The more I try to understand myself, the more I find my way to different sources. Socrates said "Know thyself" without thinking about the end. There is no end to this. How can I know that I know myself? No body has any guidance. And also, what if I loathe the self I know once I know it. Can I un-know it? Ignorance may be real bliss, nobody knows.
I wondered where these feelings come from and where they go in one of those times that we can call inner boredom or elephant in the heart? You know how we say "let this day end so I can get rid of it" So there is a situation like this: sometimes we strive for months and months and we get what we want. And then what? Frustration again. Damn it, someone explain to me why. Why do human beings have to feel bad even after sex?
Then comes dopamine.
I have learnt that it drives all my desires. It regulates my mood. If it is low, I am less energetic and not really myself. If it is high I can upend mountains.
This is a mix-up of HubermanLab, Tim Ferriss Podcast, Dopamine Nation, Molecule of More and much more on the topic of Dopamine. What is it? What makes it so powerful? How can we cultivate proper amounts of it at the right time ?
Whenever I find more valuable information it will be added to here, so if you have any addition or extra link to the content below meet me at the comments.
“Dopamine was first identified as a neurotransmitter in the human brain in 1957 by two scientists working independently: Arvid Carlsson and his team in Lund, Sweden, and Kathleen Montagu, based outside of London. Carlsson went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Dopamine is not the only neurotransmitter involved in reward processing, but most neuroscientists agree it is among the most important. “ (Dopamine Nation)
Dopamine is responsible for movement, motivation and drive.
Dopamine has no standard for good, and seeks no finish line. Also only 5 in 10.000 cells produce it. Shame.
“Only 0.0005 percent of brain cells produce dopamine—one in two million—yet these cells appeared to exert an outsized influence on behavior. Research participants experienced feelings of pleasure when they turned dopamine on, and went to great lengths to trigger the activation of these rare cells. In fact, under the right circumstances, pursuit of feel-good dopamine activation became impossible to resist. Some scientists christened dopamine the pleasure molecule, and the pathway that dopamine-producing cells take through the brain was named the reward circuit.” (The Molecule of More)
“Why does love fade? Our brains are programmed to crave the unexpected and thus to look to the future, where every exciting possibility begins. But when anything, including love, becomes familiar, that excitement slips away, and new things draw our attention.”
We constantly make predictions about what’s coming next, from what time we can leave work, to how much money we expect to find when we check our balance at the ATM. When what happens is better than what we expect, it is literally an error in our forecast of the future: Maybe we get to leave work early, or we find a hundred dollars more in checking than we expected. That happy error is what launches dopamine into action. It’s not the extra time or the extra money themselves. It’s the thrill of the unexpected good news.
From dopamine’s point of view, having things is uninteresting. It’s only getting things that matters. If you live under a bridge, dopamine makes you want a tent. If you live in a tent, dopamine makes you want a house. If you live in the most expensive mansion in the world, dopamine makes you want a castle on the moon. Dopamine has no standard for good, and seeks no finish line. The dopamine circuits in the brain can be stimulated only by the possibility of whatever is shiny and new, never mind how perfect things are at the moment. The dopamine motto is “More.”
Sad to hear while researching for dopamine : According to anthropologist Helen Fisher, early or “passionate” love lasts only twelve to eighteen months.
We have two theories why humans with dopaminergic genes survived:
1. Dopaminergic genes propelled people to seek new opportunities. As a result these genes are found more frequently among populations who migrated from their evolutionary origins.
2. Something else made them seek new opportunities, and the dopaminergic genes allowed some of them to survive and reproduce more successfully than others.
“Dopamine belongs to the catecholamine family of neurotransmitters. Catecholamines are part of the body’s fight or flight response. Epinephrine, or adrenaline, and norepinephrine, or noradrenaline, are the other two catecholamine neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters are produced in the brain, brainstem, and adrenal glands; and more specifically, dopamine is released from a strip of brain tissue called the substantia nigra. When released, neurotransmitters function as hormones in the body.”
Dopamine is metabolized from tyrosine and phenylalanine.
Cheap trick: If you do want to feel a rush of dopamine: look up. This was also cited in HubermanLab.
It is a blessing and a curse, a motivation and a reward. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, plus a single nitrogen atom—it is simple in form and complex in result. This is dopamine, and it narrates no less than the story of human behavior. And if you want to feel it right now, if you want to put it in charge, you can do that. Look up.
