Understanding & Treating Addiction | Dr. Anna Lembke

About this video

Dr. Anna Lembke, a psychiatrist and chief of the Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic at Stanford and author of Dopamine Nation, explains addiction across drugs, alcohol, and behaviors such as gambling and sex addiction. Huberman introduces her view that diverse addictions share a common biological underpinning and a common path to treatment and recovery. In the slices, Huberman presses on relapse, describing people who get sober, do well, and then relapse repeatedly, and asking what really helps and whether some cases are hopeless. Dr. Lembke answers that some people will die of their disease of addiction, and that conceptualizing addiction as a brain disease is a helpful frame given, she argues, the brain changes from sustained heavy drug use. She describes a dopamine deficit state in which the pleasure-pain balance stays tipped toward pain, and explains that for some people, even after months or years, that balance has lost its resilience and ability to restore homeostasis.

Key takeaways

• Dr. Lembke argues that diverse addictions share a common biological underpinning.
• Dr. Lembke describes framing addiction as a brain disease as helpful for sustaining compassion around relapse.
• Dr. Lembke explains relapse in terms of a pleasure-pain balance that remains tipped toward pain.
• Dr. Lembke says some people’s balance loses resilience even after long periods of recovery.
• Huberman highlights Dr. Lembke’s book Dopamine Nation on finding balance in an age of indulgence.

Episode details: published August 16, 2021 · 3M views · 2:02:32 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. The science and protocols described are Andrew Huberman’s, presented for education — not medical advice. Consult a qualified professional before changing your own health practices.

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