Interview with Dr. Anna Lembke, Author of the book
“Dopamine Nation”, Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence
(An instant New York Times Bestseller)
The word Dopamine has been buzzing for a while now. Dopamine, a neurotransmitter made in the brain that plays a role in how we feel pleasure and also pain. Overabundance and easy access to technology is making us seek that dopamine high. Let’s admit it, our smartphones can take us wherever we want and give us whatever we want, well, almost. We scroll, we scroll some more, we seek the next high and the web algorithms make sure we find whatever we are looking for, every single day, whether is it gaming, gambling, food, pornography, Facebook, Instagram we get hooked, some more than others.
So, I wanted to understand more about dopamine and its effects and by searching the web Dr.Lembke’s book immediately appeared in front of my eyes, and without wasting time I ordered it online and eagerly awaited its delivery to my doorstep.
Dr. Lembke talks about the smartphone being our modern-day hypodermic needle delivering digital dopamine 24/7, and in her book, she explores new scientific discoveries that explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain, finally she explores how to moderate compulsive overconsumption in a dopamine-overloaded world. I personally think the book offers incredible insight into how far people can go to get that dopamine high and Dr.Lembke’s mission is to help people that need a way out of their addictions. I have decided to reach out to Dr.Lembke, for an interview, and here is what we talked about.
Dr. Anna Lembke, Psychiatrist and Author, a professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. Dr. Lembke also appeared in the 2020 Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma”, a documentary that focuses on understanding the impact of Social Media on our lives.
OUR SMARTPHONE; THE MODERN-DAY HYPODERMIC NEEDLE
As you say we have all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption, we are glued to our phones 24/7, the mobile phone is a modern-day hypodermic needle delivering us digital dopamine. How bad is the situation?
As of 2021, there were 6.4 billion smartphone users worldwide, with 3.7 billion social media users. Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp had the most worldwide users, but TikTok has been the most downloaded app for the last three years and is expected to continue to grow, with around 650,000 new joiners each day. Beyond social media, online gaming, gambling, shopping, trading (currency), and pornography are multi-billion dollar industries consuming countless humans’ lived-time. Almost seven centuries of porn were watched on Pornhub in 2019 alone. Emerging trends include the gamification and gamblificaiton of previously protected sectors like education.
THE EASE OF ACCESS TO THE DIGITAL DRUGS
Is it the fact that we are actually not particularly satisfied or lack meaning in our lives that we need and seek constant dopamine stimuli, or is it purely the fact that being able to be connected like never before in history with an incredible amount of different stimuli available to us that we succumb to addictions?
One of the biggest risk factors for compulsive overconsumption, leading to addiction, is simple access. If we have easier access to more of our drug, we’re more likely to use that drug and more likely to get addicted to it. The ease of access to the Internet and the digital drugs it provides make it the most addictive behavior in the modern world. Although it is generally true that having a sense of meaning and purpose in life protects us from addiction, it’s also true that even a person with meaning and purpose can become addicted in today’s druggified ecosystem, and the experience of addiction itself can leach even a previously purpose-driven life of its color.
HOW TO KNOW IF WE HAVE CROSSED THE LINE
People seek a dopamine high, and the smartphone is the main vehicle through which everything is obtainable; from food, alcohol, and obsessive shopping, to gaming, texting, sexting, etc. At what point should we recognize that our seeking for that dopamine high has turned into an addiction?
We are poor self-observers of when recreational or adaptive use has crossed the line into addictive use, which is why we must be willing to listen to other people who care about us when they tell us that something has changed, that we have changed, and that our consumption has become self and other destructive, which is the definition of addiction. Other soft signs of addiction include lying about our use. We’re only as sick as our secrets. Another sign of addiction is the emergence of new or exacerbated psychiatric symptoms, that may seem unrelated to our consumption but are in fact caused by it. Examples include anhedonia, the inability to experience joy in anything besides our addictive behaviour and even that can lose its pleasure while remaining compulsive. Other psychological symptoms that can be caused by addiction include depression, anxiety, irritability, inattention, insomnia, psychosis/paranoia, suicidality, and craving.
RADICAL HONESTY
In the book, you say that honesty promotes intimate human connection. If someone reading this interview feels he or she has a form of addiction, what is the best way to communicate this problem and why is it crucial?
Turn to a person you can trust. Someone who will give you honest feedback without shaming you. If you don’t have a person like this in your life, reach out to someone who is already in recovery from addiction, either through your own social network or by attending an Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous or Sexaholics Anonymous or other 12 Step Group. Once you’ve found that person, tell them what drug or behavior you use, how much, and how often. Don’t hold anything back, even though it may be painful. Tell this other person why this drug or behavior is useful for you. Tell this other person what harm it has caused, either harms you can see, or harms others have observed for you. When we tell another human being about our addictive behaviors, those behaviors become real to us in a new way. We can see ourselves often, for the first time, and having seen it, we can’t unsee it. Awareness is the first step toward change.
DOPAMINE FASTING
You also write about Dopamine Fasting. Would you share with our readers what you mean?
Dopamine fasting is an experiment. It requires giving up our drug of choice, whether a substance or behavior, for long enough to go through withdrawal and come out the other side happier and stronger as we restore dopamine levels back to their healthy baseline. Four weeks is on average what it takes for a person who is already addicted to reset reward pathways. The first 10-14 days are miserable, but the latter half of the dopamine fast is characterized by steady relief as we are released from the vortex of compulsive overconsumption and renew our ability to take pleasure in more modest, non-drug rewards.
FINDING BALANCE IN A WORLD OF OVERABUNDANCE
What should we all do to navigate through this fast technological advancement and find as well as keep balance in the way we consume technology or any form of other 24/7 stimuli available to us?
A healthy relationship with tech begins with a dopamine fast away from tech. Having achieved a period of abstinence from all screens, whether 4 weeks or just a single day, we have begun to restore healthy dopamine firing and then can re-enter technology with a specific plan for how we want to use it. Specificity is the key here, and in my book, I talk about many different Self-Binding Strategies that will augment simple willpower, whether our goal is continued abstinence or moderation.
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Photo: personal arhive by dr. Lembke
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