Life as a Game of Neurochemistry

From the time you were born, dopamine receptors in your brain have been firing off to keep you alive, to keep you motivated and keep you focused on pursuing something worthwhile. If you were born in the digital age of technology where electronic devices and social media started affecting your life directly or indirectly. You easily start feeling like you're not enough, there’s something missing or like you should be doing more than you are.

Anna Lembke is a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. She writes, “humans are the ultimate seekers.” Because of the way we are wired with the flood of hormones and chemicals released physiologically, we are always looking for the next dopamine hit without ever consciously identifying and labeling it. So, if it is in your nature to pursue a reward that is ever elusive, what reward do you decide to focus on?

In this episode, Anna and Tom explore why using the love of the pursuit as a drug of choice to get dopamine rewards can be very dangerous. Anna also explains the pleasure pain balance and why too much pleasure and too much positive overload is still a form of stress to watch out for.

Order Anna Lembke’s book, Dopamine Nation, Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/152474672X?tag=randohouseinc7986-20

SHOW NOTES:

0:00 | Introduction to Anna Lembke

1:00 | Pursuit is Rewarding

10:12 | Dopamine Insensitivity

16:17 | Pleasure Pain Balance

26:24 | Dopamine Reset

29:21 | Cannabis Use & Potency

34:07 | Pornography Addiction

39:56 | Truth Telling Reward

50:38 | Spirituality in Neurochemistry

59:05 | Social Media Connection

1:12:16 | To Exert Will or Not

1:25:10 | Danger in Striving

Follow Anna Lembke:

Website: https://www.annalembke.com/

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