A Stanford Psychiatrist on Escaping the Addiction Economy

Stanford psychiatrist explains why everyday life has become addictive

Anna Lembke's case is that abundance has drugified ordinary life. Food, pornography, betting and phones have been engineered to be more reinforcing, accessible and novel, so healthy instincts tip into compulsion. The more control people have over daily life, the less uncertainty they tolerate, which is why young people stall. The way out she describes is outward and forward, tolerating discomfort and accepting what cannot be controlled.

Takeaways

• The attention economy is an addiction economy. Galloway argues that healthy instincts meet industrial abundance. An abundance of salty, sugary and fatty food makes people gorge, and the loss of free safe play turns a phone into a gambling machine. An industrial supply of sexual content produces porn addiction.
• Platforms are drugs, and micro control is why. Lembke says social media is far more potent than television because users control what they see. Swiping and scrolling release dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, and withdrawal brings anxiety, irritability, insomnia, depression and craving.
• One hour a day cuts teen depression. Lembke cites evidence that limiting emotionally distressed youths' social media use to an hour a day reduces depression and anxiety and improves sleep. She calls the Meta settlement, with its billions and teen Instagram design, landmark.
• More control over life breeds more anxiety. Her paradox of control holds that the more levers people have for micro control, the more anxious, lonely and bored they become. The gifted Stanford students she sees are sent reeling by any hint of imperfection.
• Therapy spends too much time on the past. Lembke agrees therapy has gone too far, being predominantly inward and backward rather than outward and forward, and dwelling on past trauma. People are far more influenced by what is happening to them right now, she argues.
• Self-regard brings shame, so turn off likes. Narcissism runs contrary to how humans evolved in tribes, Lembke says, and distinguishing oneself above the tribe brings shame and self-loathing as a homeostatic reckoning. Her advice is to turn off likes and self view.

A playbook for families and schools

• Talk openly about the problem before confiscating devices, with parents transparent about their own addictive patterns.
• For adult children who are not launching, a behavioral contract that may start with a month at rehab off the device.
• Teach the neuroscience of pleasure and pain, and add embodied curriculum with bodies and hands on real things.
• Iceland cut youth drug and alcohol use with a curfew for young children and by building gyms, sports centers and teams.