by Marie Snyder

There are contradicting views and explanations of what dopamine is and does and how much we can intentionally affect it. However, the commonly heard notions of scrolling for dopamine hits, detoxing from dopamine, dopamine drains, and craving dopamine, appear to be more like a story we’ve constructed to understand our actions than a scientific explanation, and I’m not convinced it’s the best narrative to help us change our behaviours, particularly around tech-based habits.   

As a hormone, it’s released by the adrenal glands (above the kidneys) into the bloodstream for slower, more general communications where it primarily helps to regulate our immune system. As a neurotransmitter, it provides fast, local comms between neurons in the brain where it does a lot of different things including affecting movement, memory, motivation, mood, and mornings (waking up). It makes up 80% of the “catecholamine content” in our brain, the ingredients that prepare us for action. Our levels fluctuate throughout each day, so you don’t have to try to cram all your work into the early hours of the morning. 

It’s largely discussed as the heart of our quest for pleasure, yet for decades studies have concluded that dopamine doesn’t affect pleasure, since we get a dopamine release before a rewarding activity, not after we’ve completed it. Instead, it affects how the brain decides if an action is worth the effort. A 2020 study found that increasing it with meds like Ritalin can motivate people to perform harder physical tasks. People with higher levels of dopamine are more likely to choose a harder task with a higher reward than an easier, low-reward task. Low dopamine doesn’t reduce focus, but it’s believed it provokes giving more weight to the perceived cost of an activity instead of the potential reward. Lower levels lead us to save energy. 

So why do we think we crave it or, paradoxically, need to try to intentionally deplete it?  Read more »