How to Beat the Dopamine Rush Affecting Our Motivation

There is an expression I use often since I entered my thirties: first-world problem. And they are getting worst. I have a job (that I don’t enjoy but that is for another day), I pay my bills, I work out and I have a good social circle. In a nutshell, your average working girl who goes for brunch on sundays and then whine about her job that pays for her mimosa.

I mostly have it together, except that I have felt an increased level of lethargy for the past year. And then I discovered the culprit: dopamine.

Being Human

Humans have a need for escapism. This is why we seek movies, books, poems, anime, and places that feel unreal. It is inherent in our genes; that urge to just disconnect and go somewhere that makes us feel something, anything. The world is too sanitised.

And that begs the question: were we actually made for this world? Again, I digress. The better question is: when does that escapism go overboard?

Corporations have done a brilliant job in using that human need to provide us with the necessary distraction at a cost.

Enter: Entertainment

We don’t have a shortage of entertainment nowadays. In fact, we are surrounded by a thousand ways to distract us. It is too easy. Everything is so easily available. It gives us the illusion of choice.

I have gone down the rabbit hole so many times: should I watch another episode or make dinner? Should I order uber eats or go out for a walk? Should I quit my job and sacrifice brunch?

Again, as I said, first world problem. Some of us have the priviledge of convenience: public transport that works, apps that provide dinner, or a handyman or a cookie.

The age of the Dopamine

According to Harvard Health, dopamine is a neurotransmitter that triggers pleasure as part of the brain’s reward system. A dopamine rush occurs after sex, shopping, smelling cookies baking in the oven. In the same vein, it can also lead to addiction with intense feel-good factors from drugs.

The neurotransmitter is crucial for our well-being, it facilitates the reward mechanism, provides motivation as well as improves focus, among other benefits. The problem is that the modern world provide too many readily available incentive to produce that dopamine rush.

If we are constantly getting high on consumption, be it social media content, binge watching Netflix or eating fast food, then the crash is going to be felt intensely as well.

It is the age of the instant gratification: our food can be delivered in 15 mins, our mood can be elevated from a tough day at work by having a drink. We have easy access to quick fixes that do not provide long-term solutions. Because if they did, we won’t need to consume them anymore. And we stop oiling the modern machine. Not good for business.

We start building tolerance to the pleasurable feelings and we want more to achieve the same effect. It is the opposite of what we should do, which is to dial down on pleasure and start the delayed gratification process.

What do we do then?

To make a conscious effort to get out of that vicious circle requires courage. The problem is when most people around you have the same problem, we just end up accepting it as a societal phenomenon. The radical solution is to distance ourselves from modern society but that is a drastic measure (but you have my blessings if you try).

I believe the first step is to be fully aware of the instant gratification when it happens. The second step is to then make a choice.

I will choose to cook instead of ordering in.

I will choose to walk ten minutes instead of taking the car.

I will only watch one episode then turn off Netflix.

Our habits will send signals to our body, then we can trust our bodies to self-regulate itself. But it needs the right input.

Build slowly. Don’t shock your brain. Your primal instincts are more powerful than your monday motivation.

Then start stacking up. Start creating plans with delayed rewards. Set yourself a challenge. Pick up a skill that takes time to master and prepare yourself mentally to the feel good factor but….down the line.

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In essence, we need to retrain ourselves. It could be simply exercising our patience muscle. Instead of amplifying the withdrawal,we are postponing the pleasure.

I have recently gotten back into the intermittent fasting game, this is my reset phase. My tipping point was an extreme lack of motivation for things that I usually enjoyed doing: writing and exercising mostly. I am retraining my brain to wait for the feel-good factor.

Too much of a good thing is bad. That is a truth of life. Modern day conveniences keep improving. The irony is, it is not making us any better. Life is just easier in certain ways but it is coming at a cost. Because the loss is abstract, it makes it even more dangerous.

Pen down here, excuse me while I go fix my dopamine.

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Self-published author : www.amazon.com/dp/B0BPYWN9F2

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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