Dopamine Machine: The science of cravings...

Like the majestic phoenix, I make my triumphant return from the ashes to drop some knowledge bombs on your ginger heads. It has been a long time coming and I am very happy to be back on the blog scene, and this week I’m going to expand on something I have mentioned very briefly in the past; dopamine.

Now dopamine is both the best and the worst for many reasons, particularly for me and Sophie who have ADHD (what a pair I know), people with ADHD may have a higher concentration of dopamine transporters in the brain, meaning it doesn’t hang around in the brain for quite as long, this is a very similar effect that happens to people that over indulge on life’s easy pleasures.

Modern society is full of simple pleasures because basically we have it far too easy in these modern times. As I like to do with anything related to figuring out the complexities of modern day humans, I want to compare with how our ancestors lived, and that should hopefully give us an incite as to why we need dopamine at all! But firstly lets take a quick look as to how the lovely people at webmd.com describe Dopamine:

“Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter. Your body makes it, and your nervous system uses it to send messages between nerve cells. That's why it's sometimes called a chemical messenger.

Dopamine plays a role in how we feel pleasure. It's a big part of our unique human ability to think and plan. It helps us strive, focus, and find things interesting.

Your body spreads it along four major pathways in the brain. Like most other systems in the body, you don’t notice it (or maybe even know about it) until there’s a problem.”

What really stands out for me here is ‘strive’ and ‘focus’, when thinking about our ancestors, we would strive and focus for the most basic of human needs, we need to eat, we need to be safe, we need a level of companionship and we need to sleep, all of the things that modern day humans will take for granted. Dopamine plays a huge role in us seeking out these needs, and upon achieving one, our body would give us a massive hit of dopamine, resulting in a nice sense of self satisfaction and pleasure, a successful hunter is a happy hunter. Why do you think fishing is so popular with modern day men? It helps to tap in to something primal, catch a fish, feed your family, DOPAMINE!!!!

So what role does dopamine play in modern day humans I hear you ask? Well we have all of the above needs in abundance, so our hits of dopamine come from very different places, such as… likes on social media, watching porn, drugs and alcohol, watching our favourite programs on TV or eating our favourite foods. Sounds like we’re losing an impossible battle here doesn’t it. These are all so easily achieved, especially when we compare with the struggles of what our ancestors faced in order to feed a family or help keep them safe. Hunting down a wild beast once a day in order to keep yourself alive sounds a lot more of a challenge then uploading a picture of my tea on Facebook so my mate can tell me my roast potatoes look spot on, but both things invoke the same chemical response.

Taking this into account, we need to flip the script and start working for our dopamine!

Easy hits of dopamine 24/7 can lessen the effects, meaning we get less and less pleasure from what life has to offer us. This is one of the big factors in why modern day humans get such big feelings of depression, they are lacking pleasure in life. We only have to look to tribes around the globe that still live the ancestral lifestyle, many of which don’t even have a word for suicide or depression, because their life is such a struggle. So this is something that we must take on ourselves, WE MUST EMBRACE THE STRUGGLE! For too long we have been able to get our tiny pathetic dopamine hits from running to the fridge and getting a piece of cake, only for us to be left feeling empty and guilty afterwards, we didn’t need it, we just let the craving for an easy dopamine hit win, and the longer we do this, the more dopamine becomes less effective.

So here’s what we’re going to do;

STEP 1: we must put ourselves on a dopamine fast! By cutting out life’s easier pleasures we begin to open up more dopamine receptors in our brains, the more receptors we have, the easier it is to receive dopamine. This is where cravings comes into it, food itself, rather then certain types of food, becomes a pleasure. Don’t just over indulge because your bored, restrict your diet, and everything will become more enjoyable! (The intense phase of the plan starts to make more sense now doesn’t it). Take breaks from social media, don’t run to the fridge when your bored, get out and exercise!

STEP 2: we must embrace the struggle, pleasure that has been worked for is so much more satisfying then simply opening up Pornhub when you get 5 minutes to yourself. Anyone who has lost weight in this group will understand the feeling of achievement when you reach your goal, and this is because it was hard work! Do things that are hard. I hate exercise, but the feeling of completing a run or a workout in the gym is so satisfying because it was hard to do! If this becomes your main source of dopamine you’ll start to crave it.

Its about breaking the cycle of monotony, stop giving into your cravings and you’ll become and all round happier person. You’ll also lose weight, get fitter and enjoy life so much more! I know it sounds tough, but it will be so worth it!

Let me know in the comments what it is you plan to cut out of your life as part of your dopamine fast, we can all agree on the food part, but is there anything else that you give in to, far too easily?

Happy fasting,

Aaron

Ps. Putting time aside to get back into the blogs, and then completing this one has definitely given me a rush of dopamine, so let me know what other topics you’d like to see covered.