Controlling Your Dopamine For Motivation, Focus & Satisfaction

Dopamine lies at the heart of all addictions
We can increase dopamine through behaviors, with rapid and long-lasting results
“Dopamine is a currency and it’s the way that you track pleasure, track success, track whether or not you are doing well or poorly.” – Dr. Andrew Huberman
Experience of life and motivation or drive is relative to how much dopamine you have at any given moment
The ability to experience motivation and pleasure next is dictated by how much motivation and pleasure you experienced in the past
Learn to spike dopamine from effort itself: focusing only on the reward at the end of effort can undermine the process, making the process feel more painful and time feel longer
Cold plunge (water temperature depends on cold adaptation) can increase dopamine levels 2.5x for longer periods of time, up to three hours post-exposure

Dopamine is the primary determinant behind how excited we are, how motivated we are, and how ready we are to push through things to get what we want
Dopamine is a neuromodulator (different than a neurotransmitter) – influences the communication of many neurons at once
Dopamine influences motivation, drive, craving, and time perception
Two main pathways: (1) mesocortical limbic pathway – responsible for reward, motivation, craving; (2) nigrostriatal pathway – responsible for movement
Dopamine release can be local or broad
Dopamine communicates via g-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) so its effects take longer to kick in and actually impact gene expression
Neurons that release dopamine also release glutamate
Dopamine makes people crave and pursue things outside of themselves
With Parkinson’s and Lewy Body Dementia dopamine dies
Dopamine is not just about pleasure: it’s the universal currency of foraging and seeking things that will provide sustenance and pleasure in the short term and extend life in the long term

When you experience or crave something desirable, your baseline level of dopamine drops
Tonic: low level of dopamine that is always circulating
Phasic: peaks of dopamine that release
We want to activate different levels of dopamine at different times
Drugs and supplements that increase dopamine will make it harder to sustain dopamine release over time because you are stimulating local and broad dopamine release – increasing baseline and peak so it’s short-lived
How much dopamine you experience depends on baseline levels of dopamine when you arrive with to that moment versus dopamine peaks
When you repeatedly engage in something you enjoy, baseline dopamine goes up
All of us have different levels of baseline dopamine, with some genetic component
Epinephrine and adrenaline are manufactured from dopamine

When you ingest or do certain things, levels of dopamine will rise with varying levels of duration
Chocolate will increase dopamine 1.5x above baseline
Sex (pursuit and act) increase dopamine 2x above baseline
Nicotine (when smoked) increases dopamine 2.5x above baseline
Cocaine increases dopamine 2.5x above baseline
Amphetamine increases dopamine 10x above baseline
Amphetamine and cocaine can limit dopamine, learning and plasticity over long period of time
Exercise will be differential depending on how much you enjoy that exercise – if you enjoy, exercise will increase dopamine 2x above baseline
There are subjective experiences that differentially increase dopamine depending on enjoyment versus things like chocolate, sex, nicotine, etc. which universally increase dopamine

There are two sides to pleasure: (1) seeking out high, euphoria – and (2) seeking experiences that dull or avoid pain
Pleasure and pain are co-located in the brain and work like a balance, tipping inversely
We all have a dopamine setpoint: if we continue to participate in dopamine stimulating activities, eventually we won’t experience the same joy from those behaviors
Pleasure-pain balance is based on how much dopamine is there and how much is ready to be released into the system
If you do something which releases huge levels of dopamine, pleasure drops because there isn’t enough dopamine to release after
Dopamine levels can drop in imperceptible ways until it reaches a threshold of low dopamine, and we don’t get pleasure from anything anymore

The Key is understanding dopamine peaks and baseline
The key is to not expect or chase high levels of dopamine when we participate in certain activities
When we expect something to happen, we are highly motivated to pursue it (e.g., gambling)
Intermittent schedules can keep you motivated and engaged: make sure dopamine peaks don’t occur too often and vary how much dopamine you experience with that activity
Whatever activities you’d like to continue over time, pay attention to how much dopamine you get and modulate accordingly –

Examples of how to modulate dopamine: maybe do something alone that you usually would do in a group so it’s a different experience, don’t listen to music when exercising if it’s part of why you enjoy exercise, change the colors on your phone so it’s less pleasurable, etc.
Avoid stimulant use every time you participate in an activity such as pre-workout, Adderall, Ritalin, energy drink
Caffeine is ok: dopamine release is modest with caffeine and can increase density, efficacy, and upregulation of dopamine receptors (yerba mate is the best source)
Cold plunge (temperature of the water will depend on cold adaptation) can boost dopamine up to 2.5x above baseline – but is sustained for up to three hours post-exposure
Dopamine controls the perception of time: when we engage in activity for the sole purpose of reward, time will feel longer because we are not releasing dopamine during the effort – only the reward
Access reward from the process and associate dopamine release from friction and challenge you are in during effort instead of only once goal is achieved – convince yourself the effort part is the good part (e.g., intermittent fasting)

Wellbutrin (depression medication) increases dopamine and can increase motivation and craving
Mucuna pruriens contain L-dopa which is the precursor for dopamine– but the crash takes place
L-tyrosine is an amino acid precursor to L-dopa; leads to a increase in dopamine and can improve focus but dosing is difficult to dial in and will be followed by a crash
Phenethylamine (PEA) can be used similarly to L-tyrosine, intermittently to improve focus
Huperzine A is a newer nootropic compound found to improve neurotransmitters in the brain
Close social connections that release oxytocin have been found to trigger the dopamine system
Remember, a drop in dopamine is inevitable after a spike

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