How to Find Balance in the Age of Indulgence - Dr. Anna Lembke
Summary
TLDRIn this episode of 'After Skool', Dr. Anna Lembke explores the paradox of declining happiness despite increasing wealth and technological progress. She discusses the neuroscience behind the pleasure-pain balance, the impact of dopamine overload from modern indulgences, and offers strategies for finding balance. The video suggests 'dopamine fasting', self-binding techniques, and embracing pain as pathways to enduring pleasure, advocating for a mindful approach to life's challenges.
Takeaways
- 📉 The World Happiness Report indicates a decline in self-reported happiness in wealthy nations like the U.S., despite material wealth and technological advancements.
- 🌍 Similar decreases in happiness are observed in other high-income countries, suggesting a global trend rather than isolated incidents.
- 🧠 The brain processes pleasure and pain through a balance mechanism, which seeks to maintain homeostasis, or a neutral state.
- 🚀 Dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, can lead to addiction when over-stimulated, causing a 'hangover' effect and withdrawal symptoms.
- 📱 Modern technology, particularly smartphones, can be compared to a 'hypodermic syringe' delivering constant dopamine hits, contributing to overconsumption and unhappiness.
- 📉 The abundance of pleasurable substances and behaviors in our current world has not led to increased happiness but rather to higher rates of depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues.
- 🕊️ 'Dopamine fasting' is suggested as a method to reset the brain's dopamine levels by abstaining from pleasurable stimuli, leading to improved mental health.
- 🛡️ Self-binding techniques, such as setting limits on pleasurable activities, can help maintain a balance and prevent the negative effects of dopamine overload.
- 🏋️♂️ Engaging in activities that involve a degree of discomfort or pain, like exercise, can actually enhance pleasure by triggering the body's homeostatic mechanisms.
- 🧘♀️ The pursuit of pain, contrary to our natural instincts, can lead to more enduring pleasure and a stronger sense of well-being.
- 🌈 Finding balance in the dopamine-driven age of indulgence requires patience, maintenance, and a willingness to face life's challenges head-on.
Q & A
What is the main topic of discussion in this special episode of After Skool?
-The main topic is dopamine and finding balance in the age of indulgence, and how an increase in access to pleasure affects mental health.
According to the World Happiness Report, how has self-reported happiness in the United States changed from 2008 to 2018?
-People living in the United States reported being less happy in 2018 than they were in 2008.
What is generalized anxiety disorder as mentioned in the script?
-Generalized anxiety disorder is defined as excessive and uncontrollable worry that adversely affects one's life.
Why do richer countries have higher rates of anxiety than poorer ones, according to the research findings?
-The script suggests that the disorder is significantly more prevalent and impairing in high-income countries than in low to middle-income countries, although it does not provide a specific reason for this trend.
What has been the trend in the number of new cases of depression worldwide between 1990 and 2017?
-The number of new cases of depression worldwide increased by 50 percent between 1990 and 2017.
What is the 'pleasure-pain balance' as discussed by Dr. Anna Lembke?
-The 'pleasure-pain balance' refers to the brain's mechanism where the same parts of the brain process both pleasure and pain, working like a balance that the brain strives to maintain.
What is the concept of 'dopamine fasting' as suggested by Dr. Anna Lembke?
-Dopamine fasting is the practice of abstaining from all sources of dopamine stimulation, such as screens and addictive behaviors, to allow the brain to restore baseline levels of dopamine firing.
How does the script describe the impact of modern technology on dopamine levels?
-The script describes modern technology, particularly smartphones, as tools that deliver digital dopamine, contributing to potential dopamine overload and imbalance.
What are some of the self-binding strategies mentioned in the script to manage dopamine levels?
-Self-binding strategies include restricting screen time, avoiding highly addictive games, physically separating gaming devices from work devices, and playing games only with friends to strengthen social connections.
What is the idea of using pain as a pathway to pleasure, as discussed in the script?