Dopamine isn’t the pleasure molecule it’s the anticipation molecule
Cells that releases dopamine also release glutamate, which is excitatory neurotransmitter. It stimulates neurons to be electrically active.
Dopamine is response to novelty:
A study published in the Journal of Neuroscience showed that novelty can evoke dopamine release which may motivate you to seek higher rewards whilst evidence in macaque monkeys demonstrated a faster release of dopamine for unexpected rewards compared to expected rewards. As the novelty wears off you can derive less pleasure hence shaking up routines can enhance sexual satisfaction in long-term relationships. Enhancing novelty in exercise routines is also a key contributing factor to improving physical activity participation.
On a related note to above: “Instead of quitting your favorite combinations, try having them less frequently. Some experts suggest this approach based on a principle called reward prediction error: we’re highly motivated by pleasant surprises. If we give ourselves the same highly pleasurable combo every time, it becomes boring and predictable, diminishing dopamine levels in the long run. But if you indulge sporadically, the novelty never fades. Tolerance won’t build up.”
Our species has a main interest in making more of himself. Dopamine is the universal currency for forging and seeking. Seeking mates, water, safety. Seeking things that will extend the species for long term.
Dopamine is a neuromodulator (different than a neurotransmitter) – influences the communication of many neurons at once
Dopamine has baseline and peaks. The most important concept to know. Your dopamine will peak, cannot stay there, will decrease and go below than the baseline. Why? If your dopamine level could stay up, you could not go for another reward, seeking the prize. You need to return to the baseline. Actually, below than the baseline. “After any deviation from neutrality, our brains will work very hard to restore a level balance, or what neuroscientists call homeostasis.” (Dopamine Nation)
If your peak is substantial, dopamine will drop substantially also.
If you are not a successful and loyal partner, that maybe because of your hormones. Do not be so hard on yourself. Play well with the cars you are dealt.
Scientists have studied these neurotransmitters in the laboratory in a variety of animals. For example, when scientists injected oxytocin into the brains of female prairie voles, the animals formed a long-term bond with whatever male happened to be around. Similarly, when male voles that were genetically programmed to be promiscuous were given a gene that boosted vasopressin, they mated with one female exclusively, even though other receptive females were available. Vasopressin acted like a “good-husband hormone.” Dopamine does the opposite. Human beings who have genes that produce high levels of dopamine have the highest number of sexual partners and the lowest age of first sexual intercourse
How much dopamine you experience depends on baseline levels of dopamine when you arrive with to that moment versus dopamine peaks.
Basically, your reaction to something is affected by how elevated you are before you encounter to that event. For example, if you see a social post that you like a lot, dopamine will increase. When you see a second post actually more likable, you will not feel much dopamine because you are elevated already. “How much dopamine you experience from something depends on your baseline level when you arrive there, and you previous dopamine peaks.”
Don't trigger dopamine all the time, even if gained through various sources. Try to dopamine fast.
Remember again. Dopamine is not reward hormone. It responds to reward prediction error.
Dopamine got the nickname “the pleasure molecule” based on experiments with addictive drugs. The drugs lit up dopamine circuits and test participants experienced euphoria. It seemed simple until studies done with natural rewards —food, for example—found that only unexpected rewards triggered dopamine release. Dopamine responded not to reward, but to reward prediction error: the actual reward minus the expected reward. That’s why falling in love doesn’t last forever. When we fall in love, we look to a future made perfect by the presence of our beloved. It’s a future built on a fevered imagination that falls to pieces when reality reasserts itself twelve to eighteen months later.
Dopamine boosts your desire to explore. Dopamine may have pushed our ancestors out of Africa.
Research on mice has shown that drugs that boost dopamine also increase exploratory behavior. Mice given these drugs move around their cages more and are less timid about entering unfamiliar environments. So could dopamine have helped propel early humans out of Africa and across the globe?
“Don’t spike dopamine prior to engaging in effort, and don’t spike dopamine after engaging in effort. Learn to spike dopamine from effort itself.”
There is a good experiment. Researchers give children gold-stars after they paint. However, children already paint as a hobby before they were given gold-stars. Then researchers cut the gold-stars and children stop painting. Why? They assign their happiness/reward to the gold-stars, an extrinsic motivation.
