Dopamine Nation

This book is about pleasure. It's also about pain. Most important, it's about how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why now more than ever finding balance is essential. We're living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting . . . The increased numbers, variety, and potency is staggering. The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation. As such we've all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption. In Dopamine Nation, Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and author, 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.

ACCOMPLISHED AUTHOR, FIRST TRADE BOOK: Dr. Lembke has decades of experience in clinical practice and neuroscientific research. She has served as an expert witness in numerous cases concerning corporate malpractice during the opioid epidemic. Her university press paperback was acclaimed as "a phenomenal read" by Chris Hayes on his show on MSNBC, and MIT's Undark.com reviewer gushed "may be the most important medical book of the decade."MOVING STORIES ABOUT PATIENTS: Emotionally powerful stories about patients are woven throughout, telling of struggles overcome, challenges met, and liberating enlightenment achieved.INSIGHT INTO A UNIVERSAL PROBLEM PEAKING RIGHT NOW: Dr. Lembke has seen the dopamine economy up close both as it works in our brains and also out in the US marketplace, where products exploiting it have become more numerous and profitable than ever.HOW-TO COMPONENT: Dr. Lembke offers actionable advice on how to take a "dopamine fast," how to "self bind," why "radical honesty" works, and how understanding the "pleasure/pain balance" will put you in control of your life.