Addictions to alcohol, drugs, gambling, watching porn, playing video games, eating unhealthy foods and using social media which are responsible for high dopamine release are a new norm for our generation.
Are you addicted too ? Let’s find out.

Right from the beginning I’d like to point out that dopamine in it’s core is not bad, it plays a role in many body functions (movement, memory, pleasurable reward and motivation, behavior and cognition, attention, sleep and arousal, mood, learning, lactation). If you have the right balance of dopamine and if you are aware how is it released.

Dopamine is a molecule in the brain and body that is closely linked to our sense of motivation. It can also enhance our depth of focus and lower our threshold for taking action toward specific goals. The simplest way to think about dopamine is that when our dopamine levels are elevated, we tend to focus our attention on outward goals – the things we want – and we feel motivated to pursue them. “Dopamine is about wanting, not about having,” said Dr. Anna Lembke, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and the chief of the Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic at Stanford. If you have a high dopamine level, you might feel: euphoric, energized and a high sex drive. When dopamine levels are low, we feel unmotivated, derive less pleasure from pursuits and feel physically tired. High levels of dopamine caused by drinking, drugs, gambling, watching porn, playing video games, eating unhealthy foods and using social media can trigger dopamine’s excitatory effects. Dopamine is part of our reward system. When you’re doing something pleasurable, your brain releases a large amount of dopamine. You feel good and you seek more of that feeling. This “excitement” motivates us to continue the activity, which can eventually lead to addiction.

STOP watching PORN !

Sexual activity (sex, masturbation, watching porn) produces large amounts of dopamine, that’s why you get addicted to watching porn so easily. Issue with watching porn is that is easily accessible thanks to the internet. I’m sure women can have problem with addiction to watching it also, but it is mainly men’s problem. Why is that ? The Coolidge effect is a biological phenomenon seen in animals, whereby males exhibit renewed sexual interest whenever a new female is introduced, even after sex with prior but still available sexual partners. To a lesser extent, the effect is also seen among females with regard to their mates. With online porn, men have an infinite number of “new females” available at all times. 
When watching porn we train our bodies to become dependent upon finding a new, exciting “mate” that will meet or exceed our current expectation in order to have the dopamine released. It is no longer enough to simply have sex or be committed to a single woman because of the dopamine response to porn. This is why pornography addicts experience porn-induced erectile dysfunction and why many men desire to have more sex but are not aroused by their spouse. They have trained their body to be aroused by online porn not by a person because the “novelty” image will lead to an increased dopamine response to porn compared to the alternative. Our brains become “wired” to have pornography and to seek it out. You need to stop watching it forever as it will require rewiring your brain to stop craving those dopamine hits. Make no mistake about it, quitting pornography will be a big challenge for yourself as with any other addiction, but it is an absolute must. But “why on earth nobody talks about it with young men ?”. Well, as you’ll find out over time on my blog, most of the topics I talk about are not talked about in mainstream media because an individual addicted to dopamine release by drugs, porn, unhealthy food and others is an easily manipulated loser and that’s what consumerism wants. Real men want to build relationships and have sex with real women and to get a woman of your dreams you need to work hard on yourself, but that’s a story for another article.

How to maintain healthy levels of dopamine 

We have a baseline of dopamine, and it can spike or drop based on various actions, compounds we ingest or even our thoughts. Our baseline dopamine levels are influenced by many factors, including genetics, behaviors, sleep, nutrition and the level of dopamine you experienced on previous days. 

How to establish a healthy level of baseline dopamine and which are healthy ways to release dopamine:

• View early morning sunlight for 10-30 minutes daily, this causes the release of dopamine
• Eat tyrosine-rich foods: a diet rich in tyrosine will sustain your body’s natural dopamine production
• Avoid melatonin supplements, as these can decrease dopamine levels and can disrupt your normal sleep patterns. Melatonin is only recommended for jet lag
• Avoid viewing bright lights between 10 p.m.-4 a.m. This is essential, as it has been shown to activate a brain region called the habenula and drastically reduce the amount of circulating dopamine in your system. If you must view light at these times, make it very dim
• Ingest caffeine (approximately 100-400mg) in the form of coffee, tea or whatever form you prefer. This will cause a mild increase in dopamine but also increases the availability of dopamine receptors, so your body is more sensitive to circulating dopamine. Don’t do this too close to sleep. (See “Fix your sleep” article)
• Exercise every day (whatever you prefer)
• Eat healthy foods
• Meditate (or practice Yin Yoga)
• Cold water exposure ! – cold showers, ice baths = the body responds to cold water by up-regulating feel-good molecules like dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine

Be careful and avoid layering too many sources of dopamine. Layering too many dopamine-triggering sources causes a crash afterward, ultimately undermining our longer-term motivation and continued drive. 

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Take care, talk to you soon.