‘Facing your pain is the key to happiness,' says Dr. Anna Lembke

"Everything around us is designed to be addictive. In an age of abundance where consumption is easy, it is also easy for anyone to fall into bad habits and addictions that they regret or want to hide."

Dr. Anna Lembke, chief of Stanford's Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic, explained in a video interview with The Dong-A Ilbo on Tuesday that people in the contemporary world are obsessed with things and have difficulty controlling them. "When we become addicted to the 'rewards' we give ourselves to feel joy, the brain can no longer feel happiness," Dr. Lembke said, "We seek out addictive substances to get back to normal, and we scramble to escape the pain."

The author of the New York Times bestseller ‘Dopamine Nation,’ who is also popular in Korea, has been treating thousands of addiction patients for more than 30 years. "Young people are obsessed with their appearance and achievements. The more they do that, the more they want to run away from themselves, and they even turn to drugs out of curiosity," Lembke said of the recent drug epidemic in South Korea. "Especially celebrities, who are so focused on their image, want to run away all the more. In such a situation, drugs are a very dangerous way out."


Hyoun-Soo Kim kimhs@donga.com