Book Report: Dopamine Nation

Last week was one of those weeks. Hugo started feeling warm on last Saturday and produced this on Monday night:

US friends you're allowed to be jealous that these tests cost $3.

So I did what I too often do when the going gets tough. Tune out. Kids played in the background while I did housework listening to this:

The Idea of You was a true escape until it consumed my thoughts about how horribly the book ended. I would instead recommend spending your listening hours, not while kids are around, on this much more edifying book: 

Dr. Anna Lembke, writes from a background as a psychiatrist and personal experience of addiction to...romance novels. Spoiler, the author got a handle on her addiction by leaning in to her work. Although, I would say the author could have just as easily ended her romance novel addiction by reading The Idea of You. That book single handedly ended my interest in the genre. 

In any case, there are so many helpful vignettes in Dopamine Nation and the message is timely. We're all trying to escape right now, are't we? We can talk a big game about there being many time periods of horrible leaders, but actually having to live through "the new age of infamy" is exhausting. 

Also, personally my ADHD brain is especially seeking dopamine. Part of the reason I'm so 'scattered' is because I'm looking for the next dopamine "hit". The place where I get it? Radical honesty. Partly it's my enneagram eight. Give me truth over comfort, every time. I'm bringing this truth into lent this year.  We are making space for joy, but to get there, there will be discomfort.