Your alarm goes off early in the morning. You look over in the direction of its relentless ringing and see the time. It’s still dark outside. You’re feeling comfortable and warm under your covers and you decide to make the executive decision that another 15 minutes in bed won’t hurt. So, you hit the snooze button and return to your slumber. You wake up to the same alarm 10 minutes later but you’re still not committed to getting out of bed. Instead, you pick up your phone, stay in bed, and scroll through whatever notifications, news, and social media you can consume. Eventually, you’ve seen enough and decide that now it's time to get up 30 minutes after your first alarm went off. This isn’t the first time you’ve done this and it is probably not the last. 

 

This one morning you may see as solely rewarding yourself with a few extra comfy minutes in bed and some early morning technology exposure was actually guided by a chemical released in your brain called dopamine. Dopamine has a significant role in reward-seeking behaviors. Rewards are things we both like and want. Dopamine is more responsible for the wanting part. Dopamine is what allows you to be motivated to want to do things. Want to finish an important task? Here’s some dopamine. Want to complete a project? More dopamine. Want to reach a goal? Take a guess. With each step you take towards completing something, like a workout, homework, or a project, dopamine helps to motivate you to stay the course and finish what you started in order for you to get what you want. Dopamine is an absolutely essential part of the human psyche and has been for millions of years. Long before we had supermarkets, humans had to scavenge and fight if they wanted to eat any food. Because of the dopamine we’d get from eating food, we also had the added dopamine-driven motivation to seek it out. 

 

In the book, Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek writes, “When the system works as designed, we stay well fed, get our work done and make progress. What’s more, we are better able to support and provide for those in our family and tribe. Dopamine can help us get through college, become a doctor or work tirelessly to realize an imagined vision of the future.” This is all very true. When managed and used properly, dopamine will take us far but there is a negative alternative for when we let our search for dopamine go unchecked. Dopamine can be highly addictive. As helpful as it is, we can also form habits influenced by our search for dopamine that will ultimately deal sufficient damage to our physical, mental, and emotional health.

 

No matter how much dopamine we have received from something, there will never be enough. Alcohol, cocaine, nicotine, marijuana, gambling, pornography, video games, social media, and anything under the sun that makes you feel good will supply you with dopamine. Any addictions that are built toward these things are essentially dopamine addictions. It is the drug, the gameplay, or the likes and comments we think we want, but really it is the dopamine.

 

Early morning procrastination and cell phone use are just a few of many dopamine-driven actions that keep millions of people in bed each and every day longer than they initially planned. Though it seems harmless when you’re in the moment, one dopamine-driven action may morph into many others throughout your days and weeks. When unchecked, we seek out dopamine in almost everything we do. If you’ve ever found yourself checking your phone multiple times for notifications even though you didn’t get any rings, vibrations, or pop-ups (I did this multiple times while writing this) you’re seeking out the dopamine you’ll get from whatever notification you’re hoping to see. If the first thing you do in the morning is pick up your phone and look through it, you’re searching for some instant cell-phone provided dopamine to satisfy your hunger. The problem here isn’t the act of going on your phone or checking your messages and social media, it is that you didn’t do any work prior to rewarding yourself. Nowadays, it is incredibly easy to do this. We don’t need to hunt, fight, kill, gather, plant, or even cook to survive anymore, most of us live in cozy houses or apartments, can buy food to be made and delivered to us, and have access to literally everything in the world on the internet.

 

Because we crave the chemical feel-good that is dopamine, we repeat the past behaviors that provided it to us. This neurological pathway towards pleasure and satisfaction can either work to help us or hurt us. If you are someone that works out often, you know the feeling of satisfaction you get after a tough workout. If you’ve ever worked extremely hard on a project or towards a goal, you’ve felt the reward of completing it or reaching the goal after days, weeks, or months of continuous effort. As you get further into your workout or get closer to reaching your goal, you continuously get a bit more dopamine to push you forward until the task is completed and you can reap the rewards. On the contrary, if you’ve ever opened your phone and gone through an app like TikTok or Youtube watching short videos meant to make you laugh or grab your attention, you’re getting smacked with dopamine multiple times each minute. Other activities that are typically done without any work prior to doing them, such as playing video games, binging on social media, and taking drugs, also provide substantial amounts of dopamine. With the high amounts of dopamine received from activities such as these, you are left wanting even more dopamine to match the dopamine high you just had. As excessive dopamine-producing habits form, your brain works in the opposite direction. Dopamine receptors become less responsive or even totally shut down to lower dopamine levels. Once dopamine is toned down, you are now required to indulge more in whatever activity it is you are doing in order to receive the same amount of pleasure. 

