Finished reading: Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke

Compulsive overconsumption. That’s the phrase. That’s what we do with almost everything now, including digital drugs like youtube and “social media.”

Dopamine is used as a scientific currency to measure the addictive potential of experiences.

The companies that benefit from our addictions exploit our brain chemistry. ”Dopamine Economy” and “Limbic capitalism.”

The way to find balance again is to abstain or at least self-bind, so homeostasis of our pain-pleasure equilibrium resets.

Hedonic set point. Strangely, hedonism leads to anhedonia. Even frequent exposure to “natural highs” is related to anhedonia. Hamster wheels are addictive (pump tracks are a drug).

Binding ourselves is a way to be free.

“Compulsive overconsumption of high dopamine goods is the antithesis of human attachment. Consuming leads to isolation and indifference.”

Interesting stuff at the end of the book about “club goods,” which are the rewards of belonging to a group with strict rules that reinforce “pro social shame.”