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Brain Reset

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Anxiety, depression and addiction are the scourge of modern-day living. How are they linked? How do we beat them?

According to bestselling author and researcher David Gillespie, we are more addicted than ever before, which is playing havoc with our dopamine levels. This is fuelling epidemic-like levels of depression, anxiety and stress.

Gillespie reveals a large and robust body of research that shows how addictive activities, such as screen use, sugar consumption, drinking, gambling, shopping and smoking, spike our dopamine levels. This, in turn, affects our brain's ability to regulate our mood.

The good news is that we can break the cycle to make things better. There are myriad root causes of mental illness, many of which are beyond our control; David argues that it makes sense to tackle the thing that is within our control - our see-sawing dopamine levels.

Packed with cutting-edge research and practical advice, David's latest book arms us with the tools we need to break our addictions, conquer uncertainty and reset our brains.

327 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 29, 2021

59 people are currently reading
279 people want to read

About the author

David Gillespie

46 books98 followers
David Gillespie is a recovering corporate lawyer, former co-founder of a successful software company and investor in several software startups.

He is also the father of six young children (including one set of twins). With such a lot of extra time on his hands, and 40 extra kilos on his waistline, he set out to investigate why he, like so many in his generation, was fat.

He deciphered the latest medical findings on diet and weight gain and what he found was chilling. Being fat was the least of his problems. He needed to stop poisoning himself.

His first book, Sweet Poison, published in 2008 is widely credited with starting the current Australian wave of anti-sugar sentiment.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
Profile Image for Emily Zilber.
1 review
January 10, 2022
Honestly this book isn’t worth the paper its printed on. Whilst David is upfront about his lack of medical knowledge, he also states that the book is based on up-to-date scientific research. This is not the case.

The book is honestly dangerous in the beliefs and untruths that it discusses.
In order to relieve the chances of anxiety and depression, he lists a number of things you can do.
One of these is the contraceptive pill. He writes that it should not be taken at all, due to the risk of mental health issues; “Yes this means they’ll need to use alternative birth control, will have acne, and potentially need to cope with heavy, irregular and/or painful periods, but those are the realities of puberty.” Ummmm no. This is not ok, and the science really isn’t that concrete. It isn’t a yes/no blanket thing, which is my main concern.

He is also very pro-War On Drugs; he lists a bunch of common drugs, along with gambling and other additions such as social media. He says that to avoid any biochemical issues, if you are addicted then you must fully remove the trigger/substance. It is not that simple, and there is also scientific evidence supporting the idea that addiction is far, far more complex than a biochemical hook.

Finally, he references his other book ‘Sweet Poison’ in the final lines. He contradicts himself, by first saying that generally diet books make simple assumptions, such as fat making us fat and exercise making us thin, which they don’t. He then says though, that his is different. The real enemy is sugar, and if you stop eating sugar then everything is fine.
“All we need to do to fix hundreds of disease states is to fix one simple bug, Don’t eat sugar”.

Honestly, this kind of thinking is very, very dangerous. Nothing is that simple with human biochemistry. You can’t boil anxiety and depression down to one enzyme, and tell people simple solutions to rid them of their mental health issues. You can’t tell people to stop eating one nutrient and say thats why they can’t lose weight.
Profile Image for Helen - Great Reads & Tea Leaves .
1,070 reviews
July 6, 2021
‘We can’t completely avoid stress. There are things which we cannot control, but we will get through those things much better if our brains are not already in an impaired state. Keeping us in a place of mental fitness is about controlling as much as we can and avoiding all addiction.’

The author, David Gillespie, states from the outset that he is not a doctor but a researcher - a very thorough researcher. He wishes to present all the facts thus allowing readers to become aware of addictions, many of them hidden.

This, therefore, is a book about mental health. David spends the first half of the book analysing the problems - typical addictions and also those people might not necessarily label as addictions, such as shopping or screen time. His desire is for his readers to understand the science behind them and how to then take positive steps to overcome the addictions and the consequences of them ie. anxiety/depression which, in turn, can lead to other diseases.

‘We have created a society swimming in dopamine stimulants and we are paying the price. The good news is that a broken reward pathway is absolutely curable. All we need to do is stop taking the addictive substance or doing the addictive behaviour for long enough for our reward system to reset. The bad news is that if it was easy to stop, it wouldn’t be addictive.’

This book is very scientifically based, not focused loosely on changing attitudes alone but rather specific measurable outcomes. How does a person go about basically rewiring their brain away from a reward/punishment based mindset. David provides positive ways a person can go about reducing this addictive behaviour.

By first exploring the relationship between addictions and the consequent diseases, David then goes on to provide practical steps on how we can in fact, reset our brains. I recommend this book for people who are looking for the next level of assistance and desire to know the science behind the problem and concrete actions to then take.

‘We can enjoy life and do things that provide us with shots of dopamine without the risk of addiction, anxiety or depression. The catch is we need to do a system reset before we get to that point. This is a book about how to do that.’








This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.
Profile Image for Siobhan De.
62 reviews
August 19, 2025
This was a good, easy listening book. The author took complex research and made it digestible. It served as a good reminder that addiction can be something other than drugs, i.e social media and sugar
236 reviews
July 15, 2021
Not what I thought the book was about, but I enjoyed it all the same. The Author is completely honest in saying that he has no medical expertise but bases his opinion on the facts and they are startling and well researched. They also outline a problem that I hope the experts sit up and pay attention to, which is a great dependence on medicine to treat symptoms and not focus on the underlying effects. Unfortunately people would rather quick fixes and fast results without the hard work of therapy to back it up. Talking about your honest feelings in this world of short posts and quick gratification in the form of 'likes' and post 'boosts' don't get you any of the above. While I would love to see more people going to therapy to sort out the 'real' problem behind what medication tries to fix in terms of mental health, It isn't going to change overnight, and that is a part of the underlying problem. While this book wasn't what I expected, it was never the less a fascinating read. It also made me look at Addiction differently and acknowledge that the issue at hand is bigger than I thought it was even originally.
Profile Image for Any Length.
2,183 reviews7 followers
February 6, 2022
Although there is a lot of research that has gone into this book I am not happy with the way David Gillespie has portrayed the AA fellowship nor any 12 step fellowship for that matter. Recovery does NOT occur simply because one sits in meetings once a week or more often and "chats" about one's worries. Recovery in 12 step fellowships is a direct result of working the 12 steps. His "brush" with 12 step recovery makes him misrepresent what the 12 steps are all about and he completely missed the point. Also just because one has no worries doesn't mean the reason for addiction is taken care of and one only has to decide to stop. If that was so easy why are we having so many addicted people in world who by all accounts haven't got a worry in the world and why are not all people with worries completely addicted to everything? Ok, now that I have go that one said I must also say that just because you can write a book doesn't mean you should read it. David raced through reading this book as if he was on a deadline which is counter productive when trying to explain chemical processes and theories. I have given this book only 1 star for some of the chemical insights and for the fact that he did say that fat doesn't make you fat but sugar does and that sugar is the worst thing to eat for humans. But if anyone is addicted to anything out there, please do not follow the recovery method described in this book. Do yourself a favor and attend the meetings of the 12 step fellowship that deals with your addiction and faithfully work the steps. And this review has been written by someone who has been 31+ years sugar free (and yes - I do read all labels of everything I eat) and has recovered in a 12 step fellowship that deals with the very issue of not being able to stop eating sugar. And this has not come about by sitting in meetings and chatting, but working the 12 steps (and more than once!) for a period of almost 32 years. I also take objection to David saying the pill causes depression and thus addiction and one should just find alternative measures and to put up with the side effects of having bad periods, and acne. ect. How can you tell us to get rid of stressors then tell us women not to take the pill so we are completely stressed out about possible pregnancy and worried about never getting a partner because our faces resemble those of small pocks victims and we are doubled over with period pain and are worried about losing our jobs because each and every month we are absent from work when our period hits. How insensitive is that. And BTW I had an addiction to food years before I ever took the pill. And I was deliriously happy when they finally put me on the pill because I was bleeding like a stuck pig for 14 days out of every 28 and became dangerously anemic with it. You are full of it, David. The pill saved my life, and my sanity. There is mental illness in my family and the very danger of me conceiving and giving birth to someone else with the disease had me seriously worried. Being on the pill for my entire fertile life saved me more worries that some imagined (by you) chemical reaction in my body could ever have caused me. I still give you one star for advocating a sugar free life, but that is all.
Profile Image for Marduk.
34 reviews6 followers
June 3, 2022
Decent book, but a bit too simplistic and pop for my taste.

Basically the story is that nearly all of our mental problems - anxiety, depression, insomnia, etc - stem from an overly stimulated dopamine system, which in turn is caused by our modern overly stimulative environment. Gambling, smartphones, nicotine, porn, fatty foods, sugary foods, salty foods, all stimulate us to the point our brains increase dopamine levels and something called DeltaFosB. The first - dopamine - is meant to energize us for an incoming task, readying us for a reward or danger. The second - DeltaFosB - regulates the satisfaction we get from rewards. If both dopamine and DelfaFosB are too high for prolonged periods of time, we become fixated to rewards (addiction) or danger (anxiety) and DeltaFosB guarantees whatever satisfaction we derive will only make us require higher intensities while depriving us of satisfaction from weaker sources. This makes us jittery, anxious, irritable, addictive, insomniac, depressive etc. The way to fix this is to severely regulate our indulgence in stimulative substances and behaviors, bringing our dopamine and DeltaFosB back to baseline and with it our mental health.

