Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence by Anna Lembke

11 reviews

eliasaurus's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.0

First and foremost, this isn't a self help book. It presents information in a simplistic and accessible way, so it's definitely pop sci.

The book's first section is its strongest, with a good overview of what dopamine does and its role in addiction. However, the section about pain went on longer than it needed to, and the section about shame seemed completely out of place. This section is probably responsible for the reviews stating that Lembke is overly favorable towards AA and the 12 steps. I don't think she's recommending AA as much as stating that it worked for many of her patients. Still, this part of the book is the shakiest and could have been omitted entirely.

On the whole, the book is very readable and I learned some new info. I also enjoyed the patient stories (and the author's note about obtaining consent for their use). But it's not amazing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Drug use, Animal cruelty, and Alcoholism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

slipppers98's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

2.5

Warning: Animal cruelty detailed!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, and Sexual content

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Alcohol, and Suicidal thoughts

mjadeh's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Self harm, Addiction, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Eating disorder

dbumgarner's review against another edition

I found this book offensive in a few ways, including the author’s assumption that people in larger bodies are diagnosable with food addiction, citing the only symptom as “an inability to lose weight” and her puritanical beliefs about abstinence, especially around sexual triggers. I was hoping for some insight on how to navigate more mindfully in a world with so many screens and apps designed to steal my attention, but I don’t agree with her base values and beliefs and her supposition that *all* dopamine is bad or a slippery slope to addiction. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Sexual content, Addiction, and Suicidal thoughts

okayshea's review against another edition

dark informative reflective slow-paced

1.5

it always makes me feel icky and voyeuristic reading therapists tell their patients' stories, though i know obviously the patients gave their consent and i can see the value of sharing these real and vulnerable things people go through to create better understanding and give authentic examples. BUT this author came across judgmental of pretty much everyone she discussed in this book, and seemed to often look down on others struggling with addiction, even as she tried to relate personally by sharing her troubled relationship to romance novels. there were just too many cases where, to me, she felt smug and like she knew all the answers and didn't seem interested in actually learning what her patients saw of what they were going through -- and that's from her own retelling of these interactions. but maybe that's just me and that type of attitude might be necessary sometimes in helping someone with a serious addiction.

like other reviewers said, dopamine nation isn't really about modern technology or social media as much as the book advertises itself to be, and is more just about overcoming addiction and how dopamine works in general. there wasn't much scientific information in here that you couldn't gather from just watching a few self-help type youtube videos about dopamine or "dopamine resets". lembke also uses this book to make a few broad claims with flimsy support, so that turned me off too from finding much trust or value from this text. it just showed up on libby and was short, so i picked it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Mental illness, and Sexual content

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Fatphobia, and Body shaming

Minor: Self harm and Stalking

drdolphinphd's review against another edition

emotional informative slow-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Self harm, Murder, Mental illness, Addiction, Drug abuse, Suicide, Child death, Animal death, Eating disorder, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Drug use, and Suicidal thoughts

xbarr2's review against another edition

informative inspiring fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Drug use

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Self harm

drawlina's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

2.0

There was some interesting information in this book about the nature of addiction and the relationships between pleasure and pain in the brain, but a lot of the content rubbed me the wrong way.  The author makes frequent comparisons of her addiction to erotic novels to the sometimes potentially fatal addictions of her clients.  There is a lot of speculation about what her clients "mean" when they say certain things--why not just ask them??  Also, a lot of talk about how people in contemporary society are over medicated and how stopping meds can be great seems highly irresponsible coming from an MD.  That combined with a lot of uncritical cheerleading for A.A. makes this not a read for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Addiction

debbilynn42's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

The narrative jumped around and the book lacked a central thread connecting the stories together into a purpose for their inclusion. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Drug use, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Body horror, Addiction, and Drug abuse

wanna_read's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Medical content, and Mental illness

Minor: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, and Self harm