Dopamine Nation

Dopamine Nation
Author: Dr. Anna Lembke
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2023-01-03
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1524746746

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES and LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER “Brilliant . . . riveting, scary, cogent, and cleverly argued.”—Beth Macy, author of Dopesick, as heard on Fresh Air This book is about pleasure. It’s also about pain. Most important, it’s about how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why now more than ever finding balance is essential. We’re living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting . . . The increased numbers, variety, and potency is staggering. The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation. As such we’ve all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption. In Dopamine Nation, Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and author, explores the exciting new scientific discoveries that explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain . . . and what to do about it. Condensing complex neuroscience into easy-to-understand metaphors, Lembke illustrates how finding contentment and connectedness means keeping dopamine in check. The lived experiences of her patients are the gripping fabric of her narrative. Their riveting stories of suffering and redemption give us all hope for managing our consumption and transforming our lives. In essence, Dopamine Nation shows that the secret to finding balance is combining the science of desire with the wisdom of recovery.

Unwinding Anxiety

Unwinding Anxiety
Author: Judson Brewer
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2021-03-09
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 0593330455

New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller A step-by-step plan clinically proven to break the cycle of worry and fear that drives anxiety and addictive habits We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember. Whether facing issues as public as a pandemic or as personal as having kids at home and fighting the urge to reach for the wine bottle every night, we are feeling overwhelmed and out of control. But in this timely book, Judson Brewer explains how to uproot anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques and small hacks accessible to anyone. We think of anxiety as everything from mild unease to full-blown panic. But it's also what drives the addictive behaviors and bad habits we use to cope (e.g. stress eating, procrastination, doom scrolling and social media). Plus, anxiety lives in a part of the brain that resists rational thought. So we get stuck in anxiety habit loops that we can't think our way out of or use willpower to overcome. Dr. Brewer teaches us to map our brains to discover our triggers, defuse them with the simple but powerful practice of curiosity, and to train our brains using mindfulness and other practices that his lab has proven can work. Distilling more than 20 years of research and hands-on work with thousands of patients, including Olympic athletes and coaches, and leaders in government and business, Dr. Brewer has created a clear, solution-oriented program that anyone can use to feel better - no matter how anxious they feel.

The Idea of the Brain

The Idea of the Brain
Author: Matthew Cobb
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 521
Release: 2020-04-21
Genre: Science
ISBN: 154164686X

An "elegant", "engrossing" (Carol Tavris, Wall Street Journal) examination of what we think we know about the brain and why -- despite technological advances -- the workings of our most essential organ remain a mystery. "I cannot recommend this book strongly enough."--Henry Marsh, author of Do No Harm For thousands of years, thinkers and scientists have tried to understand what the brain does. Yet, despite the astonishing discoveries of science, we still have only the vaguest idea of how the brain works. In The Idea of the Brain, scientist and historian Matthew Cobb traces how our conception of the brain has evolved over the centuries. Although it might seem to be a story of ever-increasing knowledge of biology, Cobb shows how our ideas about the brain have been shaped by each era's most significant technologies. Today we might think the brain is like a supercomputer. In the past, it has been compared to a telegraph, a telephone exchange, or some kind of hydraulic system. What will we think the brain is like tomorrow, when new technology arises? The result is an essential read for anyone interested in the complex processes that drive science and the forces that have shaped our marvelous brains.

The Spike

The Spike
Author: Mark Humphries
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2021-03-09
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0691213518

The story of a neural impulse and what it reveals about how our brains work We see the last cookie in the box and think, can I take that? We reach a hand out. In the 2.1 seconds that this impulse travels through our brain, billions of neurons communicate with one another, sending blips of voltage through our sensory and motor regions. Neuroscientists call these blips “spikes.” Spikes enable us to do everything: talk, eat, run, see, plan, and decide. In The Spike, Mark Humphries takes readers on the epic journey of a spike through a single, brief reaction. In vivid language, Humphries tells the story of what happens in our brain, what we know about spikes, and what we still have left to understand about them. Drawing on decades of research in neuroscience, Humphries explores how spikes are born, how they are transmitted, and how they lead us to action. He dives into previously unanswered mysteries: Why are most neurons silent? What causes neurons to fire spikes spontaneously, without input from other neurons or the outside world? Why do most spikes fail to reach any destination? Humphries presents a new vision of the brain, one where fundamental computations are carried out by spontaneous spikes that predict what will happen in the world, helping us to perceive, decide, and react quickly enough for our survival. Traversing neuroscience’s expansive terrain, The Spike follows a single electrical response to illuminate how our extraordinary brains work.