-The idea is that exposing oneself to controlled amounts of pain, such as through exercise or other effortful activities, can trigger the body's homeostatic mechanisms, leading to a more enduring form of pleasure.
What is the final recommendation made by Dr. Anna Lembke in the script for achieving a balanced life?
-The final recommendation is to immerse oneself fully in life, face challenges directly, and seek out pain in a healthy way to achieve a more enduring and profound pleasure.
Outlines
🧠 Dopamine and the Pleasure-Pain Balance
Dr. Anna Lembke introduces the concept of dopamine and its role in balancing pleasure and pain in the brain. She discusses the World Happiness Report, noting a decline in happiness scores in wealthy countries despite increased wealth and technological advancement. The paradox of increasing anxiety and depression in affluent nations is highlighted, setting the stage for exploring the impact of pleasure-seeking behaviors on mental health. The video aims to present ideas on how an overabundance of pleasurable stimuli can degrade mental health and suggests finding balance in an age of indulgence.
📈 The Consequences of Dopamine Overload
This paragraph delves into the evolutionary purpose of dopamine and how it has been disrupted by modern abundance. The easy access to highly reinforcing substances and behaviors, from social media to sugar, is contrasted with the increasing rates of depression, anxiety, and other health issues. The 'dopamine fast' is introduced as a potential solution, where a patient abstains from screens to reset his dopamine levels, resulting in improved mental health. The importance of self-binding techniques to manage dopamine intake and avoid the gremlins of addiction is emphasized.
🚫 Self-Binding and Dopamine Fasting
The concept of self-binding is further explored with strategies to prevent overindulgence in pleasurable activities. The patient's successful experience with a dopamine fast is detailed, illustrating the benefits of abstaining from video games to restore dopamine balance. Dr. Lembke shares her own practices for managing screen time and suggests that viewers consider their own pleasurable habits that may be detrimental in the long term. The challenge to take a break from one's 'drug of choice' is issued, with the promise of mental clarity and a restored ability to enjoy life's simple pleasures.
🏋️♂️ Pain as a Pathway to Pleasure
The final paragraph discusses the counterintuitive idea that embracing pain can lead to greater pleasure. It explains how the body's homeostatic mechanisms can shift the hedonic set point towards pleasure when exposed to pain intermittently. Historical experiments with dogs and the transformative effect of exercise on neurotransmitters are cited as examples of how pain can be a precursor to pleasure. The paragraph concludes with a call to action for viewers to immerse themselves in life's challenges rather than seeking escape, suggesting that this approach can lead to a more fulfilling and balanced existence.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Dopamine
💡Balance
💡Hedonic Set Point
💡Anxiety Disorder
💡Depression
💡Dopamine Fasting
💡Self-Binding
💡Pleasure-Pain Balance
💡Homeostasis
💡Pain as a Pathway to Pleasure
💡Behavioral Risk Factors
Highlights
The World Happiness Report indicates a decline in happiness in the United States and similar wealthy countries.
Researchers found higher rates of generalized anxiety disorder in wealthier countries.
Depression cases have increased globally, with the highest increases in regions with higher sociodemographic index.
The paradox of unhappiness despite unprecedented wealth, freedom, and technological progress is discussed.
Pleasure and pain are co-located in the brain, and they work like a balance.
The brain strives to maintain a level of balance or homeostasis after experiencing pleasure or pain.
Dopamine release in response to pleasure can lead to a downregulation of dopamine receptors, causing a need for more stimulation.
Continuous exposure to pleasurable stimuli can result in a shift in the hedonic set point, leading to addiction.
The modern world provides abundant access to highly reinforcing drugs and behaviors, contributing to mental health issues.
Depression, anxiety, and physical pain rates are increasing, especially in rich nations.
Dopamine fasting is introduced as a method to reset the brain's dopamine levels and restore balance.
Self-binding techniques are suggested to manage dopamine release and prevent overconsumption.
Pain can be a pathway to pleasure by triggering the body's homeostatic mechanisms.
Exercise is highlighted as a healthy way to increase neurotransmitters involved in positive mood regulation.
