When clinical psychologist, Anastasia Hronis, started writing The Dopamine Brain, she soon realised how much misinformation was out there about dopamine —what it is and how it works.
In her first book, published by Penguin, Dr Hronis unpacks some key concepts relating to neuroscience as she explores that one tiny molecule in our brain that plays a huge role in driving our behaviours.
She takes the readers through a range of activities such as shopping, gambling, drugs, alcohol, internet use, social media and even binge-watching TV shows, to help them understand dopamine’s influence on these behaviours.
“One of the common myths is about “dopamine detoxes” – the idea that we can detox from dopamine itself, which is not possible,” Dr Hronis told Neos Kosmos,
“It lead to people doing to 24 hour detox where they’d deprive themselves of all joys and pleasures to try and detox. But of course, 24 hours isn’t really long enough to create any sort of long-lasting change. Smaller, more regular changes are more effective.”
Dr. Hronis highlights research showing dopamine’s key role in addiction, not only in moments of pleasure but also in the pursuit and anticipation of pleasure.
“In my book, I mention a café near my office with incredibly tasty donuts. Dopamine is activated when I eat the donut, but it also kicks in when I think about buying one or smell them baking as I walk by!”
The Dopamine Brain, is designed to be a self-help book for a general audience. Readers are encouraged to choose one dopamine-driven behaviour that they want to change and follow a series of strategies and activities.
“The book can be relevant for anyone who wants to find that balance between short-term pleasure and gratification in life, with the longer-term sense of overall satisfaction and meaning. It provides information and strategies that would be useful for parents, teenagers, and adults, who are looking to make small but effective changes in their life.”
Australia a nation grappling with gambling addiction and across the world, social media overuse—especially among the young—a book explaining the science behind these behaviours felt timely and necessary.
“The team at Penguin Books and myself spoke about how we are seeing more and more interest from the general public in how we are becoming “hooked” on certain things, such as social media, online shopping, even dating apps. There was also a trend that went through social – “the Dopamine detox”, where people all around the world set themselves the goals of trying to “detox” from dopamine and reset dopamine levels. Usually they did it for 24 hours however this is unlikely to be particularly effective.”
“We found that people wanted to know more about how to change their relationships with certain behaviours and technologies.”
As a clinical psychologist whose main areas of clinical work is in addictions and predominantly behavioural addictions, Anastasia Hronis, brings her wealth of experience and research into this book.
“I’ve done research into gambling, and how we can prevent people from developing gambling harms, which is a huge issue in Australia.
“I worked in an addiction program in my early years of working as a psychologist, and I loved it. I loved the people and their personalities, and decided that this could be an area of work that I can stick with for a long time.”
In the book, she guides readers to reflect on their core values to counteract dopamine-driven habits.
“I talk about a young man in my book, who is at university and feeling quite unsatisfied with life. He spends a lot of time playing video games. We go through a process of helping him explore what his values are, and we assess that he isn’t really living his life in alignment with those values.
“We then go about helping him make the goals and take the steps necessary to incorporate more values-driven behaviours into his day-to-day life, and not just the dopamine driven activities.”
The clinical psychologist is also an accomplished pianist. “Music, movement and social connection are great. They activate dopamine as well as other neurotransmitters like oxytocin and endorphins.”
When asked what lesson Dr. Hronis hopes readers will take away from her book, the author said “importance of values”.
“Values are like a compass that guide us in particular directions in life. They are different to goals, in that we don’t ever complete them, like we can a goal. But we can set ourselves goals and tasks that align with our values.
“Living a life in line with values creates a greater sense of overall satisfaction and contentment. It’s important for people to firstly know what their own values are, and secondly, choose to live life in accordance with it.”
