《Dopamine Nation》多巴胺之国：快乐的悖论

Heard about this book from two episodes from podcast Hidden Brain - The path to Enough and The paradox of Pleasure. The book is basically an extension of the content that Dr. Anna Lembke talked through these two episodes.

If we imagine there is a seesaw in our brain, the more we press on the pleasure side, the more the brain will try to press on the pain side in order to regain the homeostasis. So the source of our unhappiness, in fact, is our relentless pursuit of pleasure. We are living in a dopamine overloaded world and it is really easy for us to be tempted into substances or anything that would give us a dopamine rush, and we are easily to get addicted to this good feeling which results in us getting addicted to the substances, and then getting depressed. The idea that trying on things that would cause us pain (manageable) actually can cure the pain is really interesting and intriguing. By doing things that generally make us feel psychologically uncomfortable actually can give us pleasure in a later time, such as doing morning exercise, delaying gratification, etc. Ive always been fascinated by books, topics related to how our brain/minds work but dont like those ones that lead to a self-help conclusion/solution.

There are certain lines in this book that sound like self-help which I detest, but in general it is an inspiring book in the sense that I do find sort of answers as to why people now feel more depressed and unhappier than our predecessors do even we are seemingly living a better life.