A Book Review: 'Dopamine Nation' by Anne Lembke, M.D.

I am often asked about my book shelf and current reads, especially self help books as that is the section I go directly to in my local library. If you scroll down on my ABOUT page, I do have a book shelf to share some of my favorites I update here and there.

And I am excited to share I will be reviewing books on my blog now. These won’t be like full on reviews, more like takeaways, favorite quotes and my recommendation of a yay or nay to grab and read.

I recently finished ‘Dopamine Nation’ by Anne Lembke, MD. I had 3 people send me the book title consecutive days in a row and I listened to her podcast with Rich Roll - immediately dialed my local bookstore to order. Some books I can wait on the library list, some I press the purchase button.

I actually love underlining, too and can gauge ones I will keep for a long time and ones I can use my library card.

Now, I thought the book was going to lean much heavier towards social media and the connection to dopamine (or perhaps that I was really seeking), the chapters actually cover the author’s experience as a therapist and patient stories to better understand the neuroscience of addiction and how dopamine works.

I will not even lie to you, she brings the shock factor when the first chapter is about an older gentleman with a masturbation addiction. I remember starting the second page and saying, ‘well, this is going a way different way than I thought’ and yet staying as the material was interesting.

I should note I love learning about the brain. What I believe Anna Lembke, MD did so well was to intertwine storytelling and science as to not overwhelm the reader with all the hard cold facts and land the points in story. The best way to speak and read, if you asked me.

My biggest takeaway from the book, beyond the shock factor of the “Masturbation Machine” - literally the title of the first chapter, was the exploration into the body response of the balance of pain and pleasure. Our bodies are actually working hard to seek the balance between pain and pleasure.

“Pursuing pain instead of pleasure is also countercultural, going against all the feel-good messages that pervade so many aspects of modern life. Buddha taught finding the Middle Way between pain and pleasure, but even the Middle Way has been adulterated by the ‘tyranny of convenience’. Hence we must seek out pain and invite it into our lives.” (Lembke, p.152).

I had to read this chapter a couple times.

Seek out pain? Why would we do that?

And perhaps for me, less of an active ‘seeking pain’ but more of a recognizing how often we are already exposed to pain (note: everyone’s definition of pain is different). I felt peaceful reading this amidst this year. A year in which I have felt the deep pain of loss, so much change and the waves of grief, it almost feels ‘normal’ to know that the suffering exists and is natural AND even healthy. Even to know our bodies are doing this every single day - finding the pain/pleasure balance, I can do this out here, too.

The book covers how we get addicted (and interesting fact, that we don’t alway need an origin story), medicating away our pain (how this can restore homeostasis and yet possibly lose our natural ability to feel pain), healing in community (a huge nod to AA and group work), even a chapter on cold exposure (which I do love a cold plunge and Wim Hoff) as she talks examples of pain and pleasure and abstinence as a brain reset for our reward pathways.

I really enjoyed the read. I did have to take breaks as some chapters get brain science heavy, I read it cover to cover.

As always, I jump on to goodreads after i finish a book and love reading the comments. Some people were so angry about how she came down on weed, other people challenged her with a low dose approach against her abstinence argument and a handful of people were really mad about the masturbation chapter as the opening chapter. Isn’t reading fun?

Let me know if you grab it off the shelf or have read it, always love hearing other people’s perspectives!

Reminder to support your local bookstore if you want to live in a World with bookstores, I know I do!