I've been recommending a 30-day abstinence trial for my patients for 20 years, long before it hit the Silicon Valley headlines as a dopamine fast. What I do is ask patients to identify that drug or drugs with which they have a problem of compulsive over consumption and to eliminate that drug for a month. About 80% of my patients come back feeling better just by eliminating their drug of choice alone without me having to prescribe a pill or do any in-depth psychoanalysis.
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
The Next Big Idea is produced in partnership with LinkedIn Presents