Dopamine Nation
Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence
Penguin Publishing Group · Print & ebook · January 3, 2023
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES and LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER “Brilliant . . . riveting, scary, cogent, and cleverly argued.”—Beth Macy, author of Dopesick This book is about pleasure.
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- Who it’s for
- A brisk, unsentimental look at why excess hooks us—and how balance gets rebuilt.
- Themes
- pleasure and pain balance, dopamine and addiction, self-control and recovery
- Pacing
- Reflective
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INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES and LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER “Brilliant . . . riveting, scary, cogent, and cleverly argued.”—Beth Macy, author of Dopesick 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.
Continue reading
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.
Craving, Explained
A brisk, unsentimental look at why excess hooks us—and how balance gets rebuilt.
Come here for
- clear-eyed guidance on craving and restraint
- science that stays readable
Expect
- clinical voice, plainspoken and steady
- insight that reads like instruction, not sermon
Where it sits
| Addiction | 99% |
|---|---|
| Neuroscience | 32% |
| Mental Health | 27% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Clinical Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Disease & Public Health
- Authors
- Anna Lembke, MD
- Publisher
- Penguin Publishing Group
- Published
- January 3, 2023
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- pleasure and pain balance · dopamine and addiction · self-control and recovery
- Reading lane
- Clinical Psychology