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ThurberMingus  ·  250 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: March 6, 2024

The gist of the book is "dopamine is a reward signal, and anything that gives you dopamine can be addicting."

The advice is basically "just don't do it for 4 weeks. That will prove you're better off without it. Then keep not doing it forever". With a side comment about medically supervised withdrawal for some substances.

I started reading it because I noticed I reach for sweets or scroll social media when I feel crappy about anything, and it feels kinda obsessive and dopamine seeking. I was hoping there would some commentary on how to be normal when so many things online and in society are highly tailored to suck you in and give you a dopamine hit of cat pictures or righteous anger, and get you coming back. But there's really none of that.

I skimmed through "Allen Carr's Easy Way To Stop Smoking" and it's a 40 year old book on cigarettes but it has more useful information about scrolling twitter when you can't sleep than "Dopamine Nation" does