Some other details: all addictions work the same - an addict will become extremely vulnerable to other addictions as their brain is primed for such; stress works also like addictions, priming us for dangers and therefore via dopamine and DeltaFosB also for rewards.

Our brain works this way in an attempt to adapt to an extremely rewarding or dangerous situation. But of course this was only ever a short term solution, for historically there has never been such a prolonged period producing chronically high dopamine and DeltaFosB, except for the modern society. Which is why we need actively be cognizant of our monkey brains and their monkey tendencies.

Also the author is skeptical of modern pharmaceuticals, which I find justified. Where I disagree with the author is in him completely disregarding psychology and character while attributing everything to those pesky brain chemicals. Afterall, all our thoughts are chemicals and so it achieves nothing to take the purely mechanical approach.
384 reviews12 followers
October 5, 2021
A BROKEN REWARD SYSTEM DESTROYS THE DELICATE BALANCE OF OUR EMOTIONAL WELLBEING. WE FIND OURSELVES IN A STATE OF PERPETUAL ALERT FOR REWARD, A STATE WE CALL CRAVING.

EVERY TIME WE ARE FACED WITH A CHOICE WE CHOOSE THE PATH THAT IS LOWER IN UNCERTAINTY, WHICH WILL BE A BIG STEP TOWARDS REDUCING ANXIETY.

Addiction is a loss of self-control when presented with potential rewards.

When we see something rewarding dopamine motivates us to run toward it. When we sense danger, it motivates us to leave with urgency.

Anxiety and depression are the direct result of dopamine signalling. Too many dopamine hits will lead to mental illness. We can get those dopamine hits by becoming addicted to substances or behaviours that deliver them or by living in a state of stress.

GABA is always present and acts as a breaking system on dopamine. It suppresses the stimulating effects of dopamine and pumps up serotonin, which makes us feel calm and happy.

Addiction happens when we overstimulate dopamine production. This results in us needing more dopamine to get the same result. It also results in us overestimating the potential pleasure and being constantly disappointed.

If we get the reward we expect we are relatively unstimulated. But if the reward is unpredictable our levels of dopamine go up.

Once we are addicted to one thing we are much more likely to become addicted to something else that produces a similar effect.

Anxious people are hyper-focussed on threat and negative outcomes.

We need to stop doing the addictive behaviour for long enough for our reward system to reset. The other thing we need to do is reduce uncertainty and stress.
Profile Image for Oakleigh.
197 reviews
September 11, 2021
"Why do companies who's only purpose is to addict us for profit have a license to operate?" That's a very good question. We ought to think about that a lot.

Although repetitive and somewhat superficial, this is the book I've been searching for, not for myself but for my parents, as an introduction to why their enabling of "harmless" habits may not be so harmless after all. This isn't a deep dive, this isn't a work of science or psychology, and it won't move you emotionally, but it makes a broad catch-all case sufficient to get the ball moving in the right direction - possibly (hopefully) inspiring more research and maybe, one day, change...

