Dr. Anna Lembke: Understanding & Treating Addiction

Great conversation but two things. Please stop saying circuit. Also, making amends is the 9th step not the 4th and it's not about "making apologies."

Andrew Huberman is running blind here at times, and on point at others. You relapse when you succeed because a big success is Terrifying and unhinges you. You talk about AA or NA nonstop because that's how you stay out of the ditch, Mr. Huberman. You become addicted because it feels like love when no one loves you. You get better when you find a strong sense of community, such as AA, church, multiple sports groupings, etc.. When you belong, you no longer need substances, because life and love are coming back into you. (These are my personal experiences).

This one hit close to home. I can relate to everything they are discussing.

Here's a follow-up question. My husband and I are trying to break a significant sugar addiction (after watching one of your videos about processed foods). I've also added a cold shower daily. Should I be doing activities like the cold shower (or anything else that gives a big hit of dopamine) during the next 30 days while we reset our dopamine balance? Or am I just switching one dopamine source for another? Also, thank you for an incredible podcast overall. Understanding the science behind health is very important for someone who wants to know the why behind what I'm doing.

I have a friend who writing a book on addictions and how we can switch the focus of am area of negative addiction to one of a positive- hard to fully explain

Well 1st of all nobody can help you get over an addiction. You have to want it bad enough and fight it on your own. All these people do is give their opinion which is worthless. Trust me I've fought my own. After failure upon failure from people such as this. Save your money and time

They are both incredible..what an inspiring conversation.

I would also like to add being in recovery I have been watching since your first episode of the podcast, right after my mother passed in 2020. I had 6 months of dry time last year now I’m a month and a half sober 2nd longest time since I was 8 years old. Thanks Andrew and anna !!!

Great episode! Dopamine Nation is a fantastic book.

AA is a cult .. very damaging to very many people. To label one self an addict strips them of their personal responsibility.

Eikummaa meinasin jo asken et nukun hetken

I was watching while eating brocoli and thinking it was amazing 😅

I could remember several years ago, Cocaine addiction actually destroyed my life. I suffered severe depression and mental disorder. Not until my mom recommended me to psilocybin mushrooms treatment. Psilocybin treatment saved my life honestly 8 years totally clean. Never thought I would be saying this about mushrooms.

🖤🖤🖤

It’s not scary doing everything you need to do and having true boredom is gratifying and time for ACTUAL relaxation. “Boredom” for addicts is avoiding the tasks then creating anxiety from the stress of not completing what we kno we need to do. Great conversation I learned a lot.

Could sexual interaction as an infant increase dopamine if pain was not present? Stories in my history suggest that i was exposed to sexual contact without pain. I believe this is why i was making myself have orgasms ever since my first memories. This was extreme. 5 times a day. Now i can also identify many behaviors that were very obsessive. Could my dopamine base be too ingrained to change. All day long i seek some kind of dopamine release.

Having a problem with substances for over 20 years now I can fully relate to what is being discussed. The joining of the joy and pain receptors in the brain and gaining a natural bass line of dopamine, seratonon and indorfins is definitely one of the hardest thing to do in recovery. I literally have to undo and replace the reward from substance with a reward that is healthy like exercise. I keep in mind that what dopamine I do have needs to be reliesed sparingly and that the natural reward take time and are not instant. Yet if I work towards the reward of being sober and healthy and gaining healthy relationships, the reward and dopamine reliese will be gradual and longer lasting. I do think in my own experience that with is the amount of time it takes for the brain to start plasisity and reset. In my experience it takes 30 days to start stabilizig and for reality to set in. Thank you for this amazing information.

Can you please let her speak without interrupting her . Such a shame Dr .Andrew

11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.
12 Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God.

This is from the Book of Mormon and it's come into my mind several times while watching this one and the interview you did with Tom Bilyieu.

You can't get PHYSICALLY addicted to psychedelics. Obviously you can get psychologically addicted.

Wow I am just so speechless by this interview, I have many useful tips in overcoming some of my addictions.

