Dopawhat?

Continuing on from some of my other posts about motivation, I figure it's only right that I introduce you to a dear friend of yours you may not know about - the neurotransmitter Dopamine.  If it's helpful, you can picture him as one of the little beings that like Homer, we carry around on our shoulders.  

Dopamine's a sweetheart and means well, but he's also a bit gullible and easily manipulated.  Despite his best intentions, he sometimes ends up causing more harm than good.  One of his main jobs is to ensure our survival and he does so by positively re-inforcing (or rewarding) behaviours that favour getting our genes into the next generation.  Consider for example what happens in your brain when you tub out on brownies. Brownies are high in calories so not only do they taste good, but when we eat them Dopamine makes us feel really good about it, so that we do it again.  Then in instances when we're hungry and little-D is feeling low he rears his head and says "give me more brownies!" and we experience the rush of thinking about brownies, and engage in the compulsive act of seeking them out.  Come on, you know you've done it.  

This same pleasure/incentive/reward system is also at play in any behaviour that can become addicting.  Activities ranging from sex, to work-a-holism, to surfing the internet.  If you've ever found yourself meaning to go to bed at 10 but you ended up clicking your way to 3:30 am on your computer, you've experienced the same reward system.  That impulse you get when you see a link, and then the reward you experience when you do provides an instant mini hit of dopamine.  

So why am I writing about it?  As you can imagine, dopamine plays a major role in addiction, and for those who tend to be a little lower in dopamine, they theoretically are more susceptible to behaviours and substances that give them the dopamine hit.  As you can likely tell by now I'm fascinated by the things that drive our behaviour.  Harnessing the reward system can be a powerful tool in making changes that favour health and living in accordance with our values.  


Best,


Bryn