"Now, our drug of choice doesn't even get us high. "We're not able to take joy in more modest rewards," Lembke says. That's called a "dopamine deficit state," and the cycle that leads us there can actually lead to depression, anxiety, irritability and insomnia. When we're repeatedly exposed to our pleasure-producing stimuli, our brains adjust and, eventually, we need more and more just to feel "normal," or not in pain. In short, Lembke says, almost every behavior has become "drugified." It doesn't last very long and it's followed by pain so that immediately we're searching again," she explains.īut, in modern life, we live in a world of abundance rather than scarcity, and Lembke says our brains weren't evolved for the "fire hose of dopamine" of sugar, social media, TV, sex, drugs or any number of dopamine-triggering stimuli so easily available. "It's really an ingenious method to make sure that no matter what we do, that's pleasurable. Lembke says this balancing see-saw of pleasure and pain made sense in the time of early humans, when we had to constantly search for our basic needs – food, water, shelter. Anna Lembke, a Stanford Medical School psychiatrist, researcher and author of the new book, Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.Ī dopamine hit brings about pleasure, and then is quickly followed by pain, or a come-down, in order to keep us motivated. "It may be even more important for motivation than for actual pleasure," says Dr. Then we need more on repeated use, just to feel a the marginal pleasure boost – and, eventually, just to feel "normal."īe it sugar, social media or sex, the response in our brain is the same: It produces the "feel-good" neurochemical called dopamine, which brings on feelings of pleasure and motivation. When we're repeatedly exposed to pleasure-producing stimuli - social media, sugar, alcohol or any number of readily-available substances - our bodies adjust.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |