Correlations between Dopamine, Addiction and Habits

Science and common sense

Michał Stawicki
2 min readApr 27, 2021

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Image by Andi Graf from Pixabay

We still know very little about those correlations. The human brain is still mostly an enigma to scientists.

The cursory research on the Internet brought contradictory conclusions — from dopamine being devastating to focus-increasing :/

The Neuroscience Of Pleasure

So, I’ll use common sense. Dopamine-inducing substances and habits are, first of all, addicting. Dopamine equals pleasure and pleasure equals addiction.

And an addiction equals death. Maybe not physical death, but surely a death as a full human being.

BTW, one of the most dopamine-inducing behavior is using your mobile. Each touch gives you a little pang of dopamine because it’s not administered only when you feel pleasure, it also shoots when you anticipate it. All the notifications are exactly this — anticipation of pleasure (“Someone liked my post! I’m worthy!”).

Maybe you should reconsider how often you use your smartphone?

The Mechanics of Addiction

The trouble with the addiction is that it always spirals down. After some time, the current dose of whatever provides a smaller stimulus. So, you increase the dose. Some more time, and it stops being as stimulating. So, you increase and increase the dose till you are no longer a full human being.

There will never be enoughfor you. You are lost.

It is as true for drug addicts, as sex addicts, game addicts, or food addicts. Lack of moderation always ends up in an addiction.

Moderation is always the best route.

Back to the Brain Science

Thus, I’m inclined to believe rather those research, which correlated the excess of dopamine with becoming hyperactive, maniac, and troubles with concentration.

This is exactly what I see in my three mobile-addicted teenagers :/

I can’t give you specific research, but I heard from a shrink that excessive use of mobiles by people under 21 retards their prefrontal cortex and grows their limbic brain; exactly because of flooding the brain with dopamine.

Which only makes sense. The prefrontal cortex is where most of the conscious processes are located in a human brain, and we share the limbic system with other mammals, it’s a home of emotions.

Why it applies to younger folks? Well, their prefrontal cortex is not yet fully developed till the early twenties.

The more you flood your system with dopamine, the less you are a creature of reflection, and more a creature of impulses

Playing with dopamine-inducing substances and habits is like playing with matches in a gunpowder magazine. The disaster is a matter of “when”, not “if”.

Originally published on Quora

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Michał Stawicki

Authorpreneur. Progress fanatic. I help people change their lives… even if they don’t believe they can. I blog on http://ExpandBeyondYourself.com/