Also it was funny. Here's my favourite quote:
"Some people can drink 10 cans of coke per day and live to 100. Others put on 100 pounds just from reading the work 'coke' in the preceding sentence."
Profile Image for Donna.
486 reviews2 followers
March 22, 2024
Much food for thought here. An exploration/explanation of the physical / physiological factors behind addiction, and how they then lead to anxiety and depression. Dopamine is the big one... Too much, too little.. It's a delicate balance that I dare say in today's modern world not many have managed to achieve. And we are caught out in so many unexpected ways... sugar, social media, dating apps. It's all about the prediction and randomness of success. Lots of big words and data in this book, which unfortunately was made sometimes a challenge to hear and grasp due to the(fast) speed of narration. I tried slowing the narration on my device, but then the reader just sounded terribly drunk.
I've come away from it vowing to kill my Facebook usage and not eat sugar... Which I haven't done yet. Maybe I'll start tomorrow...
113 reviews
August 11, 2022
A good book talking about the widespread anxiety and mental health issues in the modern world. The author puts this down to the biochemistry of the brain in terms of dopamine responses from things and addictions which might not be good for us. For example, the use of technology, smart phones and social media is causing people to get addicted and need the positive rush they get from these. In comparison, some people find that the rewards of real life can't compare to these addictions leading to depression etc. The take home message: ditch the addictions and uncertainty to stop the development of anxiety/depression. Addictions like social media, sugar, drugs etc. A decent book but probably won't be recommending it to someone.
Profile Image for Xanthi.
1,646 reviews15 followers
May 1, 2024
I listened to this on audiobook format… which I would not recommend. The author narrates it himself and his pace is just too fast. He packs a lot of information in but doesn’t allow his readers time to absorb it before he hurtles them towards the next thing.
As for the content, it started off interesting but quickly got repetitive. He obsessed over sugar yet did not even mention salt and fat, in regards to the trifecta of making processed foods addictive.
And then there was the mention of vegetarianism and depression which sounded a lot like the old trap of correlation is not causation.
Overall not as good as I was hoping this would be.
Profile Image for Kellie Hoffman.
224 reviews2 followers
October 24, 2021
I listened to this as an audiobook. The book comes in three parts: the first discusses how dopamine contributes to anxiety, depression and addiction, the second examines what each of these looks like and the third considers things that may help to reset the brain and potentially alleviate these effects in the body. Overall it was an interesting listen, although I have to say I found the middle section a little clinical. It is likely that if I had been reading the actual book, I would have skipped ahead. The strategies suggested in the last section are practical and easy to follow.
546 reviews
March 26, 2024
This was a very interesting read, and I hope I can find ways to follow the advice in it. It was unfortunately rather light on advice, though, compared to the volume of science, so it was really only about 20% on actual brain resetting. There were also ads for his other books awkwardly wedged in where they had no reason to be. And his dismissive treatment of vegetarianism and especially women who need the pill made me like the author a little less tbh.
Profile Image for Heidi.
906 reviews
November 25, 2022
David Gillespie is an exceptional researcher and writer - presenting his wealth of information and knowledge in a way that is not only easy to understand, but a joy to learn as well. I knew a lot of the information in this book, but still learned some new ideas and techniques to help myself and my loved ones navigate this thing called life successfully.
Profile Image for Kristiana.
115 reviews1 follower
October 13, 2024
Great book for statistics on addictions, mental health etc etc pretty interesting. Only the last part of the book gives you examples on how to try and get rid of your addictions in your life. Caffeine. Alcohol. Sugar. Drugs. Screen time.
Was hoping for more directions and coping mechanisms of how to get rid of unwanted addiction within life, but still a pretty good read.
Profile Image for Brad.
836 reviews
May 6, 2025
Very informative read on how/why the body produces dopamine and seratonin in relation to activities we perform. And how in today's day our phones/lifestyle are making the body produce too much of these chemicals and as a result we are continually stressed/anxious/depressed.

Unfortunately the cure, is to ween ourselves off all the things we are used to, like social media and gaming/gambling.
2 reviews
July 30, 2025
Good Ideas & Messaging but Repetitive

The themes and ideas of David's novel were interesting and delivered in a straightforward, easy to follow way (not verbose).

However, I found there to be a lot of repetition and re-hashing of previously delivered concepts. It made for a bit too much filler than I would prefer. I think he could have achieved his goal in far fewer words.
Profile Image for Gabe Segal.
91 reviews1 follower
Read
November 9, 2022
I plucked some value from this book, but highly anecdotal with the use of scientific evidence when it suits. Admittedly, the author is not an expert - do not read this book if you want objective science-backed discourse.
Profile Image for Me.
288 reviews1 follower
September 9, 2021
Interesting. I like a bit of science.
2 reviews
Read
December 23, 2021
I love this book. The Author explained clearly in-depth about neurotransmitters and also suggested a few things in the end for happy living.
8 reviews
February 22, 2022
Well crafted insights into how addiction works, and the strategies to tackle it
Profile Image for Verónica Ruiz López.
2 reviews2 followers
November 9, 2022
I didn’t like how he talked about being vegetarian, it’s just if you don’t complement your diet with B12 that’s all, but he didn’t mention nothing about it.
Profile Image for Sof.
82 reviews25 followers
January 14, 2023
I hope what I read is true

(Felt unprofessional)
Profile Image for Gewdgoods.
8 reviews
December 9, 2023
"Brain Reset" by David Gillespie is a transformative and practical guide to improving your brain health and cognitive function. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in maximizing their brain power and living a healthier, more fulfilling life.

Gillespie's writing style is engaging and accessible, making complex neuroscience concepts easy to understand and apply to our daily lives. He provides readers with a comprehensive overview of the latest research on brain health, and offers practical strategies for improving our cognitive function through diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes.

What I love most about "Brain Reset" is its emphasis on the power of small changes. Gillespie reminds us that even simple changes to our diet and lifestyle can have a profound impact on our brain health and cognitive function.

But "Brain Reset" is not just a book about improving our cognitive function - it's also a book about living a healthier, more fulfilling life. Gillespie encourages readers to prioritize sleep, stress management, and social connection, and provides practical tips for incorporating these habits into our daily routines.

Overall, "Brain Reset" is a transformative and practical guide to improving our brain health and cognitive function. Whether you're looking to enhance your cognitive performance, prevent cognitive decline, or simply live a healthier life, this book is an invaluable resource.
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