The Path to Enough
This week, we bring you the second part of our conversation on the perils of too much pleasure. Psychiatrist Anna Lembke explains the neuroscience behind compulsive consumption, and how it alters our brains. She also shares techniques she’s learned from her patients to overcome the lure of addictive substances and behaviors.
- Duration
- 57m
- Broadcast on
- 17 Jul 2023
- Audio Format
- other
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This week, we bring you the second part of our conversation on the perils of too much pleasure. Psychiatrist Anna Lembke explains the neuroscience behind compulsive consumption, and how it alters our brains. She also shares techniques she’s learned from her patients to overcome the lure of addictive substances and behaviors.
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This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedanta. It seems like the simplest choice in the world. Given the option between pain and pleasure, we ought to choose pleasure. Is it better to be hungry or full, better to be tired or alert, better to watch another episode of our favorite TV show or do the dishes? It isn't just our own minds that tell us to choose the path of enjoyment and indulgence. Our friends remind us that life is short, say no to dessert or another round of drinks, and someone might call you a spoil sport. At Stanford University, psychiatrist Anna Lemke has heard the same messages. But as a scientist, she's also studied the way our brains balance pain and pleasure. The two sit on opposite ends of a neural seesaw, and the brain constantly attempts to bring them into equilibrium or what is known as homeostasis. When we press down hard and often on the pleasure side of the seesaw, triggering bursts of the neurotransmitter dopamine, Anna says the brain automatically compensates by pressing down on the other side, producing a dopamine deficit. Over time, as people press down too much or too often on the pleasure side of the equation, the brain compensates so forcefully that we start to walk around with a chronic dopamine deficit. This can manifest as anxiety, irritability, and depression. There is complex neurochemistry behind the process of homeostasis, but Anna has come up with a simple way to visualize this. When you press down on one side of the seesaw, imagine a bunch of gremlins inside your head, jumping on the other side of the seesaw. We explored how this mechanism works and why it exists in our previous episode. If you missed it, I strongly suggest you listen to it first. Today, we continue with the second part of our story about the paradoxical effects of pleasure, and we ask what it means to live a life of balance and harmony. How to work with the brain rather than against it? This week on Hidden Brain. Support for Hidden Brain comes from Air France. Air France business cabin offers comfort throughout the journey with priority check-in, boarding, and lounge access. On board, enjoy menus from renowned French chefs, wines, and champagne selected by Assamelier, and free high-speed Wi-Fi. When it's time to rest,
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This week, we bring you the second part of our conversation on the perils of too much pleasure. Psychiatrist Anna Lembke explains the neuroscience behind compulsive consumption, and how it alters our brains. She also shares techniques she’s learned from her patients to overcome the lure of addictive substances and behaviors.