Book 219 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: Make Your Addictions Matter!

Book – Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence by Dr. Anna Lembke

Book Description:

This book is about pleasure. It’s also about pain. Most important, it’s about how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why now more than ever finding balance is essential. We’re living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting....

The increased numbers, variety, and potency is staggering. The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation. As such we’ve all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption.

In Dopamine Nation, Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and author, explores the exciting new scientific discoveries that explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain…and what to do about it.

Reflection:

Another fantastic book taking an in-depth look at the power of Dopamine and the effects that it has on all of us whether we know it or not. I thoroughly enjoyed this journey with the author, Dr. Anna Lembke. I felt it paired incredibly well with another recent book I read about Dopamine, The Molecule of More. The Molecule of More focused more on the science of what dopamine is, how it works, and what it does to our brains. Dopamine Nation takes a different approach and humanizes the raw power of dopamine through real life stories of Dr. Anna Lembke’s patients’ extreme cases of over-consumption and the impacts it can have on our lives.

Dopamine is fascinating chemical that has the power to transform lives, not always in a good way. Our elephants are incredibly strong, resilient, and instinctual creatures. I feel confident that 99.5% of the time my Elephant will make the right call on day-to-day interactions. However, even our Elephants aren’t strong enough to course correct Dopamine when it takes control of the wheel. If left untamed, dopamine will drive our Elephants in whatever direction it chooses, and our Elephants are powerless to stop it. However, as we discussed in our lessons from The Molecule of More, Dopamine can be harnessed, controlled, and propel us toward the future we imagine if your Elephant and Rider are working together to take back control of the wheel.

Before this journey, I used to always say that I have an addictive personality when I would describe myself to someone. It was something I’ve become was very conscious of after recognizing a lifetime of repeated patterns of over consumption in different areas of my life. I get addicted easily! When I like something, I stick with it with no real rhyme or reason. I always have joked with my wife that this is the reason why she can be assured that we will never get a divorce, unless she initiates it of course. I’m not ashamed to say that at various stages in my life I’ve been addicted or compulsively over-consumed the following at one time or another - work, cigarettes, certain types of clothes or shoes, competition, arguing, smokeless tobacco, gambling, athletics, education, video games, my phone, ESPN, and chips (potato and tortilla)…just to name a few.

What I’ve come to realize is that I don’t think that is abnormal anymore. My excuse an explanation of “I have an addictive personality” to describe my compulsive actions is no longer is valid. As a matter of fact, I think that I’m probably just as normal as anyone else if they really looked at their life and examined the things that they over-consumed.

Here’s what I’ve really learned, we all have addictive personalities and that isn’t changing!

If that is the case, my solution is to make your addictions matter!

Don’t fight your nature, embrace it! Take control of your dopamine and guide it towards addiction to the things that matter most to you in this world – your purpose, your mission, and your values. Find the activities that align to this north star and let dopamine work its magic. You’ll be shocked where it will take you.

My past addictions had no rhyme or reason behind them, and they led me to a life of anxiety, panic attacks, and fear. My current addictions (reading, writing, exercising, etc) aren’t random. They seamlessly align to my values, mission, purpose, and have led my life toward balance, happiness, and one step closer each day to the life I want to live to honor my daughter.

Question: What are you addicted to and do those addictions align to the life you want to live?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? - An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence by Dr. Anna Lembke