“The reason we’re all so miserable may be because we’re working so hard to avoid being miserable.”–Anna Lembke, Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in an Age of Indulgence
This is an interesting book that discusses the balance between pleasure and pain. We all like to feel good and there are a variety of ways for us to get a dopamine hit and to feel that pleasurable high. We are surrounded by an overabundance of high-dopamine stimuli–food, drugs, social media, news, gambling, etc. and it is all at our fingertips. Our smart phones are basically 24/7 hypodermic needles ready to give us our next dopamine hit whenever we want it. This makes us vulnerable to over consumption and addiction. Lembke discusses how most of us have an addiction of some kind and those addictions can be almost anything. Lembke also describes how too much pleasure leads to pain and how our avoidance of pain leads to more pain.
Dr. Lembke shares many experiences from her own life and those of her patients to illustrate how to find balance between pleasure and pain. Some of the content is downright scary, but this is a hopeful book as Dr. Lembke shares how to find contentment and connection while keeping dopamine under control. We learn from her patients as they face their addictions and cheer as they reclaim their lives. We do not need to be a slave to dopamine and we do not need to avoid pain at all costs. Balancing the two is the recipe for success.
Content Advisory: Language, sexual content, mental illness, suicidal ideation