A review by ranabanana
Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence by Anna Lembke

informative medium-paced

3.0

Listened to this on audiobook. Overall, not perfect but still an enlightening read particularly in the high dopamine world we currently live in, especially for anyone who is an active user of social media platforms. Please do check content warnings as this does offer some intense/ shocking case studies on various addictions - maybe a bit too much and some case studies felt a bit like it was added to shock the reader more than anything. Also the one on the ice bathes/cold plunges may have been a bit of a reach but I kind of see what point she was getting at, potentially a different example could have been better to make the same point. Otherwise, some of the other case studies from the author’s own career were useful which made the book feel engaging. Despite the negative reviews, I personally didn’t really feel like the author was taking any sort of moralistic stance on things but that was just my impression, I actually thought it was quite balanced which I remember appreciating while listening to the audiobook as it did try and show different perspectives through the case studies, including sharing her own experiences, which then made the book feel unbiased to me at least as I didn’t think I was being pushed to think one way or the other but presented both sides to make my own mind up. For example - where she mentions use of drugs/ medication to help with mental health conditions, and pros/cons for such medications (and case studies where it has helped people and where it has not, as it can be very dependant on the individual). Helpful for me because I am someone where medication definitely didn’t work for me on a long-term basis from personal experience in the past but do appreciate that it can be helpful for others. 

I definitely do want to learn/ read more around this and this was a decent starting point!
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