Person
1 episodes · 20 quoted claims
Anna Lembke says dopamine is released when food is sensed even in primitive organisms such as the worm C. elegans.
“even in the most primitive organisms, dopamine is released when food is sensed in the environment. For example, c. elegans, a very, um, primitive worm.”
Anna Lembke says pleasure corresponds to dopamine rising above its steady baseline, while dropping below that baseline is experienced as a kind of pain.
“when we experience pleasure, our dopamine release goes above baseline, and likewise, dopamine can go below that tonic baseline, and then we experience a kind of pain.”
Anna Lembke says chronic exposure to substances or behaviors that repeatedly release large amounts of dopamine can lower a person's tonic dopamine baseline.
“substances or behaviors that repeatedly release large D amounts of dopamine in our brain's reward pathway, that we can change our tonic baseline and actually lower it.”
Anna Lembke says research on risk factors shows that more impulsive people are more vulnerable to addiction.
“people who are more impulsive are more vulnerable to addiction”
Anna Lembke says people without a high school education have more leisure time than people with a college degree, citing a figure of 42.
“people without a high school education have 42 more leisure time than people with a, um, a college degree.”
Anna Lembke says a major neuroscience finding of the past 75 years is that pleasure and pain are processed in the same parts of the brain.
“one of the most significant findings in neuroscience in the last 75 years is that pleasure and pain are co located, which means the same parts of the brain that process pleasure also process pain.”
Anna Lembke describes the brain's pleasure-pain balance as restoring homeostasis by tipping an equal and opposite amount after any stimulus.
“with any stimulus to one side, there will be a tip an equal and opposite amount to the other side.”
Anna Lembke says that after chronic heavy use the brain can settle into a dopamine deficit state comparable to clinical depression.
“I'm in a dopamine deficit state, which is akin to a clinical depression.”
Anna Lembke says severe addiction to one substance makes a person more vulnerable to addiction to any other substance, a phenomenon called cross addiction.
“once you've been addicted to a substance, severely addicted, that makes you more vulnerable to addiction to any substance.”
Anna Lembke says that in her clinical experience about 30 days is the average time for the brain's reward pathways to reset after stopping an addictive substance or behavior.
“30 days is, in my clinical experience, the average amount of of time it takes for the brain to reset reward pathways, for dopamine transmission to regenerate itself.”
Anna Lembke cites imaging studies showing brains remain in a dopamine deficit state two weeks after drug use.
“our brains are still in a dopamine deficit state two weeks, um, after we've been using our drug.”
Anna Lembke describes a study of depressed men with alcohol addiction who were hospitalized without alcohol or depression treatment, in which after four weeks most of them (she gives 80) no longer met criteria for major depression.
“after four weeks, 80 of them no longer met criteria for major depression.”
Anna Lembke tells patients attempting a 30-day break that they will usually feel worse for two weeks before improving in week three.
“you'll feel worse for two weeks. But if you can make it through those first two weeks, the sun will start to come out in week three.”
Anna Lembke says a trigger causes a small dopamine spike that is followed by a drop below baseline, which is experienced as craving.
“So it goes up and then it doesn't go back down to baseline, it goes below baseline tonic levels, and that's craving, right?”
Anna Lembke, citing Stanford researcher Rob Malenka's work, says oxytocin, the hormone involved in pair bonding, links directly to dopamine neurons and causes dopamine release.
“oxytocin, um, you know, is the hormone that's involved in human pair bonding and relationships and love. And it directly links to dopamine neurons and causes the release of dopamine.”
Anna Lembke describes a patient recovering from alcohol addiction who drank excessive water to become hyponatremic (dangerously low in blood sodium) and delirious in order to escape her own mind.
“she drank a lot of water. And slowly, over time, she realized that if she drank enough water, she could become hyponatremic and delirious”
Anna Lembke says research suggests that telling the truth may strengthen connections between the prefrontal cortex and the brain's limbic and reward circuits.
“when we tell the truth, we actually potentially strengthen our prefrontal cortical circuits and their connections to our limbic brain and our reward brain.”
Anna Lembke says clinical studies of psychedelic experiences for people addicted to alcohol have been small and short in duration.
“there are clinical studies showing, um, you know, and these are small studies and they're short duration, small number of subjects.”
Anna Lembke says social media is engineered like a drug, relying on potency, quantity, variety, bottomless feeds and enumerated likes.
“it's based on, you know, potency, quantity, variety. Um, the bottomless bowls, the likes, the way that it's enumerated”
Anna Lembke says she stays off social media because people and intimacy are her own drug and she could not moderate her use.
“I mean, that really would be my drug, people are my drug, intimacy is my drug”