Chasing Dopamine

Dopamine, the misunderstood but ubiquitous hormone which is over-stimulated in the modern environment and the cause of both life enhancing and self-destructive behaviours. In one way or another we are all chasing dopamine, whether the outcome is positive or negative depends on where that dopamine reward comes from. But reward is the wrong term to use when talking about dopamine. Most people think of dopamine as a “liking” hormone, something associated with enjoyment, and, in a way, it is, but the more important role of dopamine is as a “wanting” hormone. Each “hit” of dopamine wires reward circuits in the brain and, in effect, says “that was good, do it again.” Maybe that is good if your “do it again” is “go for a long run in the forest,” but if your do it again is, as is more often the case, “eat another piece of black forest cake” (see what I did there – linked forest and forest), you might find yourself in trouble.

PC: DB

I’ve always thought my ascetic principles were just a natural off-shoot of my not very average personality. Both Doug and I enjoy doing without or strictly limiting things that the average person deems a necessity in the modern world: the piece of cake, muffin, or biscuit with morning coffee or as a reward for exercise (about the silliest idea anyone has ever come up with), heat in the house in winter, a glass or seven of alcohol daily, celebrating notable events with food, buying the new latest toy, joining the trendiest gym in town, getting the most likes on a social media platform, or, even worse, arguing with strangers on the same platforms.

For many people, this existence seems joyless and dull, but, I’ve always thought that the greatest joy in life comes from being freed from behavioural drives that over the long term lessen my quality of life. In this way, it has been a conscious decision to chase dopamine – and we all chase dopamine – from things that I consider life enhancing instead of detracting. That means my dopamine hits come from doing things that I find difficult, from things as small as going paddling on rainy cold days in winter because I’ve made a commitment to that, to engaging in activities/sports that are challenging mentally and physically – like paddling the west and south coast of Tasmania, or leading rock climbs that push my limits.

PC: HM

How can these things which, in the moment range from mildly uncomfortable to paralyzingly scary trigger dopamine release? Well, it turns out that:

Female rats housed for three months in a diverse, novel and stimulating environment show a proliferation of dopamine-rich synapses in the brain’s reward pathway compared to rats housed in standard laboratory cages. The brain changes that occur in response to a stimulating and novel environment are similar to those seen with high-dopamine (addictive) drugs.¹

I know, humans are not rats, but, reward circuits in rats and humans are scarily congruent. How else do you explain the person who is morbidly obese and yet continues to eat and eat and eat even as their functioning as a human being is reduced to such an extent that even basic activities of daily living (showering, leaving the house) become impossible? This is an addictive response to dopamine, and, the longer it is reinforced the more intractable becomes the wiring until changing the behaviour is well nigh impossible.

PC: DB

It turns out, that, in my obsessive desire for novelty, I have been wiring in dopamine reward pathways similar to those generated by more destructive habits. It’s always been frustrating to me that it is hard to meet like minded people: that is, folks who share an, at times, obsessive need to go further, go faster, or simply go different. It’s likely that this is explained by dopamine wiring. I’m wired to find novelty and challenge rewarding and the average person is wired to find chocolate cake at the end of a familiar bicycle ride that they have done 50 times rewarding. There’s no judgement here. I’m increasingly libertarian these days, wearied by the terminally nervous legislating what is reasonable to do (while they sit on their arses eating chocolate cake washed down with a litre of grog – socially acceptable ways to shorten your life and health span). You get to choose your poison reward; but you should choose with full knowledge of the implications of that choice.

1Dr. Anna Lembke, Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.