Stanford addiction psychiatrist Dr. Anna Lembke joins Andrew Huberman to discuss dopamine, modern addiction, and her new book Radical Surrender. They cover digital media addiction, how the brain's pleasure-pain balance adapts, and why recovery involves more than abstaining.
Lembke says about 50% of her adolescent clinic referrals are now for digital media addiction. Withdrawal brings anxiety, insomnia and craving, and a 30-day abstinence experiment helps reset reward pathways. Her central argument is that severe addiction is an addiction to control, and surrender, via prayer or 12-step work, engages the periaqueductal gray and serotonin-driven plasticity. She also covers codependency, psychedelic and ketamine risks, GLP-1s helping alcohol recovery, and her son's death.