The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett Most Replayed Moment: The Role of Dopamine in Addiction and Motivation - Anna Lembke
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Jul 25, 2025 
Renowned neuroscientist Anna Lembke, author of "Dopamine Nation," dives into the captivating world of dopamine and its influence on our behaviors. She explains how dopamine is crucial not just for pleasure but for survival and motivation. The discussion reveals the complexities of addiction, emphasizing that it arises from behaviors stimulating dopamine rather than dopamine itself. Lembke highlights the clash between our ancient brain wiring and the modern world's synthetic pleasures, uncovering the emotional toll of addiction and the importance of empathy in addressing it.
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Dopamine Motivates Survival Actions
- Dopamine is essential for survival as it motivates us to seek out necessary rewards like food.
- Without dopamine, even basic survival actions like eating become unmotivated and can lead to death.
Addiction Misconceptions and Dopamine
- We are not addicted to dopamine itself but to stimuli that release dopamine indicating potential survival rewards.
- Dopamine signals where we are on the pleasure-pain scale, which is always relative and balanced in the brain.
Pleasure-Pain Balance in Brain
- Pleasure and pain coexist in the same brain regions functioning on a balance that tends to maintain homeostasis.
- The brain compensates dopamine surges with an opposite increase in pain signals, causing craving and addiction cycles.
