Abundance itself has become the source of our suffering. I suggest to you that the primary cause of our unhappiness today is The Plenty Paradox. Today I’m more likely to suggest a dopamine fast: Abstaining from our drug of choice for four weeks Twenty years ago the first thing I would have done for a patient presenting with anxiety or depression was prescribe an antidepressant or recommend psychotherapy. Some argue that trauma is the source of our suffering, but what kind of trauma are we talking about, beyond the trauma we create for ourselves? Can we honestly say that life today is more traumatic than it was thirty years ago? Even the poorest of the poor living in rich nations today have more leisure time, more disposable income, and more access to luxury goods than at any point in recorded history. But the long view tells us that in fact the gap between rich and poor is smaller than it has been in centuries. Some argue that our despair is the result of a widening income gap. Rates of anxiety, depression, and chronic pain are increasing all over the planet but especially in rich nations. Global happiness surveys show that people today are less happy than they were 20 years ago.

My clinical experience broadly mirrors what is happening in the rest of the world. Groundbreaking Stanford psychiatrist and author of Dopamine Nation, Anna Lembke, provides a fresh perspective on why anxiety, chronic pain and depression have been on the rise, locating the problem in a mismatch between the modern world and our brain’s pain and pleasure apparatus.Īs a practicing psychiatrist in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley for more than two decades, I’ve seen growing numbers of patients struggling with depression, anxiety, and chronic pain, despite otherwise good health, loving families, robust social networks, financial privilege, and access to elite education … all the things we’ve come to associate with the ‘good life’.

Happiness has been declining precipitously in the West for 30 years, despite better access to healthcare and education and decreases in poverty and violence.

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