Dopamine Nation: Why our Addiction to Pleasure is Causing us Pain

All around us people are looking at their phones too much, eating too much, drinking too much. Our world is addicted to fleeting distracting pleasures that get us nowhere. Dr. Anna Lembke provides a clear way back to a balanced life.This book is about pleasure and pain: how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why finding balance is more essential than ever. We live in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, messaging, sexting, tweeting... The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation. We've all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption.In Dopamine Nation, psychiatrist Dr. Anna Lembke explores the exciting new scientific discoveries that explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain, and what to do about it. Condensing complex neuroscience into easy-to-understand metaphors, Lembke illustrates how finding contentment and connectedness means keeping dopamine in check. The lived experiences of her patients are the gripping fabric of her narrative. Their riveting stories of suffering and redemption give us all hope for managing our consumption and transforming our lives. In essence, Dopamine Nation shows that the secret to finding balance is combining the science of desire with the wisdom of recovery.