How I Tricked My Brain To Like Doing Hard Things

Dopamine Detox

created by: Sophia Lill

Many of us spend hours per day playing video games or browsing social media with a full concentration, but when it comes to doing duties, it becomes harder for us.

Your brain prefers to do enjoyable activities rather than the essentials, so you feel less productive doing sports, homework, cleaning, etc.

But some people seem to have no problem studying, exercising, working regularly.

So why are they more motivated to tackle difficult things?

Dopamine is a “pleasure chemical,” but that’s not quite what it does. Dopamine’s what makes us desire things that give us the motivation to get our tasks done.

To confirm the role of dopamine, some neuroscientists did experiments on rats, so they implanted electrodes in their brains. Whenever the rat put a lever, the researchers stimulated the rat’s reward system in the brain.

The result was that the rats became more passionate that they kept pulling the lever over and over for hours. They even refused to eat or even sleep; they just kept pressing the lever until they dropped from exhaustion.

The researches reversed the process; they blocked the release of dopamine in the brain’s reward center. As a result, the rat became…