Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

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

36 reviews

jeedmonds's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

4.75

Truly eye opening to the amount of over consumption we participate in daily and how addictive habits are more than just what we think of like drugs and alcohol. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

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

adrianna_0623's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Addiction, Chronic illness, and Mental illness

oliviahamilton's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

5.0

Such an interesting, thought-provoking book. I appreciated the examples from all sorts of dopamine addictions/habits, both the ones we generally consider "bad" (drug abuse, p*rn addiction) and the less obviously bad (reading cheap erotica, obsessive exercise). 

The book broke down a complex scientific topic into digestible, interesting chapters and stories, with no dull portions, yet was still rooted in facts and studies. That's a feat. The author's own honesty really shone through as well, as evidenced especially later in the book. 

Worth a reread at some point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Animal cruelty, and Sexual content

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

ariannacu's review against another edition

dark informative inspiring medium-paced

3.75

I thought this book would discuss more modern day addictions such as social media, cell phones, online shopping etc. and how to deal with these specifically, but the author chose to discuss how to help overcome addictions based on experiences with their patients with more serious addictions to drugs, alcohol, sex, etc.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

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

nilofer's review against another edition

informative tense slow-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction