How Dopamine Really Works

Truly Understand it to “Hack” Your Life Enjoyment

I will make a wild claim: while activities such as smoking, gambling, and alcohol consumption are physiologically addictive in some ways, they are mostly addictive because of people’s lack of mindfulness and understanding of neurotransmitters.

I limit this claim to things like gambling because certain things, like hard drugs, have a more pernicious physiological component. That makes it much less straightforward to deal with them. However, even bad habits such as smoking can be completely “cured” by certain interventions.

What are these? the short answer: an understanding of dopamine and its relationship to desire and pleasure. Using this, adopting mindfulness and an appreciation for low pleasure, but consistent activities.

Dopamine Is NOT Just the Pleasure Hormone

Most people’s understanding of dopamine is quite limited. They think it’s just what brings us pleasure from activities. However, recent neurological understanding of dopamine suggests that it has a different role: it creates wanting in us, which pushes us to action. It encourages us to put more effort into achieving things in expectation of the reward.