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Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke book pdf download

 

Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke book




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Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke book pdf download


Details of Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke Book

  • Book Name: Dopamine Nation
  • Authors: Anna Lembke
  • Pages: 229
  • Genre: Self Help
  • Publish Date: Jun 1, 2021
  • Language: English

Book Review:


Dopamine nation by anna lemke an addiction psychiatrist at Stanford University, dopamine dictates the quality of your life 

If you keep dopamine levels in your brain above a certain level what you could call your feel-good baseline life is full of joy and you're driven to learn grow and get things done 

But if your dopamine level drops below the feel-good baseline you feel anxious and find it hard to focus and if you stay below the dopamine baseline 

You'll lack the motivation to do anything studies show that mice who have their dopamine levels depleted are not motivated enough to eat food directly in front of them and eventually starve to death 

One way to raise your dopamine level is to seek pleasure by checking your phone for interesting messages eating your favorite comfort food or enjoying a sugary beverage 

But the dopamine spike you get from pleasure is quickly followed by a dopamine crash that keeps you below your feel-good baseline for an extended period of time in other words 

When you pursue pleasure you get pain a pain-pleasure seesaw in your mind when you jump on the pleasure side your brain hires gremlins to jump on the pain side to balance out the seesaw since 

We live in an age of abundance and have easy access to the pleasure we build up the gremlins on the pain side this dynamic explains why people in rich countries with access to constant pleasure have the highest rates of suicide depression and physical pain 

If you want to get your gremlins off the pain side and regain a baseline level of motivation there are only two long-term solutions pursue pain or abstain anna Lemke says pressing on the pain side of the balance can lead to 

Its opposite pleasure unlike pressing on the pleasure side the dopamine that comes from pain is indirect and potentially more enduring when you pursue intermittent pain 

You startle the gremlins camping out on the pain side of the pleasure-pain seesaw and get them to jump over to the pleasure side there are three ways you can do this first turn down the temperature on the gremlins by plunging your body into an ice bath or enduring 

A cold shower for several minutes the initial shock you experience will be followed by a gradual 200 percent rise in dopamine which is equivalent to the rise in dopamine people experience by snoring cocaine but unlike cocaine 

You don't get the massive dopamine deficit afterward and endure a period of depression method number two turn up the temperature on the gremlins by vigorously exercising and sweating for several minutes voluntary exercise is shown to lead to a gradual 100 to 200 increase in dopamine method 

number three briefly starve the gremlins by intermittent fasting which is consuming only water and electrolytes for 16 to 20 hours a day your energy will paradoxically rise at the tail end of the fast and you will get tremendous pleasure from simple foods like broccoli and blueberries 

when you break the fast abstaining is intermittent dopamine fasting meaning you avoid dopamine spikes for a period of time 

so the ghrelins get bored and leave the pain side of your pleasure-pain seesaw a typical dopamine fast includes refraining from chocolate or foods 

You crave like ice cream and fast food refraining from energy drinks and dopamine boosting drugs like cocaine and methamphetamines abstaining from immersive video games and mobile apps like tick tock youtube or twitter abstaining from pornography obscene from gambling and sports betting and abstaining from drinking and partying during a dopamine fast 

you only engage in low stimulating activities until your brain can reset its dopamine levels and you no longer feel miserable but if you have a compulsive behavior that has negative consequences 

then you need to abstain from that behavior for 30 days for anne alemke that meant not reading romance novels at night for 30 days for myself it meant not checking stock prices throughout the day abstaining for 30 days gives 

the brain enough time to reset its reward circuits and allow your withdrawal symptoms to subside lemke has created the dopamine guide to help you and i get through a 30-day dopamine fast the dop and dopamine will provide you with the necessary motivations to start 

your dopamine fast the a stands for abstain and the m-i-n-e will provide you with the necessary motivation to sustain your dopamine fast d stands for data when you collect data about your behavior you might be shocked to learn how bad your addiction is suppose you have an addiction to sugary soda drinks

If you record the amount of sugar you consume in a single week and learn that you ingest 700 grams a week which is 80 pounds of sugar a year you might spark a feeling of disgust which will motivate you to abstain from soda for 30 days o stands for objective 

when most people recall their original objective they realize how far off track they've gotten a girl in the book who was addicted to smoking weed started smoking weed to help reduce her anxiety but then she needed to smoke weed just to feel normal

If you happen to be addicted to sugary soda drinks you may have started drinking soda to raise your energy and relieve boredom but now you need to consume soda just to sustain a normal energy level the p stands for the problem with all addictive behaviors is 

They enslave you by making you crave the substance or activity just to feel normal what's more addictions gradually erode the relationships you care about most in the case of the girl who was addicted to weed her weed-smoking led to constant fighting with her parents 

The m stands for mindfulness if you use the urge to engage in a compulsive behavior as a trigger to practice mindfulness and get curious about where the impulse is coming from in your body the act of abstaining will no longer feel like torture 

Because curiosity is a delightful state of mind the eye stands for insight and alemke says i have seen again and again in clinical care and in my own life how the simple exercise of abstaining from our drug of choice for at least four weeks gives clarifying insight into our behaviors insight that is simply not possible well we continue to use 

The girl in the book who abstain from weed told lemke the first few days were bad i felt blah i threw up on the second day it was insane i never throw up that's when i realized i was withdrawing and that motivated me to keep going with abstinence 

Because it was the first piece of evidence i had that i was really addicted the n stands for next steps what will you do after your 30 day double meat fast is over

If you create a plan to enjoy the behavior that you're obtaining from in a moderated way after the 30-day abstinence you'll be more motivated to complete your dopamine fast

If for example you're abstaining from soda drinks you could give yourself the option to enjoy one soda on sunday while watching sports 

If you're abstaining from smoking weed you could restrict yourself to just one joint with a friend every saturday evening and the e in dopamine stands for experiment after the dopamine fast is over and you experiment with moderation 

you might have a relapse and realize the addiction is too powerful at this point you must resolve to stop the behavior for good and be like the alcoholic who simply does not drink alcohol in the end 

If you don't get pleasure from simple things and you lack the motivation to get anything done start pursuing pain or abstaining pursue pain by lowering the temperature of your baths and showers increasing 

Your internal temperature with exercise and giving your body an extended break from food every day abstain from highly pleasurable activities or compulsive behaviors by following lemke's dopamine guide to collect data recall 

Your objective and acknowledge the problem to start your dopamine fast then focus on mindfulness insights next steps and a period of experimentation so that you're motivated to complete 

Your dopamine fast by pursuing pain or abstaining you can reset the pleasure-pain balance in your brain and restore your baseline motivation that was the core message that i gathered from dopamine nation by anna Lemke 

This book will give you the tools to regain a sense of joy and get control of compulsive behavior i highly recommend it if you would like a one-page pdf summary of insights that i gathered from this book 


 




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