A Neuroscience-Informed Approach to Compulsive Overconsumption in a Reward-Overloaded World

This is a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: news, drugs, sex, gambling, gaming, texting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting, and more. The increased numbers, variety, and potency are staggering. As such, we’ve all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption. Yet, it is possible to find contentment and connectedness by keeping dopamine in check.

Join us in hearing from Dr. Anna Lembke, author of Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. Dr. Lembke will describe the neuroscience of pleasure and pain and what happens in the brain as we become addicted. Dr. Lembke will provide a practical, science-informed approach to addressing compulsive overconsumption of everything from food, to shopping, to video games. She will discuss strategies for parents supporting high school teens to approach and navigate these challenges, providing insight into what is driving our teens' compulsive behaviors. Q&A will follow Dr. Lembke’s presentation.

Dr. Anna Lembke is a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. A clinician scholar, she has published more than a hundred peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, and commentaries. She sits on the board of several state and national addiction-focused organizations, has testified before various committees in the United States House of Representatives and Senate, keeps an active speaking calendar, and maintains a thriving clinical practice.