Dopamine: What is it and How does it affect our behaviour?

What is Dopamine?

Dopamine is the ‘feel good’ chemical naturally produced in the brain which plays a huge role in how we feel pleasure and what keeps us motivated. It’s a type of neurotransmitter, which means it is a chemical messenger that transmits information between neurons.

Dopamine is released when you experience any form of pleasure for example winning a big game or finishing a project. It can come from a wide range activities from consuming sugar and other foods that we crave, playing video games, and having sex, to more risky behaviours such as taking stimulant drugs e.g., cocaine, or gambling. Dopamine is also known as the ‘reward molecule’ which tells the brain you are being rewarded; therefore, your brain encourages you to repeat these pleasurable activities, which in some cases can be detrimental to our health.

Dopamine plays a vital role in memory, learning, behaviour, and movement coordination. If it is disrupted, this can lead to serious problems such as:

• Anxiety

• Addiction

• Behavioural disturbances

• Cognitive disorders

• Diseases e.g. Parkinson’s

• Fatigue

• Hormonal imbalances

• Mood disorders

• Obesity

• Pain

Dopamine Levels Explained

We are always releasing dopamine at a tonic baseline level. Where our dopamine level deviates from the baseline is when we feel either pleasure (if levels go above baseline) or a kind of pain (if levels go below baseline).

The tonic baseline level itself, that is, the amount of dopamine available in your brain, can also be higher or lower than usual. Dopamine baseline levels are influenced by genetics, but the environment also has a part to play.

Low levels of dopamine are also associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety, which is why individuals facing those mental health issues often experience problems with attention, motivation, and reward-related cognition.

How do we define pleasure?

Pleasure is hard to define succinctly. It does involve a seeking out of a high or euphoria. But seeking those behaviours can also be an escape from pain. Very often pleasure-seeking behaviours can become an escape from pain. To explain this, psychiatrist Dr Anna Lembke refers to ‘The Pleasure-Pain Balance’.

The Pleasure-Pain Balance

Pleasure and pain are processed in the same area of the brain. They work like a balance with pain on one side and pleasure on the other; when we feel pain it tips one way and when we feel pleasure it tips the opposite. The brain wants a steady balance, therefore whenever there is a high stimulus to one side, the brain will work very hard to restore the balance (homeostasis). A good analogy is the euphoric high of drugs (pleasure) followed by the comedown effects of drugs wearing off (pain).

Pleasure is therefore reduced when pain increases. When this happens, it does not just bring it back to level. It actually increases pain higher than the baseline levels. Chronic engagement in pleasure, or dopamine inducing behaviours, will result in the dopamine levels decreasing so much, that you will feel low even when you do not engage in that behaviour for a period of time, akin to withdrawal. When dopamine levels are reset to such low levels, then it becomes very difficult to derive pleasure from anything.

A good example would be if you were binge watching a Netflix series you’re really into, and as you watch more episodes, your brain tips to the side of pleasure. When you stop watching it, you experience a come down (form of pain) which pushes you to watch one more episode.

Dopamine and depression

Some people who are depressed may have lower baseline levels of dopamine, however this is not always the case. If we expose ourselves constantly to higher levels of dopamine (pleasure) inducing behaviours, this can sometimes lower your tonic baseline levels of dopamine. This is because your brain tries to compensate for the higher levels of dopamine that the body is designed to experience.

Addiction

People who are more impulsive are also more vulnerable to addiction; impulsivity is not inherently bad and can be advantageous in certain scenarios.

Many people with addiction have a feeling of normal life not being exciting enough. Life for humans has always been hard, but now it is harder because it can be boring. We can meet all our survival needs, and we do not even need to leave our homes to meet all of our needs. Even the poorest of the poor have more income, and time they have ever had in human history. This can play a role in pleasure- or thrill-seeking behaviours which can lead to addiction. 

Some addicts are unhappy, not because there is something wrong with them, but because their brains are not suited for this world. All addictions are the same; once you become an addict; you become more vulnerable to addiction of any form. Andrew Huberman the neuroscientist describes addiction as the progressive narrowing of things that give you pleasure. The opposite of addiction would be enlightenment (the progressive expansion of things that give you pleasure). Deriving pleasure from many and little things is a wonderful trait and is what we should aim for.

Advice: If you understand and/or have an image of how dopamine, pleasure and pain work you will have greater mastery of how to disengage from pleasurable experiences. If we wait for that feeling, (pain) to pass the brain will naturally revert to a balanced state.

Chronic engagement in pleasure or dopamine inducing behaviours will result in the dopamine levels decreasing so much, that you will feel low even when you do not engage in that behaviour. 

There are adaptive ways to get your dopamine and maladaptive ways. The adaptive way would be not too potent, that means not tipping the pleasure-pain balance too much or too fast. The aim is not to have a balance that never tilts the aim is to have a balance that does not tilt too far or too fast one-way or the other. People in recovery have to re-learn how to cope with life being a bit more boring and stressful.