Dopamine Nation Summary – Anna Lembke

Dopamine is one of the popular words you will hear or read online as it is a hot thing at the moment. That was one of the reasons why I ended up reading almost all the books on Dopamine.

Now, we’ll talk about other Dopamine books but for the time being, I want to talk about THE book that I feel everyone should read at least one time before dying, the book is called Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke.

The book is filled with stories of additive people and how they overcome. You will be able to read their minds from the preservative of the author. The book is about how Pain and Pleasure is a key ingredient in making you addicted.

Favorite Quote From the Book “Science teaches us that every pleasure exacts a price, and the pain that follows is longer lasting and more intense than the pleasure that gave rise to it.” 

Dopamine Nation Summary

Dopamine Nation will be the reason you will understand yourself and your habits. More importantly, you will take action to improve yourself. Yes, it will be a long journey but Anna Lembke, the author, will make every step too easy so you can take the first step.

What I liked about the book 

Most of the Self-help books give you a How-To Guide on self-improvement but Dopamine Nation doesn’t say, do this or that. The author simply shares her experience with addiction along with her patient life journey of addiction.

This feels a bit personal as you’re reading about other people’s addictions who might have the same addiction as yours.

Perfect Balance

If you consume too much caffeine or caffeinated products then at some point, the caffeine won’t give as much high as it did the first time.

The more you consume caffeine, the more you will want.

The reason is that your mind feels normal with the amount of caffeine you’re taking, and at some point, you will feel like taking one step ahead which might be alcohol, cigarettes, or even drugs.

Again, the cycle will repeat and your brain will need more caffeine to release more Dopamine, and the day will come and you will be addicted to something that you never thought of.

This is the case with almost all the people who are addicted to either alcohol, cigarettes, p*rn, s*x, masturbati*n, or even drugs.

Now, the solution is very simple, have balance. In other words, moderation is the key to everything.

If you drink, 1 cup of coffee every day then it won’t harm anyone but if you start drinking 5 cups of coffee then you will see effects on your body in the coming days.

By the way, the author has shared a few images in the book that will give you a clear idea of how having balance will lead to a better life which I have added below. So as much time you want as it will for sure open your eyes.

The images show that, if you overconsume anything for a long time that releases dopamine then the pleasure will slowly start moving toward the pain side and to get more pleasure, you will have to consume more of what you have been taking to get the same amount of pleasure as you did for the first time.

If you don’t consume more then you will feel more pain and that pain will go up and up.

Now, read these lines from the book.

If we consume too much pain, or in too potent a form, we run the risk of compulsive, destructive overconsumption.

But if we consume just the right amount, “inhibiting great pain with little pain,” we discover the path to hormetic heal- ing, and maybe even the occasional “fit of joy.”

That’s the end of 3rd Chapter, yes the 3rd chapter was about pain and pleasure and how these two things are connected to dopamine.

Monitoring Yourself

Learning something by yourself will stay with you for a long time compared to the things you learn from others. Take an example of these people: 

• Nikola Tesla: Self-taught
• Elon Musk: Self-taught
• Wright Brothers: Self-taught
• Hermann Hesse: Self-taught
• Henry Ford: Self-taught
• Van Gogh: Self-taught
• Ray Bradbury: Self-taught
• Hemingway: Self-taught
• Galileo Galilei: Self-taught

What I’m trying to say is, apply self-learning in life starting with getting aware of your bad habits and the things you have been doing on autopilot.

If you learn about your bad habits on your own then you will be more likely to take action rather if someone says, stop doing this or that then chances are you will ignore them.

The reason is, that most people don’t like taking orders from others, especially, when it comes to changing something about their lives.

So from NOW on, observe yourself and see what kind of activities you do every day. Write them down on paper and by the end of the day, read the list loudly. So your inner self can hear all the things you have been doing on autopilot.

In simple words, be aware of everything you do every day. 

Self Binding

Self-binding is nothing but giving yourself a time limit on the habits you want to quit or add.

