Dr. Anna Lembke on Huberman Lab: How to Beat Addiction

How to reset dopamine after addiction using a 30-day abstinence protocol; Lembke covers withdrawal, relapse triggers, and why truth-telling speeds recovery.

Andrew HubermanhostAnna Lembkeguest

Jun 26, 202531mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: June 26, 2025
Duration: 31m
Channel: Huberman Lab
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

In this Huberman Lab Essentials episode, my guest is Dr. Anna Lembke, MD, Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic at Stanford University School of Medicine. We discuss how dopamine drives reward, motivation and addictive behaviors. Dr. Lembke explains the concept of the pleasure-pain balance of dopamine and how this cycle plays a key role in the development and persistence of addiction. We also discuss some of the challenges of addiction recovery, including withdrawal, relapses and the potential benefits of psychedelic-assisted therapy. Episode show notes: https://go.hubermanlab.com/xbtub2m Huberman Lab Essentials are short episodes focused on essential science and protocol takeaways from past full-length Huberman Lab episodes. Watch the full-length episode: https://youtu.be/p3JLaF_4Tz8 Watch more Huberman Lab Essentials episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPNW_gerXa4OGNy1yE-W9IX-tPu-tJa7S *Follow Huberman Lab* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hubermanlab Threads: https://www.threads.net/@hubermanlab X: https://twitter.com/hubermanlab Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hubermanlab TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hubermanlab LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-huberman Website: https://www.hubermanlab.com Newsletter: https://www.hubermanlab.com/newsletter *Dr. Anna Lembke* Website: https://www.annalembke.com *Timestamps* 00:00:00 Anna Lembke 00:00:15 Dopamine, Reward & Movement 00:01:54 Baseline Dopamine; Genetics, Temperament & Addiction 00:05:24 Addiction, Modern Life & Boredom 00:07:18 Pleasure-Pain Balance, Dopamine, Addiction 00:12:39 Resetting Dopamine, Substance or Behavior Recovery, Tool: 30-Day Abstinence 00:14:26 Relapse, Addiction, Reflexive Behavior, Empathy 00:18:39 Triggers, Relapse, Dopamine 00:21:37 Shame, Truth Telling & Recovery 00:23:58 Addiction, Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy, Psilocybin, MDMA 00:29:01 Social Media & Addiction, Tool: Intentionality Disclaimer & Disclosures: https://www.hubermanlab.com/disclaimer

SPEAKERS

Andrew Huberman
host
Anna Lembke
guest

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Huberman Lab, featuring Andrew Huberman and Anna Lembke, Dr. Anna Lembke on Huberman Lab: How to Beat Addiction explores resetting Dopamine: Dr. Anna Lembke’s Blueprint For Treating Addiction Dr. Anna Lembke explains how dopamine underlies reward, movement, pleasure, and pain, and how modern high‑dopamine stimuli (drugs, social media, gambling, etc.) can push the brain into a chronic dopamine‑deficit, addiction-like state. She introduces the “pleasure–pain balance” model: every spike in pleasure is followed by an opposing spike in pain that can, with repetition, reset our baseline toward anhedonia and clinical‑like depression.

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