도파민네이션 Dopamine Nation ドーパミン中毒 by Anna Lembke

" スタンフォード大学の医学部教授で依存症医学の第一人者である著者が、現代社会に蔓延する「ドーパミン中毒」に警鐘乱打し、対策を説く本。「現代人必読」という版元のつけた惹句が大げさに思えない内容だ。原題の“Dopamine Nation”のほうがよい。『ドーパミン中毒』という邦題だと、「アルコール中毒」のような「ごく一部の人だけの問題」に思えてしまう。著者が言うのは「ドーパミンがドバッと出る快感がたやすく得られる現代の“刺激過多社会”は、みんなを不幸にする」という話で、万人の問題なのである。本書は、ドーパミンや依存症についての解説書にとどまらない。快楽と苦痛のトレードオフ的関係を深く掘り下げた書であり、科学の目をフィルターにした幸福論でもある。苦痛や不安から目をそらすためにドーパミンの出る刹那的刺激に頼ると、我々はその分だけ幸福から遠ざかっていくのだ...." "...... I was one week in trying to overcome my mild addiction to my phone. This book has helped me understand how my addiction to my phone works and how it contributes to my depressing mood in the morning. Drawing on abundant empirical evidence from addiction studies, as well as real cases, it explains our brain’s reward pathway and the paradoxical effects of medications on our wellbeings. The author also raises her questions and concerns over the US medical system and psychiatry, which demonstrates the author's insights on how individuals' wellbeings are inseparable from institutions. Overall, this is really a life-changing book for me ....."

중독에 관한 글이다 재밌게 읽었다. 아래는 본문에서 발췌한 글들이다. 낯설고 발음하기에 힘든 의약품들의 명칭 빼고는 전체적으로 무난한 문장과 표현들로 쓰인 책이다. 다만 이 책도 초반에 중요한 단어들의 의미를 확인하고 시작하는 게 좋다. 특히 반복되는 용어들은 초반에 개념을 잡는 게 좋다. 검색을 하면 좋은 설명들이 많다. 

"Addiction broadly defined is the continued and compulsive consumption of a substance or behavior (gambling, gaming, sex) despite its harm to self and/or others."

"I urge you to find a way to immerse yourself fully in the life that you've been given. To stop running from whatever you're trying to escape, and instead to stop, and run, and face whatever it is ....... We must be willing to move forward despite being uncertain of what lies ahead. We must have faith that actions today that seem to have no impacts in the present moment are in fact accumulating in a positive direction, which will be revealed to us only at some unknown time in the future. Healthy practices happen day by day."

"Sometimes as parents we think that by hiding our mistakes and perfections and only revealing our best selves, we'll teach our children what is right, But this can have the opposite effect, leading children to feel they must be perfect to be lovable ...."

"The psychological literature today identifies shame as an emotion distinct from guilty ..... Shame makes us feel bad about ourselves as people, whereas guilt makes us feel bad about our actions while preserving a positive sense of self. Shame is a maladaptive emotion. Guilt is an adaptive emotion....."

" ... the way we tell our personal stories is a marker and predictor of mental health."

"Scientists have shown that stress alone can increase the release of dopamine in the brain's reward pathway, leading to the same brain changes seen with addictive drugs like cocaine and ...."

"As the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously said ....What doesn't kill me makes me stronger ....." 

"A key to well-being is for us to get off the couch and move our real bodies, not our virtual ones .... just walking in your neighbourhood for thirty minutes a day can make a difference ...."

"Just as pain is the price we pay for pleasure, so too is pleasure our reward for pain."

"Compelling new evidence indicates that ADHD drug treatment is associated with deterioration in academic and social emotional fuctioning."

"Binding ourselves is a way to be free."

"... those who grow up in resource-poor environments and are primed with mortality cues are more likely to value immediate rewards over delayed rewards compared to those who are  similarly primed and grow up in resouces-rich environments...."

"it turns out that willpower is not an infinite human resouce. It's more like exercising a muscle, and it can get tired the more we use it."

"Mindfulness is simply the ability to observe what our brain is doing while it's doing it, without judgement ....it demands that we see our thoughts and emotions as separate from us and yet, simultaneously, a part of us...."

"The world is sensory rich and causal poor ....."

"The question is : Why, in a time of unprecedented wealth, freedom, technological progress, and medical advancement, do we appear to be unhappier in more pain than ever? The reason we're all so miserable may be because we're working so hard to avoid being miserable."

"Boredom is not just boring. It can also be terrifying. It forces us to come face-to-face with bigger questions of meaning and purpose. But boredom is also an opportunity for discovery and invention. It creates the spaces necessary for a new thought to form, without which we're endlessly reacting to stimuli around us, rather than allowing ourselves to be within our lived experience."

" .... Neil Postman, the author of the 1980s classic Amusing ourselves to death, wrote, Americans no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other, they exchange images. They do not agree with propositions; they argue woth good looks, celebrities, and commercials ....