For example, I want to quit smoking. In this case, I will say to myself that I will only smoke once a week. 

This does sound great but it will be hard to apply because I have been smoking for the last five years and now you’re telling me to smoke once a week.

Even after doing all these things, when I smoke on Sunday morning (once a week deal), It will be very hard to not smoke on Monday or the rest of the week.

My brain will give me all the good reasons to go to the shop, buy cigarettes, and put it on my lips. Wouldn’t it feel like heaven?

The good news for me is, 

“Cigarette smokers are more likely than matched controls to discount monetary rewards (that is, they value them less if they have to wait longer for them). The more they smoke, and the more nicotine they consume, the more they discount future rewards. These findings hold true for both hypothetical money and real money.”

Now, what I can do is.

• Throw out all the cigarettes from my house. 
• Stop hanging out with smokers.
• Stop visiting the shops that sell cigarettes.
• Stop seeing the movies or TV shows that glamorize smoking.

The moral of the story is, that I have to cut all the triggers that lead to smoking (By the way, I used myself as an example).

Apply the same to all the habits you want to quit. Eliminate all the triggers and you will do wonders.

Just Forget about the past, focus on the next day and you will be fine. 

Addicted vs Non-Addicted Person

The person who is addicted will have a hard time releasing Dopamine as compared to the healthy person.

For an addicted person, taking drugs won’t feel as high as it did for the first time but to feel normal again, they feel like taking drugs. The same with coffee or even alcohol.

You may have heard from someone that a bottle of alcohol is nothing to me, I feel like I’m drinking water. This kind of people will drink more than 3 or 5 bottles, so they can feel a new high.

So ask yourself, are you in this situation and if so, you can fix yourself by reading this kind of book or getting professional help and there is nothing wrong with it…

For a better understanding, take a look at the above image. On the left, it shows a healthy person’s kidney-bean-shaped area lights up bright, Indicating high levels of dopamine neurotransmitter activity.

The right shows the Addicted Person’s kidney-bean-shaped area that has little to no light, indicating little or no dopamine transmission.

The addicted person will have a hard time finding a happy time as he/she is relying on Substance like drugs or other caffeinated products.

Just for fun, let me add things that release the most amount of Dopamine.

• Chocolate = 55%
• Sex = 100%
• Nicotine = 150%
• Cocaine = 225%
• Amphetamine (stimulant drug) = 1,000%

Now, that you have seen the above image. Think about when you felt good last time and it will give you a clear idea of whether you’re relying heavily on Substances to avoid stress, anxiety, or any other life problems.

Important Things From The Book

• I’m the only one who can make my life wonderful and destroy it as well. 
• Don’t sell out your Dopamine for free to anyone, preserve it and use it when you need to.
• Treating Dopamine as money will make you more happy than actual money.
• Life is not too short to say, this is it, I can’t change myself as it is too hard to quit smoking, coffee drugs, or even p*rn. 
• Don’t think much about what happened yesterday, think about what you can do NOW to make yourself better.
• It’s okay if you go back to your bad habits but it’s not okay if you start doing it daily just like you did it for the first time. It’s time to move on for the better.
• Life is way bigger and better than getting high on smoking, drugs, or even coffee. Just see the bigger picture.

Dopamine Nation Quotes

• The Internet promotes compulsive overconsumption not merely by providing increased access to drugs old and new, but also by suggesting behaviors that otherwise may never have occurred to us. Videos don’t just “go viral.” They’re literally contagious, hence the advent of the meme.

• The more dopamine a drug releases in the brain’s reward pathway (a brain circuit that links the ventral tegmental area, the nucleus accumbens, and the prefrontal cortex), and the faster it releases dopamine, the more addictive the drug.

• What’s pleasurable for one person may not be for another. Each person has their “drug of choice.”

• The net effect is that we now need more reward to feel pleasure, and less injury to feel pain.

• If we consume too much pain, or in too potent a form, we run the risk of compulsive, destructive overconsumption.

Dopamine Nation Review

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