The End of Mental Illness

The End of Mental Illness
Author: Daniel G. Amen
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2020
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1496438159

New hope for those suffering from conditions like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, addictions, PTSD, ADHD and more. Though incidence of these conditions is skyrocketing, for the past four decades standard treatment hasn't much changed, and success rates in treating them have barely improved, either. Meanwhile, the stigma of the "mental illness" label--damaging and devastating on its own--can often prevent sufferers from getting the help they need. Brain specialist and bestselling author Dr. Daniel Amen is on the forefront of a new movement within medicine and related disciplines that aims to change all that. In The End of Mental Illness, Dr. Amen draws on the latest findings of neuroscience to challenge an outdated psychiatric paradigm and help readers take control and improve the health of their own brain, minimizing or reversing conditions that may be preventing them from living a full and emotionally healthy life. The End of Mental Illness will help you discover: Why labeling someone as having a "mental illness" is not only inaccurate but harmful Why standard treatment may not have helped you or a loved one--and why diagnosing and treating you based on your symptoms alone so often misses the true cause of those symptoms and results in poor outcomes At least 100 simple things you can do yourself to heal your brain and prevent or reverse the problems that are making you feel sad, mad, or bad How to identify your "brain type" and what you can do to optimize your particular type Where to find the kind of health provider who understands and uses the new paradigm of brain health

Moments of Disruption

Moments of Disruption
Author: Kris Sealey
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2013-12-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1438448651

Explores the ethical and political implications of Levinas’s and Sartre’s accounts of human existence. In Moments of Disruption, Kris Sealey considers Emmanuel Levinas and Jean-Paul Sartre together to fully realize the ethical and political implications of their similar descriptions of human existence. Focusing on points of contact and difference between their writings on transcendence, identity, existence, and alterity, Sealey presents not only an understanding of Sartrean politics in which Levinas’s somewhat apolitical program might be taken into the political, but also an explicitly political reading of Levinas that resonates well with Sartre’s work. In bringing together both thinkers accounts of disrupted existence in this way, a theoretical place is found from which to question the claim that politics and ethics are mutually exclusive.

This Naked Life

This Naked Life
Author: Annie Grace
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2020-07-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9780996715034

Thousands of people have forever regained control of their drinking through This Naked Mind. Now, they're telling their stories.This Naked Life offers forty-eight raw and real stories of people who have found freedom from alcohol. In these pages, discover how Bryan went from hopeless certainty that drinking would eventually kill him to absolute peace over the course of a single day.See how reading one book gave Jennifer total freedom after twenty years of binge drinking.Witness Becca thrive in ways she had never thought possible, all because she learned it was okay to question her relationship with alcohol before she hit rock bottom.Find out how Kari broke a family legacy of deadly alcohol abuse that stretched back generations.Alternately poignant and humorous, This Naked Life will surprise, challenge, and inspire you. These stories, written by relatable humans from all walks of life, pull no punches and prove that, no matter where you are in your journey with alcohol, you are not alone. Witness the power of transformed minds today in This Naked Life, the collection Annie Grace calls "the most important book I never wrote."From This Naked Life"I'm finally able to move forward into the future with confidence and poise, interacting with others on my own terms instead of through the haze of alcohol." -Nancy"It feels good to be alive-truly alive!" -Ryan"Past me-the me who drank-wouldn't recognize present me. But over those intervening years, I was able to design my lifestyle, to purposefully choose who I want to be without alcohol. . . . And in place of alcohol, I found a life I'm in love with that's only getting better. I love who I am today." -Mike J.

