Pain and Pleasure: Understanding Addiction and Disease

Dopamine is a chemical formed in the brain that allows us to experience pleasure, reward, and motivation. The more of it that is released in the synapse, the more likely it can reinforce us to do a specific action all over again. In this episode, Dr. Joe Tatta is joined by Anna Lembke, MD, who discusses how dopamine is not only released through pleasurable activities but also relatively painful ones. She discusses how to achieve a complete pain-pleasure balance in today’s world that keeps bombarding us with dopamine hits left and right – and most of the time, even at our own command. Dr. Anna also explains why pain can become addictive and what must be done to secure a healthy dose of pain in our lives.