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athos's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
reflective
3.5
Informative and interesting book on how dopamine over-saturation has led to addiction and pain (from dopamine deficit). I liked the use of confidential patient anecdotes to give humanity and connection to the more scientific/psychological terminology she was explaining.
However, the author doesn't commit to either just a factual account nor a book of advice and steps - it teeters inbetween the two and, as a result, I didn't gain a lot of understanding or insight. It seemed quite surface level, but I still gained from reading this book.
However, the author doesn't commit to either just a factual account nor a book of advice and steps - it teeters inbetween the two and, as a result, I didn't gain a lot of understanding or insight. It seemed quite surface level, but I still gained from reading this book.
serena_andherstories's review against another edition
2.0
Was not a fan of this book. I was hoping for more neuroscience, and what I got felt like a very old school approach to treating addiction with abstinence.
mumbles's review
2.5
There were bits that were interesting.. I appreciated her honesty about her own experience with addiction, or escapism through indulgence. But I thought that the book didn't offer much and the fact that she mostly referred to the 12 step program of AA was worrisome and annoying to me. I also felt that her conclusion was weak. Though I do agree that we need to spend more time dealing with ourselves, I think telling people the solution is to be more present in the world while it is literally and metaphorically on fire is not realistic. Even when spending time in nature and the true wonders of our earth, do we not just spiral out on how we are ruining it?
trebemot1991's review
2.5
Ehhh. My gripe with books like this is that they successfully identify the problem (in this case the abundance and ease of society accessing dopamine releasing activities) but then only give a partial solution to the problem, putting the onus on the individual to fight against how society is structured. It's the same idea as pushing for an individual to recycle when the majority of pollution is cause by line half a dozen companies. It's trying to fight a flood with a bucket. Also the authors heavy use of referencing AA made me question the rest of the book, as IIRC AA has been shown to not actually be any better for sobriety than other methods. But I may me mistaken on that.