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

3.0

This was a good, fast read. There was a little bit of actionable material about managing one's own propensity to chase dopamine, but Lembke vacillated wildly between general psychiatrist and addiction medicine specialist. I get it that they overlap but many of her "lessons from addicts" came down you "you might be able to moderate." No, doc, I do not think that will do it. She eventually got around to talking about how genuine addicts, if returning to using their drug of choice after any length of time, will immediately resume quittin tolerance and get worse. But too little, too late.

Four stars for meaning well, minus one star for treating addiction too lightly, minus another half-star for trying to make a point about the film Serenity and its plot device, the drug "Pax" and just generally messing up every single pertinent detail except the part where it made people lie down and die.