The importance of finding the middle way between pain and pleasure is emphasized.
The speaker encourages embracing life's challenges and seeking balance rather than escape.
Maintaining balance requires patience and ongoing effort, with benefits revealed over time.
Transcripts
hi i'm Dr. Anna Lembke welcome to a special episode of After Skool today we're going to be
talking about dopamine and how to find balance in the age of indulgence so without further
ado let's dive in according to the world happiness report which ranks 156 countries
by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be people living in the united states reported
being less happy in 2018 than they were in 2008. other countries with similar measures of wealth
social support and life expectancy saw similar decreases in self-reported
happiness scores including belgium canada denmark france japan new zealand and italy
researchers interviewed nearly 150 000 people in 26 countries to determine the prevalence of
generalized anxiety disorder defined as excessive and uncontrollable worry that adversely affected
their lives they found that the richer countries had higher rates of anxiety than the poorer ones
the authors wrote the disorder is significantly more prevalent and impairing
in high income countries than low to middle income countries the number of new cases of
depression worldwide increased 50 percent between 1990 and 2017. the highest increases
in new cases were seen in regions with higher sociodemographic index especially in north america
the question is why in a time of unprecedented wealth freedom technological progress and medical
advancement do we appear to be unhappier than ever in this video i present five big ideas
that outline how an increase in access to pleasure causes the degradation of mental health and how to
find balance in an age of indulgence to understand the roots of this issue we must start in the brain
big idea number one the pleasure pain balance one of the most important discoveries in the field
of neuroscience in the past 100 years is that pleasure and pain are co-located by that i mean
the same parts of the brain that process pleasure also process pain and pleasure and pain work
like a balance when we feel pleasure the balance tips one way when we feel pain it tips the other
one of the overarching rules governing this balance is that it wants to stay
level after any deviation from neutrality our brains will work very hard to restore a level
balance or what neuroscientists call homeostasis for example i like to watch videos of american
idol when i watch my brain releases a little bit of the neurotransmitter dopamine in my brain's
reward pathway and my balance tips slightly to the side of pleasure but no sooner has that happened
then my brain adapts to the increased dopamine by down regulating my own dopamine receptors
and dopamine transmission i like to imagine this as little gremlins hopping on the pain
side of my balance to bring it level again not very scientific i know but here's the thing about
those gremlins they like it on the balance so they don't hop off once it's level they stay on
until it is tipped an equal and opposite amount to the side of pain this is the after effect the
hangover the come down or in my case that moment of wanting to watch just one more video if i wait
long enough the gremlins hop off the balance neutrality is restored and that feeling passes
but what if i don't wait what if instead i watch another video and another and another
pretty soon i'm no longer watching american idol videos i'm watching videos of people watching
videos alternating with memes of dr pimple popper if i keep doing this for hours a day days to weeks
weeks to month i end up with enough gremlins on the pain side of my balance to fill a whole room
they are camped out for the long haul tents and barbecues in tow
once that happens i've changed my hedonic set point now i need to keep watching videos not to
feel pleasure but just to feel normal as soon as i stop watching i experience the universal symptoms
of withdrawal from any addictive substance anxiety irritability insomnia dysphoria and
mental preoccupation with using otherwise known as craving this is the hallmark of the addicted brain
big idea number two dopamine overload this fine-tuned balance of ours has evolved over
millions of years to help us approach pleasure and avoid pain it's what's kept us alive in a world of
scarcity and ever-present danger but here's the problem we no longer live in that world we now
live in a world of overwhelming abundance the access quantity variety and potency of
highly reinforcing drugs and behaviors has never been greater including drugs that didn't exist
before texting tweeting gaming gambling sugar shopping vaping voyeuring the list is endless
online products with their flashing lights celebratory sounds laudatory likes bottomless
bowls and the promise of ever greater rewards just a finger click away are engineered to be
addictive the smartphone is the equivalent of the hypodermic syringe delivering digital dopamine for
a wired generation if you haven't met your drug of choice yet it's coming soon to a website near you
yet despite increased access to all these feel-good drugs or as i hypothesize because
of it we're more miserable than ever rates of depression anxiety physical pain and suicide
are increasing all over the world especially in rich nations our compulsive over consumption has
led not just to increase psychological suffering we are literally consuming ourselves to death
seventy percent of world global deaths are attributable to diseases caused by modifiable
behavioral risk factors like smoking physical inactivity and diet the leading global risks
for mortality are high blood pressure tobacco use high blood sugar physical inactivity and obesity
in 2013 an estimated 2.1 billion adults were overweight compared with 857 million in 1980.
