Dopamine Nation
Top 10 Lessons learned from the book Dopamine Nation The world has been transformed from a place of scarcity to a place of abundance. We live in unprecedented times with easy access to high dopamine stimuli: food, drugs, porn, social media, etc. all at the touch of a button. "The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle" Pain & pleasure are processed in the same place in the brain and they exist on a balance. Push down on pleasure and the brain will push back on pain to bring it into equilibrium. The brain's re-leveling toward pain is longer lasting and tends to get us stuck in pain. Despite working to avoid pain, the pain is getting worse. Globally, rates of happiness are declining, while rates of anxiety and depression are increasing. Our avoidance of pain is making us miserable. The pain often comes in the form of craving: 1 more episode 1 more bite 1 more hit The problem is neuroadaptation. The pleasure stimulus weakens. Our tolerance goes up. Tha...