Your childhood decides the addictions you develop as an adult? In this episode I talk with dopamine and addiction expert Dr Anna Lembke who is exposing society’s darkest obsession we’re all avoiding - addiction to social media. This episode was one of those conversations I wish I had 20 years ago because If I understood this stuff, my life, my business, and habits would have been so much better. Listen to this one in full please. Trust me. (I don't say this often). 👏🏽 Watch the full episode now on YouTube—search ‘The Diary of a CEO Anna Lembke’

There's a very famous experiment in which rats were engineered to have no dopamine and the scientists discovered that if they put food in the rat's mouth, the rat would eat. But if you put the food even a body length away, the rat will starve to death, which tells us that dopamine is fundamental to get the things that we need for our basic survival. Now every time we're doing something that's pleasurable, from sugar to video games, work, pornography, social media, that will affect dopamine. And the more dopamine that's released, the more likely that drug or behavior is to be addictive. But also the genetic risk of addiction is about 50 to 60 percent. So if you have a biological parent or grandparent with addiction, you are more likely to develop that addiction. We have to keep it in balance in order to stay healthy. Dr. Anna Lemke is professor of psychiatry at Stanford, chief of the Stanford Addiction Clinic. And a world leading expert on the subject of dopamine. She will tell you how this one powerful chemical is controlling your life and what to do about it. One of the most important findings in neuroscience in the past 75 years is that the same parts of the brain that process pleasure also process pain. And the balance wants to remain level. The problem is that we automatically seek out pleasure and avoid pain. And we're exposed to all kinds of pleasures that we have in the modern world. And our brains are reeling in response to try to compensate. Now I need more of my drug in more potent forms to get the same effect, which then leads to addiction. And that's what happened to me when I got addicted to romance novels. Take me into that phase of your life. I was out of control and I needed to restore a level balance and take the advice I give my patients. And what is that advice?