Thinking Beyond Science

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter which makes us anticipate rewards, such as having sexual relationships or eating nourishing food. Dopamine gives us the desire to take action to earn the exciting reward that’s waiting for us.

It is the force that makes us act. As such, it is a very useful neurotransmitter that has helped us survive and reproduce-and probably one of the main reasons we exist today.

Contrary to what many people believe, dopamine is not a pleasure chemical. Simply because an event triggers the release of dopamine doesn’t mean it is something we like or get pleasure from. In fact, when you pay close attention, you will notice that as soon as you obtain the expected reward, you will often feel empty and unfulfilled.

The truth is that no amount of stimulation will ever bring you the sense of fulfillment you are seeking. Yet, many of us are constantly overstimulated, looking for the next source that could trigger a release of dopamine. It seems. as though we always want more and are never satisfied. And the more we seek stimulation, the worse it becomes.

You can think of dopamine as the “molecule of more”. This is because the more our environment or actions trigger the release of dopamine, the more we will want our next “shot” of dopamine. In fact, this self-reinforcing mechanism is also how many addictions work.

By continuously triggering the release of dopamine through different means-such as drug or alcohol consumption— addicts actually strengthen their tolerance to such stimulation.

As a result, they need stronger and stronger stimulus to experience the same sensation of pleasure. However, addictions are not just limited to drug or alcohol consumption. In truth, many activities can become somewhat addictive, for example:

• Gambling
• Sex
• Shopping
• Thoughts/rumination
• Video games
• Exercise (to extreme)
• Work

Your focus is a scarce asset, which is why marketers spend billions of dollars to attract your attention. Many apps are designed to hook you. Social media companies like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram know that the more time you spend on their platforms, the more money they make through advertising. Perhaps one of their greatest recent discoveries is the use of notifications. How many times have you opened an app just because a red notification pops up on your screen? And how much time did you waste subsequently? I wouldn’t be surprised if it ran into hundreds of hours each year.

And, thanks to ever more sophisticated algorithms, companies have become better at hooking us. Amazon’s book recommendation system is more accurate and widespread than any system a physical bookstore could create. Likewise, YouTube suggestions are heavily customized. And Facebook’s customer research algorithm is quite amazing too. As a demonstration, try the following experiment:

Visit your newsfeed, watch a couple of suggested videos on a similar topic and see what happens. The other day I watched a basketball video and immediately received a recommendation to view another one, so I watched it. And then, I watched another one, and so on.

Now, the development of sophisticated algorithms has its pros and cons. On the plus side, it becomes easier to discover content you actually want to watch. On the negative side, it makes it easier to become stuck in a never-ending loop, watching one video after the other. In a sense, instead of using the internet to find information or communicate with loved ones, the internet has become the one using you. It does so by hijacking your focus and making you unproductive and, as a result, restless.

Social media notifications are a great example of how your brain is being hijacked. Whenever you see a notification, you anticipate the reward you will receive when clicking on it, which triggers the release of dopamine in your brain.
However, this doesn’t make you happy or fulfill you—at least not for long. Remember, dopamine is not a pleasure chemical; it is a neurotransmitter that is activated when you anticipate a potential pleasure. And that pleasure is usually temporary. Below are some other ways your dopamine neurotransmitters are being hijacked:

• Whenever you check your email, you are expecting a reward, which could be a message from a friend or some exciting news.
• Whenever you check stats, such as investment portfolio, or website traffic stats, you expect a reward from seeing encouraging numbers. And the unpredictability makes it more exciting.
• Whenever you visit YouTube, you expect to watch interesting or exciting videos.
• Whenever you visit social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, you are anticipating rewards such as likes or comments on your posts, messages from friends or interesting content.

When you engage in any of the above activities, you risk becoming not only overstimulated but also distracted and, as a result, you will lose your ability to focus. Whoever has succeeded in staying away from the internet or social media for a few days, understands what a waste of time and focus such activities can be.

Hunting for food used to be one of our biggest drivers for action. Hunger, alongside the anticipation of a great reward-food—leads us to act. And the food that gives us the most pleasure was highly nourishing, tasty, and often contained sugar.

According to Professor Susanne Klaus, a biologist at the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam, our craving for sweet foods is innate. Sugar triggers the release of dopamine and makes us feel good. She wrote, “Experiments have shown that the combination of sugar and fat is especially effective in stimulating the brain’s reward system.”

Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that we like to get our daily dose of sugar and fat, is it?

However, these days, most of us live in a different environment. Although we still need to feed ourselves, the feeling of anticipation that drove our ancestors to search for food has become irrelevant. We can simply visit our local supermarket and buy what we want. There is no need to exert much effort. And, for most of us, food is plentiful. Yet, our biology has remained the same. We still experience that feeling of anticipation when being presented with rich food.

This is where the food industry comes in. In this industry, marketers spend millions to encourage us to buy their products. They discovered that, by adding sugar (among other things), they can not only make the food more palatable, but they make us crave more. For this reason, if you look at the list of ingredients contained in any processed food, you will find sugar in most of them.

Source : Dopamine Detox : A Short Guide to Remove Distractions and Get Your Brain to Do Hard Things by Thibaut Meurisse, Kerry J. Donovan (Editor)

Goodreads : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58503121-dopamine-detox