Humans are strange, interesting, sometimes weird, yet very simple creatures. The way our brain works is amazing.
A few days ago, I bought some ice-cream and put it in the freezer. Later that evening, I felt like having some, but surprisingly, I didn’t really want it. I wondered why and decided to try something called sugar detox, no sugar for a few days.
The reason I didn’t want the ice-cream for six days was because I already had enough sugar. My body just didn’t crave more.
Our brain works the same way, it has something that really wants, and that thing is called dopamine.
Dopamine is non-infinite, yet a renewable resource.
Just like adrenaline is released in response to psychological stress, physical stress, like cold water, or maybe before exams, or relationships, and excitements, dopamine, in the other hand, is the molecule of motivation and desire and it can be triggered by number of different things. Basically, if you do something that you really enjoy doing it, a large amount of dopamine is released.
Soon after that huge amount of dopamine release, the brain will have a mirror symmetric decrease of dopamine, and the thing is that the decrease amount of dopamine doesn’t go back to the base line, but it goes below that.
See the image below:
