Controlling Your Dopamine For Motivation, Focus & Satisfaction

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 – influences the communication of many neurons at once.
• There are 2 main neutral circuits used by dopamine to exert effects: (1) mesocortical limbic pathway – responsible for reward, motivation, craving; (2) nigrostriatal pathway – responsible for movement
• Dopamine release can be local or broad

• There is a baseline level of dopamine circulating in your brain and body all the time (important for how you feel generally) - tonic release of dopamine
• You can experience peaks dopamine above baseline - phasic release of dopamine

IMPORTANT: Your baseline level of dopamine drops after you experience or crave something desirable.

All of us have different levels of baseline dopamine, with some genetic component.

How satisfying an experience is depends on the height of the peak relative to the baseline. Increasing dopamine will make you motivated but it will be short lived.

How much dopamine you experience from something depends on your baseline level of dopamine when you arrive there and your previous dopamine peaks.

Thus, when you repeatedly engage in something you enjoy your threshold for enjoyment goes up and up and up.

• Chocolate - 1.5x increase above baseline
• Sex (pursuit and act) - 2x baseline
• Nicotine (when smoked) - 2.5x baseline
• Cocaine - 2.5x baseline
• Amphetamine - 10x baseline
• Exercise - 2x baseline if you enjoy it, NO CHANGE if you don't enjoy it
• Caffeine - does not increase dopamine significantly but it does increase dopamine receptors (yerba mate is the best source)

There are subjective experiences that differentially increase dopamine depending on enjoyment versus things like chocolate, sex, nicotine, etc. which universally increase dopamine.

• The key is to not expect or chase high levels of dopamine when we participate in certain activities.
• 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

• Cold water exposure 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

IMPORTANT: 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)

Layering together multiple substances & activities that lead to big increases in dopamine can create pretty severe issues with motivation and energy right after those experiences

After a peak, the level of dopamine drops below baseline. The extent to which it drops is proportional to how high the peak was.

This explains why doing the same behaviours will not produce the same level of joy.

Don't spike dopamine prior to engaging in effrort.

Don't spike dopamine after engaging in effort.

LEARN TO SPIKE DOPAMINE FROM EFFORT ITSELF.

• 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 + ALPHA-GPC

IMPORTANT: A drop in dopamine is inevitable after a spike

Telling yourself that exercise (fasting, etc) is good for your will reinforce the extent to which it is good for you at a chemical level.