Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars | 9,670 ratings

Price: 13.78

Last update: 01-11-2025


About this item

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES and LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER

“Brilliant . . . riveting, scary, cogent, and cleverly argued.”—Beth Macy, author of Dopesick, as heard on Fresh Air

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.


Top reviews from the United States

  • Robert Whitehead
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great! Scary! One correction
    Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2024
    This is a great book. She is a psychiatrist: her patient stories are true and very scary. Because of dopamine one can essentially get addicted to almost anything.

    One correction however. She references a book entitled "Llstening to Prozac"' saying that one can become addicted to antidepressants. This is absolutely false as proven by multiple tests on Prozac, other SSRIs and SNRIs.

    The book was published right after Prozac came out and was on the cover of Time and Newsweek. The author reported that Prozac could make you feel "better than good." I'd doesn't. Also, like ALL antidepressants except the rarely prescribed MAOIs (the first antidepressant which have a success rate of about 90%) they work only 40% of the time.

    The popularity of Prozac (and the other SSRIs and SNRIs that followed) was in part because of this: what psychiatrists previously used an antidepressants, TCAs, were lethal in very small does (5 pills); fear of suicide w/depression. So GPs, internists would not prescribe them and refer them to psychiatrists (no potentially liability.) But w/SSRis and SNRIs, with which you can't kill yourself, GPs and interneests went to town.

    But benzodiazepines, Ambien, and meds for ADHD and ADH highly addictive-dopamine. The book is a wonderful discourse on this neurobiological chemical and a scary one and true. Easy to understand, too.
    The sad case of Jacob's life long sex addiction is, frankly, sick and depressing
  • Neeraj
    5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking and informative
    Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2024
    A great read that provides different perspectives on addiction and how to address different types of addictions. Provides ideas for how to introspect, recognize, and combat our addictions based on the experiences of others.
  • BBC fan
    4.0 out of 5 stars interesting subject matter
    Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2024
    I enjoyed most of the insights in this book and found some of the unusual addictions highlighted to be fascinating. Although the author undoubtedly means well in revealing her own addiction, to reflect solidarity in suffering, her description does not compare to addictions that threaten the lives of many addicts and their loved ones. I found some of the “moderation” approaches toward substance addiction to be disturbing, and contrary to scientific research presented in the book. I would have liked more consistency.
  • Dustin S
    5.0 out of 5 stars great read on addiction from a brain chemistry perspective
    Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2024
    well worth the read in understanding addiction and the brain.
  • Matt H.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Taking a 6-Week Hiatus from Weed Due to This Book
    Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2023
    The world sucks. We millennials know it. Likely, you know it. When recreational weed became legal in IL, I took to it like sunlight to a flower. I was smoking every day, almost all day. I attempted to take a 1-month hiatus over the last 3-years and it always fell flat because I'd just hit a point where the "pain" I felt was too much and the weed was the only thing that fixed it.

    Then I read this book and the section about the pain-pleasure balance. Essentially, the more you experience the dopamine pleasure, the more it takes to get that same pleasure. Any time you don't partake in that thing, you feel immense "pain," in some form, that pushes you back to your coping mechanism. It's why addicts return to drugs, unfortunately. There was one line in there that talked about giving up your dopamine cope for at least 6-weeks.

    Leading up to the 4th week of my 6-week pause was rough, let me tell ya. I was angry, snappy, depressed, and things didn't seem as fun as they were when I was high. But, I kept up with it. I'm now going on to my 5th week of the 6-weeks and I can confirm, if you can make it over that hump, you realize you don't _need_ the cope, your mind was only thinking it did. This is a good book and it's told by someone who clearly knows what she's been through and how she's helped others with the same problem.

    If you struggle to break away from your phone, your drink, or your drug of choice, this book may give you insight you didn't have before and help you to cease that cyclical routine. It's not just the author talking about her experiences, but you may resonate with the various patients she talks about within.

    It may help you regain some control in a world that seems increasingly out-of-control.
  • bekir
    5.0 out of 5 stars might be the greatest book I’ve ever read about dopamine
    Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2024
    This book explains the balance between pain and pleasure and how pain can bring pleasure and pleasure bring more pain depending on how much pleasure you expose yourself to by understanding the function of dopamine and how it is affected by too much pleasure you’ll understand how to adapt your life to balance. As a kid I’ve always heard the elders tell me to have balance in my life no matter what I do. Reading this book made me understand what they were talking about.
  • LORISSA
    3.0 out of 5 stars Bland
    Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2024
    I got this book at the recommendation of a fellow RN and hate to say it, but it’s not really worth the read. As a clinician I didn’t find it very enlightening and the references to animal studies peppered throughout is shockingly unnecessary and outdated (rats being injected with cocaine, for what end exactly, we know the drug is BAD?!). The author’s examples of therapy appointments and advice felt trite and underwhelming. Of course the main star of the book theme, introduced at the beginning (won’t give it away) has such an extreme & wild addiction that most anyone would be compelled to read a bit further, even out of sheer curiosity. Unfortunately the book just lands flat and TBH I feel the thesis could have been outline in a 2 page pubmed article. I wanted to love it, but I don’t. Not recommended.
  • James
    4.0 out of 5 stars good read
    Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2024
    Thought this was very well Written book. I think almost anybody who reads it. We’ll find something that resonates with them on a personal level.

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