This book explores the intricate relationship between addiction, dopamine, and the pharmacological influences on overall well-being.

I feel like Dr. Lembke’s book does a good job of introducing the impacts of dopamine in our day-today lives and how insidiously dopamine works to fuel and motivate the “feel good sensations” over and over again until the behavior becomes unhealthy and potentially devastating.

I appreciated how Dr. Lembke highlights how the world we live in fuels these unhealthy behaviors, leading to addictions that negatively affect our lives. She also highlights how the pharmaceutical and medical industries exploit this by prescribing highly addictive medications, continuing this harmful cycle.

I do wish this book had more empirical versus anecdotal evidence. It seems that Dr. Lembke heavily depended on her own personal experiences as well as her client’s experiences to fuel her conclusions. And I must say, some of her points made from these stories were a little weird to me due to some of their contradictions and her conclusions. Empirical studies (and citations in general) would have further bolstered the validity of her points.

All in all, I found this to be a good introduction to dopamine’s role in addiction despite some flaws in delivery.

For those without a background in addictions, this book is simply written and very good. Understanding that addicted people have a lower everyday dopamine baseline was really interesting.

I finished this in a day. Super interesting.

Dr. Anna Lembke tells the story of addiction and dopamine through case studies of her patients. She's empathetic, and yes the examples she provides are quite extreme, and most people reading this book probably aren't at-risk of being so far at that end of the spectrum. But, of course she's going to choose the most interesting and extreme examples to illustrate her point.

There are some nuggets of advice in here, but I think it's more of an information book than a self-help book (which may explain the negative reviews from folks where were expecting something different.)

I'm not super up to date on neuropharmacology or on the biochemical messengers involved, as even though I have a scientific background, neuroanatomy/neurophysiology wasn't ever a big focus (admittedly I always confuse dopamine and serotonin). So, I learned a lot in layman's terms about dopamine and how it functions and its role in reward systems in the brain.

And really, that's all I was after with this. I was interested in the science behind it and some general information.

Thanks Netgalley for the e-ARC.

Bookmarked as one of my TOP 5 Must Reads, this book is a fascinating exploration of how and why we must have more and our dopamine driven addiction to getting it. Exploring published research and personal experience, reader learn in a palatable way how to recognize and redirect our dopamine addiction. Must read for any adult living in the 21st century in the land of excess.

Dr. Anna Lembke offered so many things to think about with how our brains and culture value Dopamine. It was interesting how the story went back and forth between clinical stories, research, and anecdotal stories. This model kept the book moving and offered a variety of perspectives.

This book is amazing! It reads like fiction and gives so much insight into the brain and our constant quest for dopamine in a world where it is all too easy to find a quick fix. Dr. Anna Lembke presents several highly interesting cases to us about people with unique addictions that seemed almost impossible to overcome and then explains how they were able to find solutions. I would highly recommend this book to everyone, not just those interested in addiction.

This was a thought-provoking read, and I think it makes a lot of good points about how our society places too much emphasis on things that give us dopamine.

Neurodivergence and dopamine is a trending topic on TikTok right now and if you read the comments on popular videos, you will see a lot of people that struggle with ADHD, addiction, mood disordorders, and other symptoms that leads to extreme and unproductive behavior in the pursuit of dopamine highs. I picked up this book to get a better understa nding of my own history with addiction and dopamine chasing and to find out more about the science behind it.

The blend of clinical and anecdotal storytelling makes this book an easy read. I also appreciated the humanization of shameful behaviors and looking at it from a neurological standpoint. Lembke keeps it simple by organizing the topic by extreme behaviors that lead to the pursuit of pleasure and pain. She does a really good job of identifying the problem without judging people's individual solutions. Interspersed between client stories, she also shares her own extreme behavior which I really appreciated and it gave me a better understanding overall of my own struggles.

Any behavior that leads to an increase in dopamine has the potential to be exploited.

WOW! It kind of sums it all up.

This book is about extremes—extreme behavioral examples. I have to wonder, how extreme are the behaviors described in the book compared to how we as a society are chasing emotional connections and fixes? It is important to know where you have been to reflect on where you are and what your future will look like.

I enjoyed this book and the awareness it brings to our need for a "high" and the suggestions for further discovery regarding balancing the feelings.

Dopamine Nation was an eye-opening look at the relationship between pleasure and pain and how quickly we can become absorbed in tipping the scales one way or another.

Throughout the book, Lembke does a wonderful job presenting both factual information and subjective experiences. From the very first page, you are drawn in as you learn the stories of past patients and quickly find yourself empathizing with their struggles. Whether your story is similar to theirs or not, you quickly resonate with common emotions and motives that drive each person’s behavior, while also learning about the science behind our decision-making processes.. Each story is a call to compassion and an opportunity to assess ourselves and our own habits.

The author does a wonderful job of sharing honest, vulnerable stories (including her own life experiences) in a non-judgmental way. She offers sincere observations, informed opinions, and practical guidance to help us better understand our minds and the pleasure/pain balance.

I highly recommend this book. You’ll learn about your brain, the things that motivate you, and the way this information can help you change your life and the lives of others for the better.

*I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Such a great book about how pleasure/pain are two sides of the same coin, how much of our social landscape has led to overindulgence in pleasure and increasing chronic pain, as well as how this problem can be better solved than the endless feedback loops that drugs like SSRI's and opioids lead to.

She offers an acronym, DOPAMINE (data, objectives, problems related to use, abstinence, mindfulness, insight, next steps, experiment) that can be used to treat disorders and behaviors related to the increased need for pleasurable stimuli that often traps people in addiction, depression, and substance abuse.

Pain is often used to treat pain. Anxiety used to treat anxiety. This isn't working for anyone, doctors and patients alike. Lembke offers a new evidence-based model of treatment that offers hope.