 

When working towards something, dopamine is provided in small spurts to motivate you to reach that thing you want. Overactivation of dopamine due to getting large amounts of things you want without actively working for them or taking substances that provide dopamine spurts not typically possible in day-to-day life will cause a few problems down the road. As was said before, with heavy exposure to dopamine via some activity or substance, comes a large drop in dopamine afterward. This often leads to lost interest and lower motivation when doing other things that don’t give you nearly as much dopamine as quickly. You wind up acting more compulsively to get your quick dopamine reward and push off doing other things that may be more important in the long run. If you’ve ever felt apathetic towards schoolwork, a project, team practice, or some kind of strenuous/tedious activity and procrastinated attending to it, but had an unbreakable will to go out to a party, watch a tv show, or play video games for hours, this may be why. Experts believe that dysfunction in the dopamine system is related to depression and other mental disorders. Some symptoms of depression include low motivation, feelings of helplessness, and a loss of interest in things that previously interested you. Sound familiar? Dopamine is also involved in many bodily functions such as blood flow, digestion, mood and emotions, memory and focus, sleep, and stress response. Huge fluctuations in dopamine levels may throw off any of these functions. A flood of dopamine causes feelings of euphoria and happiness but afterward will bring you back to earth lower than you prior were. With low levels of dopamine comes low motivation to do activities other than what provided you with that initially great feeling. This can mean avoiding meeting new people, not trying out new things, not pushing yourself to complete difficult projects, and neglecting to prepare yourself for challenges that are to come in the future.

 

What You Can Do:

 

When managed the right way, dopamine does great things for us. When let off the hook, humans can become addicted to anything, especially when they have access to everything. Eating unhealthy food, gaming, binge-watching, social media, alcohol, gambling, you name it. Here are a few ways to make sure you don’t fall into an endless cycle of reward-seeking behaviors that will not only hurt you but also your relationships with those around you.

 

1. Recognize Your Dopamine-Driven Actions

Step one to overcome any bad habit is to call it out when you see it. If it’s compulsive eating, recognize it at that moment. If it’s complacency or procrastination, identify it right away. If it’s alcohol or drug use, take note the second you pick up the substance or drink. Then, call it for what it is, a dopamine-driven action. It is something that you want but don’t need and won’t help you in any way.

 

2. Manufacture Routes That Force You To Work For Your Rewards

Habits are inevitable and repetitive. Most people tend to act similarly in everything they do. What do I mean by this? If you procrastinate waking up in the morning, you probably procrastinate falling asleep at night. If you compulsively seek out quick dopamine rewards early in the day by getting right on your phone or staying in bed, you’ll likely seek quick dopamine rewards, lacking work or effort, elsewhere in your day. That could be by pushing aside work you have to do so that you can enjoy a TV show, take a nap, or scroll through social media. In a sports competition, it could be keeping the ball rather than passing it to an open teammate, not trying your hardest when you’re tired, or shying away from a tough tackle. Or, it could be avoiding/self-sabotaging potentially stressful situations like meeting new people, trying new things, or training to prepare yourself for a future event or work opportunity. 

 

To offset this, create space for you to do work that’ll give you rewards in the long term. A perfect example of this is exercising. When you exercise, it typically doesn’t feel good, you sweat through your clothes, and for a few days afterward, your body is smacked with a wave of soreness. The positive is that you got through the workout and put some seeds in for future muscle growth, performance enhancement, and whatever other goal you may be seeking. Dopamine is provided to you throughout the workout with each completed set and even more so after you finish. With consistent training, the negative effects of exercising also begin to go down. You don’t feel as sore after working out anymore, you start to see results, and you feel more confident and motivated in the gym. Studies have found that aerobic exercise, yoga, and intense training can improve mood and dopamine levels, and upregulate dopamine receptors in the brain. 

 

Aside from exercise, what else can you do? Set some activities for yourself to complete prior to allowing yourself to indulge in things like cell phone use, eating food, lying down, listening to music, etc. For example, every morning for much of this past year, I’d wake up early in the morning and immediately make my bed and go outside for a run around my block, then I’d come back in and sweep or vacuum the floor in my kitchen, I’d hop in the shower with cold water, change, go downstairs and cook breakfast while also reading, eat, then clean all of the pots, pans, and dishes I used. After about 2 hours of doing this, I am done and allow myself to finally touch my phone. On days that I am successfully able to get up on time and complete all of these tasks, I find myself much more attentive and motivated and have a better mood throughout the day. On days that I don’t, I get the opposite. A worse mood, low motivation, and a lack of focus. Take what you will from that. There are multiple ways to do this, you just have to figure out the best way to do it for yourself. This could be pushing off a big meal until after you work out or pushing off video games, social media, and social events until you complete the work that you need to do. By doing this, you can rewire your brain, reinforcing habits that prompt you to work for rewards rather than seek rewards without work.

 

3. Resist Your Dopamine-Driven Habits

This is definitely easier said than done which is why it comes after step two. Step two is meant to strengthen your ability to resist compulsion and work to receive the things you want. Now that you can identify what your dopamine-driven habits are, it is time to focus your attention on resisting the habit itself. By identifying it as a dopamine-driven habit, you know what it is, and you know you shouldn’t do it. Compulsive habits like biting nails, eating unhealthy foods, alcohol consumption, social media usage, etc. can and should be addressed. Not every habit needs to be completely obliterated from your day. If you like playing video games, play video games but don’t put your work or relationships to the side for it. If you like to go out sometimes, go out but make sure to do what you need to do prior. Understand that your compulsivity to do things and procrastination to not do other things could just be your yearning for dopamine going unchecked. 

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Dopamine is a two-way street. It can help us work towards things that will enable us to succeed or it can break us down and manufacture addictions to things that aren’t helping us get anywhere. By taking note of and managing your dopamine-driven habits you can ensure that you aren’t being swept down the wrong path.