How Does Quick Dopamine Paralyze Your Brain?
Instant gratification vs delayed gratification
Everyone’s heard about dopamine. If not, here is quick info for you:
It’s a hormone that your brain makes when you do something joyful.
It is also the hormone you need to have to be motivated, which means you need a base amount of this hormone to keep you inspired to initiate the task you keep putting off on your calendar.
Now you might wonder how this little hormone can drive you around like an autopilot car that you have no control over!
Dopamine acts on brain areas to give you pleasure, satisfaction, and motivation. If you don’t have enough of this hormone, you can have reduced alertness, difficulty concentrating, and less motivation.
You may tell yourself, "So the more dopamine I have, the happier and more motivated I will be." Unfortunately, this is true up to some points.
Your brain is programmed to enjoy this hormone and crave more even if you already have enough to be energized. Your brain also gets used to the amount of dopamine it produces and keeps that as a base set for the level of dopamine.
In simple words, it is: the more your brain produces dopamine, the more you will crave.
This is the reason why you feel sloppy and unmotivated the next morning after a great concert or a fun night out with your friends.
Your brain is now asking for the same joy and happiness that you can’t make it happen which leaves you unambitious and lazy.
Have you ever had to study or do something requiring a high level of focus after a fun day with your friends? It feels like hell!!!
The more you want to focus, the more your body asks for pleasure, making it hard to concentrate!
Now imagine something that will give you free dopamine, something that is like a cheat code for your mood and well-being. Now do you see how it will interrupt you from concentrating and being motivated?
Social media, video games, and porn are some examples of this.
They will skyrocket your dopamine level. More than what you would get from healthy habits such as reading, exercising, or sex.
These behaviors will paralyze your brain into being sloppy, indecisive, having difficulty concentrating, etc.
Unlike all other gurus who will tell you to sell your gaming console or delete your social media right away, I will tell you to hold on to them.
Sudden change might work in the short run, but it will counteract in the long term.
So my suggestion to you is to slowly replace your bad habits with the good ones.
If you play 3 hours of video games per day, turn it to 2.5 hours a day and 30 minutes of walking.
If you spend 5 hours of your day on social media, turn it into 4 hours a day and 1 hour of reading books.
Slowly and steadily reduce the time you spend on your phone or Xbox with healthier habits, BUT remember to give yourself a chance to enjoy them as well.
Don’t punish yourself for doing them, and try to train your body and brain to enjoy them as well, maybe by creating some cheat days for yourself.
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