Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

We are all living in a sea of compulsive overconsumption. All around us people are looking at their phones too much, eating too much, drinking too much. Our world is addicted to fleeting distracting pleasures that at best get us nowhere. In her extraordinarily powerful book, Dr. Anna Lembke, Medical Director of Stanford Addiction Medicine, diagnoses the problem and provides a clear way back to a balanced life.

Dopamine is the neural transmitter that floods our brain as we anticipate the cheap delights of everything from potato chips to angry tweets. And these products are everywhere, day and night, proliferating in the frenetic dopamine economy of our dopamine nation.

Dr. Lembke has been helping patients with addictions to dopamine triggers like alcohol, sex, hard drugs—even cold baths—for decades. The heroic patients she writes so movingly about are models of exactly how to overcome bad obsessive habits, no matter how harmless they might seem. Dr. Lembke herself admits to a compulsion to read romance novels that she only realized had gotten out of hand when she found herself reading them late into the night and even in the moments between seeing patients. If you ever thought you might be checking your social media accounts too often, or visiting casinos a little too regularly, or vaping more than you would prefer—or maybe you are just asking for a friend—this book will engross you and deliver a new confidence about taking control of your life.

About the Author

Anna Lembke is the Medical Director of Stanford Addiction Medicine, Program Director for the Stanford Addiction Medicine Fellowship, and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. She is the recipient of numerous awards for outstanding research in mental illness, for excellence in teaching, and for clinical innovation in treatment. A clinician scholar, she has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, and commentaries in prestigious outlets such as The New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA. She sits on the board of several state and national addiction-focused organizations, has testified before various committees in the United States House of Representatives and Senate, keeps an active speaking calendar and maintains a thriving clinical practice.

Author Residence: Palo Alto, CA