Dr. Anna Lembke discusses the impact of dopamine on mental health and happiness in the modern age of abundance. She explains that despite increased wealth and technological advancements, happiness levels have decreased. Lembke presents five key ideas: the pleasure-pain balance, dopamine overload, dopamine fasting, self-binding strategies to manage dopamine intake, and pursuing pain as a pathway to pleasure. She emphasizes the importance of finding balance and engaging in healthy practices to maintain mental well-being.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. The World Happiness Report ranks 156 countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be.
2. In 2018, people living in the United States reported being less happy than they were in 2008.
3. Similar decreases in self-reported happiness scores were seen in countries with similar measures of wealth, social support, and life expectancy, including Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, New Zealand, and Italy.
4. Researchers interviewed nearly 150,000 people in 26 countries to determine the prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder.
5. The disorder was found to be more prevalent and impairing in high-income countries than in low- to middle-income countries.
6. The number of new cases of depression worldwide increased by 50% between 1990 and 2017.
7. The highest increases in new cases of depression were seen in regions with higher sociodemographic indexes, especially in North America.
8. Seventy percent of global deaths are attributable to diseases caused by modifiable behavioral risk factors like smoking, physical inactivity, and diet.
9. The leading global risks for mortality are high blood pressure, tobacco use, high blood sugar, physical inactivity, and obesity.
10. In 2013, an estimated 2.1 billion adults were overweight, compared with 857 million in 1980.
11. There are now more people worldwide who are obese than underweight, except in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
12. The poor and under-educated, especially those living in rich nations, are most susceptible to the problem of compulsive overconsumption.
13. Exercise has been shown to increase many of the neurotransmitters involved in positive mood regulation, including dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, epinephrine, endocannabinoids, and endogenous opioid peptides or endorphins.
14. Exercise contributes to the birth of new neurons and supporting glial cells.
15. Exercise reduces the likelihood of using and getting addicted to drugs.
16. Exercise has more profound and sustained positive effects on mood, anxiety, cognition, energy, and sleep than any pill.