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uhohbrynetime's review against another edition
3.0
I'm conflicted about this book and I don't know how much of it is me not wanting to accept or believe what she's saying or if it's a legitimate critique.
First, I found it a bit odd how many times she prefaces her arguments with, "it may seem crazy to look to addicts for insights, but I promise it's worth it!" I suppose this could be a defense for comments she's received before. There is also some behavior in here that she describes as perverse and bizarre that I think is...fine? I felt like some of her discussions of addiction centered around what people "should" and shouldn't be doing and not how they felt about their behavior before they were told by her or a family member that they don't like it.
I also find it really hard to believe that almost 80% of people with addiction don't have a comorbid mental illness. From what I understood, she's saying the drug or other addiction is usually causing the anxiety or depression. Exacerbating sure, but causing?....I am really doubtful of that.
And then she sidebars into sections that feel less than objective. She says something like, "Although intermittent fasting may have been considered an eating disorder before, it's now considered healthy in some circles." Sure, that's not an endoresment of intermittent fasting, but she treats this subject quite differently than say, someone who incorporates a lot of video games or food into their life.
I also am left assuming that the author has not experiencing debilitating anxiety or depression first-hand. She implies that SSRI's are not worth the problems they solve because they dull emotions, including one woman who no longer cries during Olympics commercials. Losing emotional capacity is a real issue for sure, but as an outsider it comes off as flippant to posit this as an equal tradeoff.
The pleasure/pain balance is how our brains are naturally wired, and yes, modern life has thrown this out of balance. Humans have also been manipulating their brains and doing things that are bad for us for eons. This book is an interesting argument about whether manipulating dopamine is worse than the other things humanity has done to our hardwiring. I don't know what the answer is.
mayatentoni's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
kitkat962's review against another edition
3.0
Not too terrible as a book to get started on reading about addiction, but not a great science book. There is a reason why I have little trust in psychology books teetering on self-help: a lot of personal anecdotes, weak arguments, and nonexistent thorough literature review
coleeflower's review against another edition
1.5
It's not quite one star because I spent most of my time going, "eh? ๐คจ" instead of, "ugh ๐ตโ๐ซ" but it was another case of me putting a book on my tbr because I saw it somewhere once and didn't look into it. I don't know if it was because I had the audiobook, but the entire time I felt like I just wanted to ditch it and read a summary instead. I struggled to connect the stories with any actual point or takeaway. The conclusion at the end helped but otherwise I felt like, what are we doing here?
jacquibear's review against another edition
While this book was very well written, it was not what I had been hoping for. I had not clearly read the synopsis prior to checking it out. I was expecting info on how to find and better use dopamine. This was more on dopamine addictions because of societal construction. I paused in reading it, got distracted by other books, and had to return it so another patron could borrow it.