Do You Need to Take a Dopamine Fast?

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2021

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Her name is Anna Lembke and she's Chief of Stanford's Addiction Medicine Clinic and the author of the book Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in an Age of Indulgence. At the start of our conversation, Anna unpacks the definition of addiction, why she believes it applies equally well to substances like drugs as behaviors like using porn, and how it exists on a spectrum from the serious and severe to the mild and minor. Anna explains why life in our comfortable, pleasure-filled modern society is increasing the problem of addiction, and argues that the reason we're so miserable is that we're working so hard to avoid being miserable. She then digs into the science of why we become addicted to substances and behaviors and how it all comes down to our mind and body trying to seek balance between pleasure and pain. We discuss dopamine's role in this seesaw dynamic and how the substances and technologies of modernity can lead to a dopamine deficit. We then walk through the process of getting a handle on your addiction, including the importance of doing a dopamine fast, and how long the fast needs to last to be effective. Anna shares tactics for sticking through this abstinence period, which include, counterintuitively, intentionally seeking out pain. She explains why a dopamine fast can help you rebalance your brain, what comes after it's over, and much more. Check out the show notes at aom.is/dopaminenation Resources Related to the Podcast Prohibition Worked Better Than You Think What Vietnam Taught Us About Breaking Bad Habits Brown and Shuckit's research on alcohol use and depression Nora Volkow's research on dopamine and addiction AoM Podcast #708: Overcoming the Comfort Crisis Sunday Fireside: Lash Yourself to the Mast Sunday Firesides: Shame Is a Gift 4 Lessons From a 4-Week Social Media Fast Connect with Anna Lembke Anna's Website

Transcript

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0:00.0	Brat McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast and you
0:10.9	probably know someone who struggled with the severe addiction to drugs or alcohol.
0:14.7	Maybe you're battling a big addiction right now.
0:16.8	Even if you don't have a severe addiction that gets in the way of your life, you might
0:19.5	have a habit that you're not happy with, like looking at your smartphone or playing video
0:22.9	games too much.
0:23.9	Whether big or small, these compulsive behavior shares similar underlying cause.
0:27.5	They're an attempt to assuage pain through pleasure.
0:30.2	But as my guests say, argues the problem is that relentless pursuit of pleasure only
0:33.6	leads to more pain.
0:35.0	Her name is Ana Limke and she's chief of Stanford's addiction medicine clinic and the author
0:38.6	of the book Dopa Me Nation, finding balance in an age of indulgence.
0:42.3	At the start of her conversation, Ana impacts the definition of addiction, why she believes
0:45.9	it equally applies to substances like drugs as behaviors like using porn and how it
0:49.9	exists on the spectrum from the serious and severe to the mild and minor.
0:53.8	Ana explains why life in our comfortable, pleasure-filled modern society is increasing
0:57.5	the problem of addiction and argues that the reason we're so miserable is that we're
1:00.7	working so hard to avoid being miserable.
1:02.8	She then digs into the science of why we become addicted to substances and behaviors and
1:06.4	how it all comes down to our mind and body trying to seek balance between pleasure and pain.
1:10.7	We discuss Dopa Me's role in the seesaw dynamic and how the substances and technologies of
1:14.9	modernity can lead to a dopamine deficit.
	...

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