Episode description

In this digital era, most of us hold the dial to our pleasure neural pathway in the palm of our hands. We can easily increase the amount of pleasure we seek and soak in. For some, this leads to clinical addiction. We need to know how to fight addiction and take control of balanced living.

My guest today, Anna Lembke, MD is an internationally recognized leader in addiction medicine treatment and education. She’s helping us to open our eyes when it comes to the imbalances created during our constant pursuit of pleasure and its true potential for pain.

Anna Lembke, MD is professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also the chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. Anna is a clinician scholar and author of more than a hundred peer-reviewed publications. Her 2016 book “Drug Dealer, MD - How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked and Why It’s So Hard to Stop” was highlighted in the New York Times as one of the top 5 books to read to understand the opioid epidemic. She’s been featured in the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma”. Her latest book that we’ll talk about in this podcast, is called “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence”.

Highlights from our discussion:

- The Plenty Paradox (1:50)

- Understanding Addiction (5:12)

- The Dark Side of Technology (9:30)

- Cultivating Healthy Relationships with Digital Devices (35:00)

- Hopeful Solutions for Navigating Addiction (59:00)

Enjoy!