Sometimes the search for happiness involves touchy-feely discussions, sometime techy talks. This week we are getting a bit scientific and have more to say about everyone’s favorite molecule: dopamine.

Most people have heard about dopamine’s role in doom-scrolling and other addictive behaviors, but I want to perhaps expand your knowledge a bit and give you a hypothesis of my own, controversial though it may be.

Multifaceted Molecule

First, a very brief introduction to a few of dopamine’s other functions. The same tiny molecule that keeps you doom-scrolling and binge-watching is used in life-threatening situations in the ICU to stabilize blood pressure and heart function. In this case, we put it in an IV and mainline it into your system to save your life. When given in relatively large doses like this, dopamine increases dangerously low blood pressure and helps your heart to beat more efficiently.

Do you know what it’s called when you lose certain nerve cells that make dopamine? Parkinson’s Disease. When there is a significant decrease in the amount of dopamine in places in your nervous system with strange names like substantia nigra and basal ganglia, you begin to have serious changes to your ability to move and think. This is a serious neurological condition that highlights the importance of dopamine in normal functioning.

But—other functions aside—we are here to talk about the role of dopamine as a neurotransmitter, a brain chemical that influences your thought and behavior.

More Motivation

Very simply put, dopamine makes you want to do things. Like go outside, or get a job, or have goals. Or get out of bed.

Here is something that may surprise you: dopamine doesn’t make you feel pleasure. Instead, it plays a crucial role in what we call the incentive salience signal. Incentive means you want something, and salience means something is important to you. In other words, dopamine makes things feel important to you; it makes you want them.

When you anticipate a reward, like leveling up in a video game, or get a novel (new) stimulus, like a funny meme or a swipe match, dopamine neurons fire. This teaches your brain: “This is important! Pay attention! Do it again!”

This system has an obvious survival advantage: It keeps you motivated to eat and find shelter and procreate and compete.

Let’s Talk Addiction

No, “dopamine addiction” is not a thing: it is not a recognized medical or psychiatric diagnosis.

Rewarding behaviors, like eating tasty food, having sex, social media scrolling, and gambling, increase dopamine levels. So when people talk about “dopamine addiction,” what they are really talking about is becoming addicted to behaviors that spike dopamine.

Behavioral addictions are real, and recognized. For example:

- Gambling Disorder
- Internet Gaming Disorder (in some contexts)
- Substance addictions: Alcohol, nicotine, opioids, stimulants — all hijack dopamine systems.

So, it’s not the dopamine itself that’s addictive — it’s the behavior or substance that activates the dopamine system in reinforcing ways.

The cycle of craving and reward is the cause of concern — not “dopamine detox” or “dopamine fasting” in a literal sense.

The Crash

Too much dopamine can cause downregulation: the brain tries to maintain balance by reducing nerve receptor sensitivity or the number of receptor cells.

This process is seen most dramatically in cases of long-term cocaine or methamphetamine abuse. These drugs flood the brain with dopamine, then the brain downregulates dopamine receptors to compensate for the repeated huge spikes.

The result is that—over time—you need more dopamine to feel the same effect (this process is called tolerance).

This is also why, when the dopamine hits stop, you feel emotionally “flat” or depressed. Your normal dopamine system has become less responsive.

Binge behavior can also trigger this effect, though the effect is generally weaker than with drugs.

When you end a dopamine binge, you stop giving your brain huge, novel hits. But now the dopamine system is less sensitive—you have fewer receptors or blunted neuron firing.

The result is that normal life feels boring and uninteresting. The same old actions (work, conversation, simple pleasures) don’t create enough dopamine to make a difference. This feels like a crash: boredom, low motivation, sometimes depression.

A Deeper Problem

My hypothesis is that doom-scrolling, video-game bingeing, porn, and other dopamine quests are not merely for “fun.” 

They are self-medication for an epidemic of depression.

There is scientific evidence to support this idea, such as a study in Frontiers in Psychiatry¹ that indicates that dopamine receptor agonists (chemicals that create more dopamine) have shown antidepressant effects.

This is a significant change in the way we look at “dopamine hit” behavior. We aren’t merely looking for something interesting to pass the time, we are trying to treat underlying depression.

I routinely see signs and symptoms of low-level (and sometimes pronounced!) depression in students and clients of all demographic descriptions. From seven to 70, male and female, rich and poor, across race and culture and education level, many—possibly a majority of—people are depressed.

I don’t want this article to devolve into a sociopolitical discourse, but you don’t need to dig very deep to see why people are feeling particularly hopeless.

- The cost of living—food, gas, housing, clothes, entertainment; you name it—is increasing much faster than even the most aggressive wage increases.

- If you are brave (foolish?) enough to watch the news, you are inundated with existential threats of immanent nuclear war.

- We have become separated into groups of diametrically opposed, intolerant ideologies that each seem to seek the other’s destruction.

And this is all on top of life’s usual tragedies; divorce and death and taxes and all the other fear and existential heartbreak that comes with being human.

The Point

Here’s the TLDR:

Dopamine isn’t just about doom-scrolling and porn: it is a powerful molecule that is necessary for life. 
When you indulge in dopamine bingeing, you may well be suffering from depression, not just boredom.
The more you successfully create excess levels of dopamine, the more depressed you are likely to become afterwards.

When you look at it this way, the whole issue of dopamine chasing becomes much more serious. The cycle of depression that follows from excessive reward behavior (not to mention dopaminergic drugs like coke and meth) is not something you want to experience. If you are experiencing it, it is something you want to stop.

What to Do?

The solution isn’t to “fast from dopamine” (that’s a myth — you can’t eliminate dopamine).

The solution is to moderate your behavior, build healthy baseline rewards (exercise, sleep, real connection), and allow your system to recalibrate. This will take time and discipline, but it is well worth the effort:

- Reduce the flood of excess dopamine: stop the binge behaviors

- Allow your system to “recalibrate”: your dopamine receptor levels and neuron firing will normalize with time and moderation.

- Healthy, naturally rewarding behaviors like exercise, sleep, and real (face-to-face) social interaction will help restore your normal baseline dopamine levels and response.

Dopamine

This tiny molecule with massive consequences is well worth your attention. Take a moment to assess your own behaviors and see if this pattern fits you. Get healthy, chase adaptive behaviors, become hardcore about your happiness and create your own world of well-being and optimism.

1. Gauthier, C., Missé, D., Moindrot, N., & Vallée, M. (2017). Dopamine receptors: Is it possible to become a therapeutic target for depression? Frontiers in Pharmacology, 8, 248


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- JWW