Try to attach the meaning to the effort: “In those moments of the most intense friction you tell yourself this is very painful and because it's painful, it will evoke an increase in dopamine release later, meaning it will increase my baseline in dopamine, but you also have to tell yourself that in that moment you are doing it by choice and you're doing it because you love it.”
After you have done something good you need to journal on the activity. This activity will help you release more dopamine next time you are doing.
Avoiding release of dopamine, not eating chocolate, not having sex, not smoking pots for example, will make the peak the hardest. So, the longer you wait, the higher the peak will be.
Information acts on the brain's dopamine-producing reward system in the same way as money or food : "The way our brains respond to the anticipation of a pleasurable reward is an important reason why people are susceptible to clickbait. Just like junk food, this might be a situation where previously adaptive mechanisms get exploited now that we have unprecedented access to novel curiosities."
The neurotransmitter dopamine plays a crucial role in the brain's reward processing, with studies showing that it contributes more to the motivation for rewards than to the pleasure of receiving them. For a rat in a box, chocolate increases the release of dopamine by 55%, sex by 100%, nicotine by 150%, cocaine by 225%, and amphetamines, the active ingredient in speed, meth, MDMA, and Adderall (used to treat ADHD and narcolepsy) by 1000%. According to one study, abusing dopamine levels alters our ability to delay gratification, with addicts referring to their futures as only nine days long, compared to 4.7 years for the non-addicted participants. (Dopamine Nation)
“Compared with other primates, both humans and great apes had elevated levels of serotonin and neuropeptide Y, in the basal ganglia. However, in line with another recent study on gene expression, humans had dramatically more dopamine in their striatum than apes, they report today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Humans also had less acetylcholine, a neurochemical linked to dominant and territorial behavior, than gorillas or chimpanzees. The combination "is a key difference that sets apart humans from all other species," Raghanti says.” (Science.org)
Coffee and cold exposure is your friend when it comes to increasing dopamine levels.
Try some dopamine detox: “It’s only after we’ve taken a break from our drug of choice that we’re able to see the true impact of our consumption on our lives and the people around us.” Get away from screens, give yourself a break from porn or video games.
Eat a diet that’s high in magnesium and tyrosine-rich foods. “These are the building blocks of dopamine production. Tyrosine is an amino acid. It’s absorbed in your body and then goes to your brain, where it’s converted into dopamine. Foods known to increase dopamine include chicken, almonds, apples, avocados, bananas, beets, chocolate, green leafy vegetables, green tea, lima beans, oatmeal, oranges, peas, sesame and pumpkin seeds, tomatoes, turmeric, watermelon and wheat germ.”
Exercise is also shown to protect dopamine receptors as we age. Otherwise, they dip about 10% each decade.
Get some healthy pains:
Good replacements for unhealthy fixations take full advantage of dopamine’s seesaw effect. Dopamine peaks can result in painful lows filled with cravings, but the reverse holds true as well: some initially painful experiences drive upswings in motivation and positive mood—minus the crash. The effect is called hormesis. “Well-timed deprivation can do wonders for pleasure,” says Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford biologist who wrote about dopamine in his 2017 book, Behave
Be master at something.
Those who have an external locus of control take a more passive view of life. Some are happy, relaxed, and easygoing, but at the same time they often blame others for their failures and may not put forth their best effort on a consistent basis. Doctors often become frustrated with this kind of person. They tend to ignore medical advice, and they aren’t easily persuaded to accept responsibility for their health by taking their medication every day and making healthy lifestyle choices. The development of an internal locus of control, as well as contentment (if only for a little while), are among the many benefits of achieving mastery over an activity. But it takes an enormous amount of time and effort as well as constant mental stretching. Mastering a skill requires a student to constantly move outside her comfort zone. As soon as a piano player gets good at an easy song, she has to start on a harder one. It’s a tough slog, but it can also be a great joy. Those who don’t give up generally feel it was worth it. It can result in a feeling that they have found their passion, something so engrossing they become completely immersed in it.
9 Best Natural Ways to Increase Dopamine
Exercise frequently
Eat plenty of protein
Consider probiotics
Make sleep a priority
Practice meditation
Get plenty of sunlight
Have a massage
Listen to some good music
If all else fails, investigate supplements
Green tea