there are now more people worldwide who are obese and who are underweight except in parts
of sub-saharan africa and asia the poor and under-educated especially those living in
rich nations are most susceptible to the problem of compulsive over consumption
they have easy access to high reward high potency high novelty drugs at the same time
that they lack access to meaningful work safe housing quality education affordable health care
and race and class equity before the law this creates a dangerous nexus of addiction risk
over the course of my 20-year career i have seen more and more patients including otherwise healthy
young people with loving families elite education and relative wealth presenting with depression
anxiety and or full body pain in the absence of any identifiable disease or tissue injury
big idea number three dopamine fasting a patient of mine a bright and thoughtful
young man in his early twenties came to see me for debilitating anxiety and depression
dropped out of college he was living with his parents and vaguely contemplating suicide
he was also playing video games most of every day and late into every night twenty years ago the
first thing i would have done for a patient like this was prescribe an antidepressant
today i recommended something altogether different a dopamine fast i suggested he abstain from all
screens including video games for one month what he said why would i do that playing video games
is the only thing that gives me any relief well i said let me explain my patient came back a month
after having abstained from all screens reporting feeling better than he had in years less anxiety
less depression why because when he stopped bombarding his reward pathway with dopamine
he gave his brain the opportunity to restore baseline levels of dopamine firing in other
words a level balance he was more surprised than anyone that he felt better it's hard to see cause
and effect when we're chasing dopamine it's only after we've taken a break from our drug of choice
that we're able to see the true impact of our consumption on our lives and the people around
us big idea number four self binding my patient was able to return to playing video games without
getting depressed or anxious by keeping the gremlins in mind first he restricted his video
game playing time to no more than two days per week no more than two hours a day that way he left
enough time in between for the gremlins to hop off and for balance to be restored he avoided video
games that were too potent the ones that once he started he couldn't stop and that way he avoided
accumulating more gremlins on his balance at once than he could handle he designated one laptop for
gaming and a different one for schoolwork to keep gaming and classwork physically separated
finally he committed to playing only with friends never with strangers so that gaming strengthened
his social connections human connection itself is a potent and adaptive source of dopamine
for myself i took my patients lead i still watch american idol videos but i try to keep it to no
more than two days a week no more than two hours a day and preferably with friends and family
i avoid dr pimple popper all together how about you what's your drug of choice the thing that
once you start you have trouble stopping or the thing that makes you feel good in the moment
but worse afterward consider the smartphone itself as a possible culprit whatever your
drug of choice i challenge you to give it up for a month or a week or even a single day
when you do notice how at first your pleasure pain balance tilts to the side of pain and you
feel restless cranky and most of all preoccupied with using your drug your brain screaming out all
the reasons why you should use even though you committed to a period of abstinence
but if you wait long enough and the gremlins hop off and balance is restored you'll find you're
free your mind is less preoccupied with using you're more able to be present in the moment
and life's little unexpected joys are rewarding again if and when you decide to go back to using
remember to create literal and metacognitive barriers between yourself and your drug of choice
so you don't go to war with your gremlins bottom line to reset your dopamine brain first abstain
big idea number five pain as a pathway to pleasure pressing on the pain side of the
balance can lead to its opposite pleasure unlike pressing on the pleasure side
the dopamine that comes from pain is indirect and potentially more enduring so how does it work
pain leads to pleasure by triggering the body's own regulating homeostatic mechanisms
the pleasure we feel is our body's natural and reflexive psychological response to pain
with intermittent exposure to pain our natural hedonic set point gets weighted
to the side of pleasure such that we become less vulnerable to pain and more able to feel pleasure
