Dopamine Hits

Dopamine is a chemical released in the brain that makes you feel good. People chase dopamine. It is the reason for most addictions. That is how powerful a craving dopamine is. Dopamine is a need for the human experience. With dopamine, you can enjoy life. Chasing dopamine is a natural desire for humans and it is interesting to see where your dopamine is coming from. What sources are providing you this feeling we all desire?

In a world of ever-increasing technological dependency, our inclination for the easiest hit of dopamine has increased. Why sit through a television commercial when you can switch the channel to some live action? Why watch a boring TikTok video when you can swipe your finger and instantly move on to the next video? The answer is we don’t. The human attention span has never been shorter. We divert our attention to what can fuel that hunger for dopamine. It is as easy as switching the channel or swiping our finger on an app. This ease can leave us feeling empty. Empty as we realize these fake bouts of dopamine, these manufactured bouts of dopamine, these meaningless bouts of dopamine, these unfulfilling bouts of dopamine. How many cat videos are we going to watch before we realize we are trapped in a habit that brings nothing positive to us? We must choose to realize where we are spending our time chasing dopamine and reevaluate.

By realizing we are stuck in the “attention-seeking” cycle we can take steps to overcome this. We can relearn an ability to focus and to realize dopamine from being productive. By taking a break from constant scrolling we are able to wane off the constant hits of dopamine so our requirement to feel its effects go lower. Choosing to focus on one task at a time helps our minds overcome the scrolling addiction. Instead of needing to scroll social media for minutes at a time, we can step outside, feel the sunshine and immediately feel better. Instead of needing to have manufactured effects feed us dopamine we can find natural and fulfilling ways. Going for a walk and waving to a child is a pure and effortless hit of dopamine we can secure. We just need to enable ourselves to be put in that position. We can do so by putting our devices down and being intensely present in the moment we find ourselves in.

The doom scrolling of social media or use of technology does not need to be the only way we find dopamine. By understanding which of our habits are feeding us dopamine we can model our lives to cultivate this chemical reaction in positive and fulfilling ways. We can reprogram our habits to reprogram what feeds us dopamine. Hit the dopamine, but make it the right kind.