An Immense World

An Immense World
Author: Ed Yong
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 485
Release: 2022-06-21
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0593133242

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “thrilling” (The New York Times), “dazzling” (The Wall Street Journal) tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world that will fill you with wonder and forever alter your perspective, by Pulitzer Prize–winning science journalist Ed Yong “One of this year’s finest works of narrative nonfiction.”—Oprah Daily ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Time, People, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Slate, Reader’s Digest, Chicago Public Library, Outside, Publishers Weekly, BookPage ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Oprah Daily, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Economist, Smithsonian Magazine, Prospect (UK), Globe & Mail, Esquire, Mental Floss, Marginalian, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world. In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires, turtles that can track the Earth’s magnetic fields, fish that fill rivers with electrical messages, and even humans who wield sonar like bats. We discover that a crocodile’s scaly face is as sensitive as a lover’s fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, that plants thrum with the inaudible songs of courting bugs, and that even simple scallops have complex vision. We learn what bees see in flowers, what songbirds hear in their tunes, and what dogs smell on the street. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries that remain unsolved. Funny, rigorous, and suffused with the joy of discovery, An Immense World takes us on what Marcel Proust called “the only true voyage . . . not to visit strange lands, but to possess other eyes.” WINNER OF THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL • FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/E.O. WILSON AWARD

Scattered Minds

Scattered Minds
Author: Gabor Maté, MD
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2023-02-07
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0593714989

From renowned mental health expert and speaker Dr. Gabor Maté, Scattered Minds explodes the myth of attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD) as genetically based—and offers real hope and advice for children and adults who live with the condition. In this breakthrough guide to understanding, treating, and healing Attention Deficit Disorder, Dr. Gabor Maté, bestselling author of The Myth of Normal, and himself diagnosed with ADD: Demonstrates that the condition is not a genetic “illness” but a response to environmental stress Explains that in ADD, circuits in the brain whose job is emotional self-regulation and attention control fail to develop in infancy – and why Shows how ‘distractibility’ is the psychological product of life experience Allows parents to understand what makes their ADD children tick, and adults with ADD to gain insights into their emotions and behaviors Expresses optimism about neurological development even in adulthood Presents a program of how to promote this development in both children and adults Whereas other books on the subject describe the condition as inherited, Dr. Maté believes that our social and emotional environments play a key role in both the cause of and cure for this condition. In Scattered Minds, he describes the painful realities of ADD and its effect on children as well as on career and social paths in adults. While acknowledging that genetics may indeed play a part in predisposing a person toward ADD, Dr. Maté moves beyond that to focus on the things we can control: changes in environment, family dynamics, and parenting choices. He draws heavily on his own experience with the disorder, as both an ADD sufferer and the parent of diagnosed children. Providing a thorough overview of ADD and its treatments, without blaming anyone, Scattered Minds is essential and life-changing reading for the millions of ADD sufferers in North America today.

The High 5 Habit

The High 5 Habit
Author: Mel Robbins
Publisher: Hay House, Inc
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2023-01-03
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1401967493

The New York Times bestseller now in paperback! In her global phenomenon The 5 Second Rule, Mel Robbins taught millions of people around the world the five second secret to motivation. And in her latest bestseller, she shares another simple, proven tool you can use to take control of your life: The High 5 Habit. This isn’t a book about high fiving everyone else in your life. You’re already doing that. Cheering for your favorite teams. Celebrating your friends. Supporting the people you love as they go after what they want. But imagine giving that same love and encouragement to yourself. Or even better, making it a daily habit. In this book, you will learn more than a dozen powerful ways to high five the most important person in your life, the one who is staring back at you in the mirror: YOURSELF. Using her signature science-backed wisdom, deeply personal stories, and the real-life results that the High 5 Habit continues to create in people’s lives around the world, Mel teaches you how to make believing in yourself a habit you practice every day. The High 5 Habit is a holistic approach to life that changes your attitude, your mindset, and your behavior. So be prepared to laugh, learn, and launch yourself into a more confident, happy, and fulfilling life.