over time just as pain is the price to pay for pleasure so too is pleasure the reward for pain
in the late 1960s scientists conducted a series of experiments on dogs that due to the experiment's
obvious cruelty would not be allowed today but nonetheless provide important information on
brain homeostasis or leveling the balance after connecting the dog's hind paws to an electrical
current the researchers observed the dog appeared to be terrified during the first few shocks
it screeched and thrashed about its pupil was dilated and its eyes bulged its hair stood on
end its ears lay back its tail curled between its legs explosive defecation and urination
along with many other symptoms of intense autonomic nervous system activity were seen
after the first shock when the dog was freed from the harness it moved slowly about the room
appeared to be stealthy hesitant and unfriendly over subsequent electrical shocks its behavior
gradually changed during shocks the signs of terror disappeared instead the dog appeared
pained annoyed or anxious but not terrified for example it wind rather than shrieked
and showed no further urination defecation or struggling then when released suddenly at the
end of the session the dog rushed about jumped up on people wagged its tails in what scientists
at the time called a fit of joy with repeated exposure to a painful stimulus the dog's mood and
heart rate adapted in kind the initial response pain got shorter and weaker the after response
pleasure got longer and stronger pain morphed into hypervigilance morphed into a fit of joy
now i'm not recommending you shock yourself to get high the dog experiment
is merely an example to illustrate the indirect outcome of painful stimulation
there are however many healthy examples to pursue pain a 10-minute ice cold water bath
fasting exercise breathing techniques yoga martial arts sensory deprivation or any effortful activity
let's for example look at exercise exercise increases many of the neurotransmitters involved
in positive mood regulation dopamine serotonin norepinephrine epinephrine endocannabinoids and
endogenous opioid peptides or endorphins exercise contributes to the birth of new neurons and
supporting glial cells exercise even reduces the likelihood of using and getting addicted to drugs
exercise has more profound and sustained positive effects on mood anxiety cognition energy and sleep
than any pill i can prescribe but pursuing pain is harder than pursuing pleasure it goes
against our innate reflex to avoid pain and pursue pleasure it adds to our cognitive load we have to
remember that we feel pleasure after pain pursuing pain instead of pleasure is also counter-cultural
going against all the feel-good messages that pervade so many aspects of modern life
buddha taught finding the middle way between pain and pleasure but even the middle way has become
adulterated by the tyranny of convenience hence we must seek pain out and invite it into our lives
we all desire a respite from the world a break from the impossible standards we set
for ourselves and others it's natural that we would seek a reprieve from our relentless
ruminations why did i do that why can't i do this look what they did to me how can i do that to them
so we're drawn to any of the pleasurable forms of escape that are now available to us
trendy cocktails the echo chamber of social media potato chips fast food porn immersive video games
the list really is endless addictive drugs and behaviors provide that respite but add to our
problems in the long run what if instead of seeking oblivion by escaping from the world
we turn toward it what if instead of leaving the world behind we immerse ourselves in it
i urge you to find a way to immerse yourself fully in the life you've been given to stop
running from whatever you're trying to escape and instead stop and turn and face whatever it is
then i dare you to walk toward it in this way the world may reveal
itself to you as something magical and awe-inspiring that does not require escape
instead the world may become something worth paying attention to
the rewards of finding and maintaining balance are neither immediate nor permanent they require
patience and maintenance we must be willing to move forward despite being uncertain of what
lies ahead we must have faith that actions today that seem to have no impact in the present moment
are in fact accumulating in a positive direction which will be revealed to us only at some
unknown time in the future healthy practices happen day by day may you find the balance
thanks for watching this episode of after skool i really hope that these animations
help you in your daily life balancing dopamine and living a flourishing life thanks for watching
you
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