Overcome Addictions & Obsessions of All Kinds | Dr. Anna Lembke
Dr. Anna Lembke, MD, is chief of the Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic at Stanford and a leading expert in how to overcome addictions of all kinds. We discuss dopamine dynamics in the brain and how they impact risk-taking, mental obsession, and compulsive behaviors. We also discuss the most common addiction of all—people’s addiction to control—and how prayer and spiritual practices can open up new neural pathways and help end unhealthy thought patterns and behaviors, including codependence.
Books
- Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence
- Radical Surrender: Letting Go in a World Addicted to Control
Articles
- The antidepressant fluoxetine restores plasticity in the adult visual cortex (Science)
- Drugs abused by humans preferentially increase synaptic dopamine concentrations in the mesolimbic system of freely moving rats (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
- Stress reinstates cocaine-seeking behavior after prolonged extinction and a drug-free period (Psychopharmacology)
- When fear is near: threat imminence elicits prefrontal-periaqueductal gray shifts in humans (Science)
- A Neural Circuit for Spirituality and Religiosity Derived From Patients With Brain Lesions (Biological Psychiatry)
- Trends in hallucinogen-associated emergency department visits and hospitalizations in California, USA, from 2016 to 2022 (Addiction)
- The Montreal model: an integrative biomedical-psychedelic approach to ketamine for severe treatment-resistant depression (Frontiers in Psychiatry)
Resources
Huberman Lab Episodes Mentioned
- What Humans, Animals & Plants Tell Us About Consciousness | Michael Pollan
- How Your Immune System Works & How to Improve It | Dr. Max Krummel
- Robert Greene: A Process for Finding & Achieving Your Unique Purpose
- Science & Health Benefits of Belief in God & Religion | Dr. David DeSteno
- Unlocking Persistent Motivation & Extreme Resilience | Ross Edgley
People Mentioned
- Cory Doctorow: technology activist, journalist, ‘enshittification’ concept
- Lamberto Maffei: Professor Emeritus of Neurobiology, Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa
- Kent Dunnington: Professor of Philosophy, Biola University
- Sigmund Freud: neurologist; founder of psychoanalysis
- William James: philosopher and psychologist, Harvard University
- Robert Malenka: Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University
- David DeSteno: Professor of Psychology and Moral Development, Northeastern University
- Pia Mellody: author, codependency therapist
- Karl Deisseroth: Professor of Bioengineering and Psychiatry, Stanford University
- Paul Stamets: mycologist, author, founder of Fungi Perfecti
- Donald Winnicott: pediatrician, psychoanalyst; good-enough mother concept
- Mother Teresa: Catholic nun, humanitarian
- Nicolas Garel: addiction psychiatrist, researcher at CHUM
This transcript is currently under human review and may contain errors. The fully reviewed version will be posted as soon as it is available.
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