Dopamine and Addiction? What is the connection?

Understanding the neuroscience behind addiction

Our brain operates in a way that does not function for the world we are living in. The result is that we find more and more people with anxiety, depression and addictive behaviors. The reason for that is simple, the evolution of the world has a speed to which our brain can not compete with. The social, relational and technical realities that we are living in, are not compatible with the evolution of our brain. Our brain still operates on the level of survival, to find food, shelter and a mate to reproduce.

In this article I will look into those two different realities. Why we engage so easily in addictive behaviors (yes, we all do to a certain degree!), what is happening on the neurological side, how you can detect with some simple questions (and hopefully honest answers!) your possible addiction, and what are the steps to prepare and then realize a dopamine detoxication so you can reset your brain. I know it is a lot of information, and I will try to keep it as simple as possible, so you do not have to become a neuroscience to understand and change your own behavior.

What is Dopamine?

Let’s start with one of the obvious questions, what is dopamine? Our nerve cells are interconnected and to transmit information from one cell to the next, they use so called neurotransmitters. One of those neurotransmitters is dopamine. Each nerve cell is made of the cell itself and then it has built arms, tentacles or what scientists call axons to connect with the other nerve cells. They are not directly connecting to it, they are very close to each other, so between a nerve cell and the end of an axon there is a little gap. The neurotransmitter is used to get the information from one nerve cell to the next in the way that it is expulsed on one side and received on the other cell. For receiving the neurotransmitter, the nerve cell has doors, and the neurotransmitter works like a key to unlock the door. We will get later back to that part as it plays an interesting role in the context of addiction.

The importance of Dopamine in our brain

Dopamine has been identified as a neurotransmitter that plays an essential role in pleasure, reward and motivation. We need Dopamine to be motivated to repeat things that are important to our survival. If we show a behavior that will help us survive, we will get rewarded. The things that are important for our survival are food, clothing, shelter and finding a mate to reproduce.

Dopamine helps the brain remember the things that are important for our survival. It works on the levels of satisfaction, memory and movement. Whenever we do something that supports our survival and is satisfactory for us, dopamine is expulsed in certain areas of the brain and that same dopamine helps us remember the action and helps us with the movement towards those things in the future. The message that Dopamine sends to the brain is more or less like “do that again, that was good for our survival”.

The Reward Pathway

The next important part to understand addiction better is the reward system. It is developed as a way to reinforce behaviors we need for our survival. When we eat food for example, the reward pathways activate the expulsion of dopamine, which, in return, releases a jolt of satisfaction. This encourages you to eat again in the future.

The Reward Pathway consists of the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system. The prefrontal cortex is important for delayed gratification and appreciating future consequences. This part is very important for the appetitive control, meaning the ability to resist craving and impulses. This part of the brain helps us to do something without having an immediate reward. The limbic system is in charge of regulating emotions, memory and motivation and therefore the area that mainly expulses the dopamine.

Under normal conditions, the limbic system controls an individual’s responses to natural rewards, such as food, sex, and social interactions, and is therefore an important determinant of motivation and incentive drive. In simplistic terms, activation of the pathway tells the individual to repeat what it just did to get that reward.

This reward pathway also activates the memory centers in the brain to pay particular attention to all details of that rewarding experience, so it can be repeated in the future. It is not a surprise that this is a very old pathway from an evolutionary point of view, because it reassures the survival of the organism.

Pleasure – Pain – Balance

The other part we need to understand is the pleasure pain balance within our brain. Our organism functions in general on the need for homeostasis, a self-regulating, dynamic process by which our organism maintain a stable, balanced internal environment (for example temperature, pH, glucose levels, and so on) despite changing external conditions. This is also the case for pleasure that we experience. Our brain responds to a high level of pleasure with unpleasant feelings like irritable, and frustrated and with low energy, kind of sleepy and depressed. That is the reason why after an extended time of doing somenthing very pleasurable we feel down. And at the same moment our brain tries to engage again in the pleasurable behavior or situation.

Neuroadaptation

Neuroadaptation is the brain’s ability to adjust its neural circuitry and functional responses to new conditions, substances, or sensory input. It is a form of neuroplasticity that allows the brain to process change, adapting to addictive substances by building tolerance for example.

If a person consistently indulges in high-level dopamine activities, the brain starts to add more “weight” to the pain side. This will show up in the way of making you feel generally with low energy, irritable, slightly depressed and frustrated. What the brain is doing in those consistent indulges it starts to change the nerve cell structure. It starts to limit the amount of receptors (or doors) through which Dopamine can enter in the nerve cells. This process is called neuroadaptation. The result of the neuroadaptation on the behavioral level is, that the person is craving for or needing more and intenser stimulus just to feel the same intensity of pleasurable. That is why we have a tendency to engage more and more in the use of social media for example. Because we search for this same level of satisfaction. And as the number of receptors have been minimized we engage more often and in a more intense way in the pleasure giving behavior.

How do we become addicted?

Now we can put the pieces together and try to understand addiction on a neuro-behavioral level. Let’s start with the reality we live in today. It is a world that is very different from the world of the early humans. We are no longer exposed to dangers and threats; we actually live today in a very safe environment compared to the earlier human beings. We are normally not facing wild animals, extreme weather conditions without shelter or difficulty finding food.

The reality today is, that we literally have most of the daily life needs at the tip of our fingertips. We can go and shop food or clothes with our cellphones, we can even find a home on the internet. We don’t need to go out and find fruits or kill an animal to have something to eat. The cellphone gives us immediate access to all off the things we need for survival.

