Please Subscribe For More Episodes!   iTunes: https://apple.co/30g6ALF Spotify: https://odaatchat.libsyn.com/spotify Stitcher: https://bit.ly/3n0taNQ YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/2UpR5Lo   Purchase Her Book on Amazon! Be sure to follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration: @odaatpodcast and @arlinaallen Hello Loves,   Thank you for downloading the podcast, my name is Arlina, and I’ll be your host.   In case we haven’t met yet, I am a certified Recovery Coach and Hypnotist. I am obsessed with all things recovery, including neuroscience, reprogramming the subconscious mind, law of attraction, all forms of personal growth and spirituality. I have been practicing abstinence from drugs and alcohol since 4/23/94, and I believe in people finding what works for them.    Today I’ll be talking with Dr Anna Lembke, she is Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic at Stanford University and author of the #1 Bestseller “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance In the Age of Indulgence”. It would be a vast understatement to say it was such an honor to interview her for the podcast.  If you’ve been listening to these interviews for any length of time, you’ll know I love learning about ideas I can share that will help lead people out of suffering. Up til now I’ve been hyper focused on empathy largely based off of Brene Brown’s work around vulnerability and she shared that empathy is the antidote to shame. I’ve also treasured the idea that “honesty without compassion is cruelty” so I’ve been pretty focused on empathy but it felt like something was missing.   Then I read this by Anna: “Empathy without accountability perpetuates victimhood”. I had an absolute “holy crap” moment. Not an “aha”, a holy crap. Because, I believe that I can’t really help people who are stuck or committed to a victim mentality. Those are people who are unwilling or unable to accept personal responsibility and I actually have a visceral and negative response to that type of thinking.   I had to send Anna a follow up email and ask for more feedback, specifically around what to say to people who have relapsed, and this is what she said:   “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for your suffering. That must be so hard.”  What this does is validate that the relapse happened, while also acknowledging the pain that person is experiencing. I think of it similar to what I would say to someone who told me their cancer which had been in remission came back.”   So brilliant. I just love her.   Anyway, that was a very long intro, but I wanted you to have that extra bit of wisdom from her.   I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.   Arlina Allen  6:09   Okay, here we go. We'll talk to you. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast.   Unknown Speaker  6:15   Thank you for inviting me, I am very happy to be here.   Arlina Allen  6:18   I'm so excited. Listen, I say that all the time. But I really, really men it this time because I have been reading your book, and actually I listened to the audio book first while I'm walking, because I sort of like the first wash of like, all these concepts. And then I get the book because I'm a students. And I like to, you know, highlight and underline and Mark things. And this book was stuff. It has some pictures. Yeah. Picture like people like me, pictures are amazing. Yeah. But I just it's called dopamine, finding balance in the age of indulgence, I'm sorry, dopamine nation. And, wow, I have so many questions to ask. But I think a good place to start might be with maybe what what is dopamine? Really, because I think there's a lot of misconceptions about what dopamine is, there isn't like a dopamine pill. But you know, when people take drugs, I think they activate dopamine, but maybe I don't really have a good understanding. So I thought maybe I could sort of clarify what it really is, and, and why it's important.   Dr Anna Lembke  7:31   Yeah, so dopamine is a chemical that we make in our brain. And it's very import