“Dopamine nation” by Anna Lembke presents a thorough discussion of pleasure and pain and how it affects our ability to control and manage our life.
What really strikes me is how the book has emphasized the problem of over-using drugs in the US. It’s crazy to learn that “In 2009, doctors in Arkansas wrote 116 opioid prescriptions per 100 persons living in Arkansas”, or, even more sadly, “Prescriptions of stimulants (Adderall, Ritalin) in the US doubled between 2006 and 2016, including in children younger than 5 years old. In 2011, two-thirds of American children diagnosed with ADD were prescribed a stimulant”.
The latter figure reminds me of the book “Lost connection” by Johann Hari, in which the author shows how many children, just by being forced to stay inside with dozen of hours watching the screen (TV, ipad, phones), have developed some symptoms of ADHD; while in fact most of them would act like normal if they are allowed to go out and play.
So instead of finding the main cause and treat it, we are actually poisoning our children with those drugs that impact their biochemical system.
Unfortunately, it seems to me that similar situation can be found in the UK as well...
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In “Dopamine nation”, Anna Lembke also courageously reveals her own addiction to erotic genre novels.
It’s such a great reminder of how even such a good habit as reading, can be used in a harmful way. Yes, it’s not the books that we should value, but our ability to grasp its content, play with its idea, and criticize its message that matter. If I remember right, it’s Arnold Bennett in “How to live on 24 hours a day” who suggests that we should spend at least 45 minutes to digest after every 90 minutes of reading, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to gain much from our reading at all.
And finally, in this dopamine-rich ecosystem, where we’re surrounded by too many sources of stimuli, it’s really important to remind ourselves of what makes us human. It’s our reasoning faculty, our ability to think rationally and make decisions upon it.