Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

One thing I'd argue as a starting point is there is no "theory" or a "model" of addiction as a disease. The arguments associated with that claim are actually not that cohesive. A common position associated with addiction as a disease is that it is an essential category, which is an idea we can get our arms around a bit better and which I discuss ab... See more

Addiction is in all of us. This argument has come to matter a great deal to me. The reason I care about it is that when I truly felt this notion in my bones, reading accounts of addiction and recovery from across history, it was profoundly reassuring and comforting. As I write at more length in the book, I developed a sense of fellowship with all t... See more

As destructive as these patterns are, they are very hard to change. The moment we deny ourselves some gratification, we feel deprived. Part X appeals to our selfishness, telling us we should never have to feel deprived. The only way to fight this is to have an equally selfish reason not to give in to our impulses. In other words, we need to find a

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When you sit down with a book, you understand the parameters of engagement. You know how long the book is. The book isn’t changing as you read it. It’s a solid, immutable thing. You and the book are on equal terms in many ways, as least from a physics point of view. You know what’s going to happen, and the book abides by its implicit contract, whic... See more