We are surrounded by distractions. There’s a never-ending supply of things to pull us from our everyday lives… social media, junk food, alcohol, tobacco, drugs, pornography, tv shows, movies, sporting events, shopping, etc. Our brains crave dopamine, a neurotransmitter in your brain, that can be described as the “feel-good chemical.”
Dopamine is most notably involved with pleasure, the reward system within our brains. We get a hit of dopamine, or a “dopamine rush,” with activities such as eating chocolate, purchasing a new item, sex, and even receiving text messages. Every little enjoyable act is followed by a dopamine spike, bringing us a little morsel of joy. It feels good. And feeling good is something we all want and seek.
One big problem with a dopamine spike is that is followed by a dopamine dip. These dips leave us not feeling neutral, but actually feeling bad. So, what do we do? We work to get another hit of dopamine. We repeat whatever it is that we know gives us that boost. And because we are wired to be efficient, we tend to seek those dopamine spikes in the easiest ways possible. Those controlling social media know this, which is why our cell phones have become dopamine machines. They are designed to capture our attention and keep it on their platform for as long as possible. Take TikTok for example… Those short video clips show us something we like, we get that quick burst of dopamine, feel good for a moment, then get to swipe as that dopamine spike starts to drop. We don’t like that drop in dopamine, we don’t want it to stop, so we keep swiping… and swiping… and swiping.
I was sitting in a waiting room, waiting for my daughter’s knee surgery to be completed. I was fairly new to TikTok, but caught myself in that dopamine-seeking cycle, amazed that a whole hour had passed, and it felt like mere minutes. And I also had to pull myself from it, which was a struggle.
Having even a moderate understanding of dopamine, and how the brain works, can help shape your behavior and move it in a more positive and constructive way. After all, it was dopamine that helped us survive all these years as a species. If we don’t eat, we starve. So, associating pleasure with eating prompts us to seek out and eat food. Genetically-engineered mice unable to produce dopamine will not seek food. They will literally starve to death, even when food is put directly in front of them. So, it isn’t just the pleasure we get when doing something enjoyable that makes dopamine so powerful, it drives the behavior that seeks the pleasure. It helps get us to do what we must do to survive. Seeking food is one example, but dopamine also drove our ancestors to seek shelter and have sex. And that’s a good thing, because they would not have survived otherwise, nor would you or I be here right now.
Dopamine has provided immense adaptive and survival value, so to vilify it would be silly. The point I want to make is that we need to be aware that corporate America, in its never-ending quest to hijack our brains and control our behavior, has figured out how to hijack our dopamine system. Understanding this can help us avoid, or at least limit, the short-term, non-productive, and even dangerous dopamine-hijacking traps out there.
And more importantly, understanding this can help us seek dopamine spikes from more natural and safe sources, from more healthy and productive behaviors. That’s right, as corny as it sounds, we can get that same dopamine spike, that boost of good feelings, from simple things like a walk in the park, thinking about what we are grateful for, helping others, achieving a goal, forgiving someone who has wronged us, or doing short bursts of exercise. There is something to those phrases we heard growing about “Getting high on life,” or seeking a “natural high.”
