When our balance starts to chronically be tilted to the side of pain, then we know we're entering a state of addiction. What was previously pleasurable is no longer pleasurable in terms of our drug of choice. When the world becomes sort of drab and drained of color and our focus narrows to this one substance or behavior as the only or primary source of joy, relief, escape, I think we need to be worried.
In “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence,” Dr. Anna Lembke says today’s superabundance of pleasurable stimuli makes us all vulnerable to overindulgence. But don’t lose hope. Anna, the medical director of addiction medicine at Stanford, says that by understanding how modern stimulants — from Instagram to masturbation machines — prey on our primitive brains, we can find ways to overcome the unhealthy dependencies that prevent us from leading balanced lives.
(This episode originally aired in December 2021.)
Host: Rufus Griscom
Guest: Anna Lembke
Executive Producer: Caleb Bissinger
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