I know addicts who are addicted to the NA or AA community. They can't step outside of that community without relapsing, but that's a good thing. For me personally, I don't I don't want that. For me, leaving drug using friends behind not engaging with them at all has worked for me. They don't even recognise me on the street. It's as though I've created a reality in which they don't know me. Also, not lying, because I'm only lying to myself. Unconditional love I send to all still living in the darkness.
Peace joy and love to all ✌️ ❤

Wow

I switched to crack light…less calories and easier to manage

these talks are useless.... 30 days cold turkey... yeah brilliant idea.

Meditation is being focused on yourself. You should be focused on Jesus. He delivers His children.

go to the institute and tell the truth
it takes courage

Can I reduce the startle? I assume you'll recommend meditation.

32 years with insane drug addiction. I doubt I'll ever stop. But i love reading the comments of people that you've helped. Makes me fantasize for a minute and I pretend I'm one of you that beat addiction

Asaan ang more sa mor

Yout talking about cure
But putting more toxinssss magaling magaling

Kawawa tao
Kawawa kayo
Kawawa kayo


Kawawa ako
Kc ako lang
Pag kayo mas kawawa kc nakikidefine

i am so deeply and incredibly grateful for everything i learn from your podcasts! you remain unbiased, rooted in research and most importantly, you're committed to sharing this knowledge with everyone. the cherry on top is that your love for coffee constantly comes through (you often use coffee as an example) and it always prompts me to make my morning espresso.

I am suffering with opioid addiction. I am so tired of this addiction and how it’s destroyed my bank account. It’s so hard to stop because of the withdrawl and the loneliness I feel.

Reminder that Anna Lembke has literally no qualifications in neuroscience research whatsoever. She's a B.A. in humanities and an M.D. with no research component. Her 'expertise' is entirely self proclaimed, her model of working was proclaimed by the research community to be 'scientifically useless' and often runs entirely counter to the evidence. Even a cursory knowledge of history disproves her nonsense. She basically just makes shit up that sounds convincing and as a practicing therapist her book Dopamine Nation makes her sound like genuinely one of the worst and most out of touch therapists that I've ever heard of. Please read The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction is not a Disease by an actual Neuroscientist for a thorough dismantling of her con-artistry.

In this talk she endorses AA and the 12 steps, which is provably no better than no help whatsoever and is based on the theology of a very specific Christian cult, it's been widely proclaimed to be wrong on addiction and its recovery in every way shape and form by every competent researcher on the planet. She is not a competent or ethical scientist (or a scientist at all), she is not even a competent therapist, doctor or healer, she's a sham artist who barely understands what dopamine is or does.

I'm currently reading her book and it's great

Actually you should eat broccoli fresh out of a personal garden. Ive had broccoli that was literally sweet tasting. Like candy with vitamins 😂😂😂

i had unprotected sex and after that I've got serious anxiety problem whether i got hiv or not i got negative in test but it doesn't seem enough and i started taking drugs @anyone please help me

Absolutely beautiful episode

You never fully defeat addiction it will be with you forever

4444

Broccoli is amazing. Have always felt this way. Chef Ramsay has a broccoli soup made from three four ingredients and won a competition with it. Never understood why it has such a bad name.

joy, a sunshine gracing your skin, something transient you don't have to consume but experience, transient and calm.

pleasure feels, like something that's far more intense, causes arousal, like a rollercoaster.

please be aware that it can take much longer to feel better after quitting an addiction. From what I've read 60-120 days is not unheard of and also read a story about a guy that felt meh for 7 months after quitting his porn addiction of 30+ years.

hang in there guys! i quit porn 40 days ago and im not seeing the results i hoped for yet but no matter what it's a net negative for me and i will never watch it again :)

The lady has good strong working hands.

Great interview.

She's a true gem

I came here after typing Andrew Huberman and Dopamine Detox and couldn't find much. Or am I missing something?

Totally ignores' Dr Kenneth Blum's work on the DRD2 gene where 1/3 of us have 33% less dopamine receptors which causes cravings for more dopamine