweight. Rates of addiction are rising the world over. The disease burden attributed to alcohol and illicit drug addiction is 1.5 percent globally, and more than 5 percent in the United States. These data exclude tobacco consumption. Drug of choice varies by country. The US is dominated by illicit drugs, Russia and Eastern Europe by alcohol addiction. Global deaths from addiction have risen in all age groups between 1990 and 2017, with more than half the deaths occurring in people younger than fifty years of age. The poor and undereducated, especially those living in rich nations, are most susceptible to the problem of compulsive overconsumption. They have easy access to high-reward, high-potency, high-novelty drugs at the same time that they lack access to meaningful work, safe housing, quality education, affordable health care, and race and class equality before the law. This creates a dangerous nexus of addiction risk.”- We've also become more attuned at trying to distract ourselves than wake up to what is actually the human condition. We often are sleep deprived and feel anxious because we put so much pressure on ourselves and our working conditions are bad and where as before we might've said this is just part of the normal human condition of sadness, we have now labelled it a mental health problem and we try to find ways to ease the pain through distraction and addiction featuring highs of pleasure that reward our system by rushes of dopamine.- There are interesting experiments where you get a dog to associate the ringing of a bell with the reward of food and this in turn is caused by dopamine in the brain to seek pleasure in something that is anticipated. In many people the greater joy is more in the wanting and seeking pleasure for example drug abuse or sexual activity then sometimes in the actual act of sleeping with somebody or taking the drug. We have reward systems that are triggered by dopamine.- There are also some interesting facts about the percentage of dopamine in the brain of a rat in a box. Give it chocolate and this increases the basal output of dopamine in its brain by 55 percent, sex is 100%, nicotine is 150%, cocaine is 225% and amphetaimne is 1000%.- The author then goes through a series of approaches to help us work out how we can support and change addictive nature to dopamine. It begins with the acronym DOPAMINE. D stands for data, O stands for objective, P stands for problems, A means abstinence, M is mindfulness, I is for insight, N is for next steps. Mindfulness is where we observe our mind and how it processes things. It's a bit like looking at the Milky Way from far away and trying to make some objective understanding of it near and far and that's the same thing that we do with our mind. By understanding and observing how our mind works and processes information we can then start to change how we feel about whatever addiction- In experiments carried on rats and mice when they are given abstinence to substances that they have become addicted to, as soon as that substance comes back again, the rats tended to gouge and binge, showing how those who appear to be susceptible to addictions - after a period on the wagon can get really messed up. But the book also looks for things that are in our normal use such as smartphones, TV and food. And how we can manage those.- The author also talks about the harm that medication is doing in regards to treatment of mental health disorders. We are over prescribing medications for many conditions which are part of the human condition and then we are then seen that actually it doesn't appear to be fixing the problem because there are more people with mental health problems whilst increases in medication for treatment in mental health has also risen.- The author also talks about the link between pain and pleasure. Interesting research about cold water immersion and people having cold showers that can up dopamine and help people with withdrawal symptoms. Having seen some of the work of Wim Hof (the iceman) this corresponds with some of his treatments in regards to support and people with addiction problems and it's very interesting to consider. I have started having cold showers.- The book also talks about rational honesty and how we are story generating machines and sometimes we need to have some honesty rather than to live close to others and ourselves as the first part of treatment. There is an interesting link between the frontal cortex which manages emotional regulation and decision-making and that when stimulated by pain seems to work more effectively in managing dopamine. There may also be some evidence that pain can help stimulate the frontal cortex. There is also a link between pain and pleasure and the stimulation of hormones can be related by both pain and pleasure.- A fascinating book on how we can be ruled by our hormones, particularly dopamine, and by understanding this, we can help ourselves to lead better lives.

Very well written, with good stories as examples. Not overly simplified nor too technical, this is a book for anyone interested in some form of psychology or a desire of a deep human understanding. I found some of the stories a little dark, but nonetheless enlightening.

More and more of us are likely to become addicted, suggests Anne Lembke in this fascinating book. Routes into addiction are easy supply (which we have in rich countries), lack of stimulation (which we also have, as we become more comfortable and further removed from risk) and a fear of pain. What we did not know until a few years ago was that pain and pleasure exist together in our neural systems, balancing each other like a see-saw. But, just as with a see-saw, we continually seek pleasure, the mechanism cannot operate properly anymore, and the pain side of the see-saw will pull individuals down again. This is why heroine or alcohol addictions, for instance, bring pain on top of the immediate pleasure. Even the author herself had an addiction (to reading romantic novels), and many of us also have slightly unhealthy habits which can undermine the satisfaction of our lives. Becoming chubby or becoming a workaholic, for instance, can destroy someone's self-confidence or home life. This is well worth reading both by people who are interested in the subject and those who think they have an addition problem.

A reasonable attempt at explaining the role of dopamine in addictive behaviours. The author, however, makes frequent references to her own addiction (to the Twilight series) whichIs irritating when compared with the real and devastating addictions some people are facing. Gabor Mate does something similar in ‘The Hungry Ghost’ where he talks of his addiction to classical music CDs which seems laughably benign when set in the context of his patients’ addictions to crystal meth and heroin. In any case, it’s a fair read but didn’t take a lot away from it

Genuinely the best book. Life changing for my ADHD

I felt that this book has a lot to say about the relentless pursuit of dopamine in modern society. I do feel the issue of ADHD although mentioned briefly was not addressed (other than of a case of an ADHDer abusing/becoming addicted to his medication). People with ADHD do not have enough dopamine which leads to addiction seeking activities. Medication and therapy can help in that scenario, and 'embracing the pain' of a disorganised mind due to this deficiency is not the right approach.

So, so well written. This book was a perfect mix between the topics of psychology, medicine and sociology, intertwined with stories from the author’s experience, which made everything easy to follow. I loved how the author talked about the ugly of today’s world, but ended on a positive note, which in itself was quite inspiring. Easy, yet very informative read. This is one of those books that I think everybody should read.