The Dopamine Expert: Doing This Once A Day Fixes Your Dopamine! What Alcohol Is Really Doing To Your Brain! Your Childhood Shapes Future Addictions!

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

FlightStory

Society & Culture, Business, Education

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 January 2025

⏱️ 132 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

From smartphones, to sugar, to exercising, the modern world is plagued by dopamine addictions, and Dr Anna Lembke holds the key to breaking free Dr Anna Lembke is Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. She is the author of bestselling books such as, ‘Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence’. In this conversation, Dr Anna and Steven discuss topics such as, the link between addiction and childhood trauma, how exercise balances your dopamine system, the benefits of chasing pain, and the real effects of alcohol on the brain. 00:00 Intro 03:44 Why Does Dopamine Matter? 04:08 What Is Dopamine? 05:35 How Understanding Dopamine Can Improve Your Life 06:09 Biggest Misconceptions About Dopamine 07:30 Everyday Activities That Impact Dopamine 09:36 Dopamine and Its Relationship to Pleasure and Pain 18:26 Why Do Our Brains Overshoot? 20:31 How Our Brains Are Wired for Addiction 25:22 Finding Ways to Deal With Pain 31:51 Stories of Addiction 34:52 How Many People Have Addiction Disorders? 40:14 Hiding Away From Friends and Family 41:21 Distinguishing Between Good and Bad Behaviors 45:50 How Addiction Makes You Feel 47:50 Is Work an Addiction? 54:18 What Activities Provide the Biggest Dopamine Hits? 58:59 Can We Inject or Drink Dopamine? 01:01:00 Why We Must Do Hard Things 01:02:37 Can You Get an Exercise Comedown? 01:04:19 How to Optimize for a Better Life 01:05:17 How Should We Be Living? 01:09:29 Being Comfortable With the Uncomfortable 01:10:34 Causes of Anxiety Throughout Life 01:12:43 Living in a World Where It's Easy to Outrun Pain 01:13:09 Where Are You Now in Your Grieving Journey? 01:14:43 Youngest Child Seen With Addictions 01:15:37 Youngest Age When Addiction Can Have an Effect 01:16:50 Youngest Patient With Addiction 01:18:40 Has Society Gone Soft? 01:21:05 Victimhood and Responsibility 01:25:02 How to Help Someone Overcome a Victimhood Mentality 01:28:36 Connection Between Responsibility and Self-Esteem 01:30:13 Importance of Our Self-Narrative 01:37:24 Ads 01:38:22 How Helping a Loved One Too Much Can Hurt Them 01:44:49 Overcoming Pornography Addiction 01:48:35 Harms of Watching Porn 01:51:04 Is Dopamine Responsible for Sugar Cravings? 01:53:05 Turning Addictions Around 01:58:25 Why We Bounce Back to Cravings After Relapsing 02:02:49 Effects of Early Exposure to Addictive Substances on Children Follow Dr Anna: Website - https://g2ul0.app.link/f0HLrXUTqPb You can purchase Dr Anna’s books, here: ‘Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence’ - UK version: https://g2ul0.app.link/BWfeDh0TqPb ‘Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence’ - US version: https://g2ul0.app.link/jPIwbElUqPb ‘The Official Dopamine Nation Workbook’ - UK version: https://g2ul0.app.link/MbZZbHhUqPb The Official Dopamine Nation Workbook’ - US version: https://g2ul0.app.link/BEet3RnUqPb Watch the episodes on Youtube - https://g2ul0.app.link/DOACEpisodes Independent fact check: annalembke.tiiny.co My new book! 'The 33 Laws Of Business & Life' is out now - https://g2ul0.app.link/DOACBook You can purchase the The Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards: Second Edition, here: https://g2ul0.app.link/f31dsUttKKb Follow me: https://g2ul0.app.link/gnGqL4IsKKb Sponsors: ZOE - http://joinzoe.com with code BARTLETT10 for 10% off Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	There's a very famous experiment in which rats were engineered to have no dopamine,
0:04.8	and the scientists discovered that if they put food in the rat's mouth, the rat would eat.
0:08.7	But if you put the food even a body length away, the rat will starve to death.
0:12.4	Which tells us that dopamine is fundamental to get the things that we need for our basic survival.
0:18.2	Now, every time we're doing something that's pleasurable, from sugar to
0:21.6	video games, work, pornography, social media, that will affect dopamine. And the more dopamine that's
0:26.5	released, the more likely that drug or behavior is to be addictive. But also, the genetic risk of
0:31.6	addiction is about 50 to 60 percent. So if you have a biological parent or grandparent with addiction,
0:37.1	you are more likely to develop that addiction.
0:39.7	We have to keep it in balance in order to stay healthy.
0:42.6	Dr. Anna Lemke is Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford, chief of the Stanford Addiction Clinic.
0:46.8	And a world leading expert on the subject of dopamine.
0:49.4	She will tell you how this one powerful chemical is controlling your life and what to do about it.
0:53.4	One of the most important findings in neuroscience in the past 75 years is that the same parts
0:58.3	of the brain that process pleasure also process pain. And the balance wants to remain
1:02.6	a level. The problem is that we automatically seek out pleasure and avoid pain and we're exposed
1:07.4	to all kinds of pleasures that we have in the modern world. And our brains are reeling in response
1:11.7	to try to compensate.
1:12.8	Now I need more of my drug
1:13.9	and more potent forms to get the same effect,
1:16.0	which then leads to addiction.
1:17.3	And that's what happened to me
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -53 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from FlightStory, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of FlightStory and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.