When we do something that is connected to any of the needs for our organism to survive the brain expulses Dopamine for two reasons. The first reason is to store the action in our memory, so we can find the place again and repeat the action. The second reason is that it activates the chain of motivation within in the brain, so we will repeat the action. At the same moment the Dopamine gives us the feeling of satisfaction for the successful realization of a survival action. Till this moment there is nothing addictive in the behavior. The problem starts when we go back to the same behavior and start to create a pattern without the need for survival. Each time we go back to that behavior Dopamine is expulsed in our system and we start to long for that feeling of satisfaction. It is a slow process and not really something that we are aware of. We start to create a pattern and then a habit to repeat the action over and over again. Then our brain starts to respond with the pleasure pain balance and every time we engage in that behavior, and the Dopamine is expulsed the brain starts to create the opposite experience to get our system back in balance. We don’t like that down feeling and go and engage again in the Dopamine related behavior. And it starts a cycle of behavior, Dopamine, Satisfaction, counter movement, feeling down, engaging again in the dopamine related behavior and so on. With that the addictive behavior starts to build. When the brain starts to reduce the number of receptors in our nerve cells we are starting to go for more intense stimuli to continue having the same effect of satisfaction. By that we are in full addictive cycle.

Here are another interesting information of addiction and the brain. Both forms of addictions, substance generated or behavior generated, leave the same traces in the brain. Meaning scientists find the same areas and structures activated in addiction, no matter what the origin of the addiction is. One of the biggest misconceptions about dopamine is that you get addicted to it, that is not true. Dopamine itself is not addictive. Dopamine just gives a signal to the brain; it is the behavior or the substance that we get addicted to.

Five Qualities that make something addictive

Let’s look into what are the factors that make a behavior or a substance addictive. Remember that we all have the reward pathway in our brain as a survival mechanism, so we all have a tendency or possibility to become addicted. Here is an interesting aspect about becoming addicted to a behavior or a substance: any addictive behavior flushes the reward system in the brain ten times higher than any natural survival behavior does. Ten times higher! Saying that, it means that our brain learns over time that the addictive behavior gives much more rewards than the normal, non-addictive, natural behavior. The logical consequence is that the brain starts to search and yearn for the addictive behavior. Here are five qualities that makes a behavior potentially addictive:

Access – the easier the access is, the more addictive potential the behavior will have. The internet is a very easy to access platform and it gives us easy access to uncountable possibilities to all kinds of addictive things.

Quantity – the more we engage in our addictive behavior of choice the more frequent we get into the dopamine deficit state, and we will try to consume more to get out of that state. Remember here the pleasure – pain – balance.

Potency – the question behind potency is how much and how fast dopamine is released in the brain. The more and the faster dopamine is released the more potent the drug or behavior in terms of addiction it is.

Novelty – our brain is drawn to everything that is new. One of the things that we do to overcome the tolerance to a drug is finding constantly something new, more intense or more extreme. We look for something that we know but is slightly different. The algorithms of social media and other platforms point directly to that. It gives you something that you know but slightly different.

Uncertainty – rewards that are less predictable are more addictive than rewards that are more likely to be happening. The uncertainty is what pulls us in. That is for example the high addictive aspect in gambling, because the outcome is not predictable.

Action and result – our brain responds very fast to an immediate result to any action that we show. For example, the swiping through social media (action) to the next content (positive result) is very rewarding and with that very addictive for our nervous system. And each time we swipe in social media Dopamine is expulsed in the system.

Five signs you might have a problem (with addiction)

It is often hard to be honest with ourselves in terms of detecting if we have an addictive behavior or already starting to harm ourselves or our relationship with that kind of behavior as our brain has a strong tendency to minimize the harms and maximizes the good. We can look at those following five soft signs that might be an indicator that you are engaging in compulsive overconsumption of any kind of substance or behavior.

1. A friend or loved one comments that there might be a problem. Pay attention to that information and not brush them away. (“you are spending a lot of time in your phone!”)
2. When we are starting to overconsume, we tend to lie to ourselves in the first place, and we will also start to minimize our behavior in front of friends and loved ones. When you find yourself in lying to people close to you about the things you are doing, that can be a good indicator for yourself that you are already overconsuming.
3. The next sign is that you might start with mental health issues like anxiety, depression or irritability, insomnia or others. Take that body information serious as it most is likely connected to your unhealthy behavior.
4. Check with yourself on how much time and energy you put into that behavior. The best way to do that is take a piece of paper and a pen and write down when and for how long you have really engaged in the behavior during the last week. Be honest with yourself! And then sum it up to see how much time you really spend with that activity. This is especially crucial when we talk about the use of a screen and social media or pornography or shopping or other cellphone or computer related activities.
5. The last indicator is the terror or the anxiety if you have to stop the behavior and can’t engage in it. You can observe that when you have to stop the behavior because you have to go to work or engage in another activity, when you are easily frustrated about stopping it or feel anxious about it, you might take in consideration that you really have a problem with overconsuming.

30 Days of Dopamine Fast

With all the information we have collected so far about the brain and dopamine and addiction, we can now take a look of what is needed to break through the cycle of addiction. The following recommendations are a step by step guide both on a neurological and on the behavioral level to create a reset in your brain, which is required to create a first level of long-term sobriety. The following the steps for the 30 days of dopamine fast.

1. Identify your drug of choice

What is your drug of choice? To figure that out you can answer the following questions to yourself: What do I turn to when I’m stressed, tired or bored? What do I do more than I intend to? What do I hide or feel ashamed about? What leaves me feeling worse afterwards and not better? Be really honest with yourself to figure that piece out.

• Track your drug use for one week

Timeline Follow-Back Method: You start from today and count backwards for a whole week. When did you engage in the behavior and how often? Do that for every single day of the last week. Once you have done that, sum up the time that you have spent with that behavior. So, you can see your actual amount of time you engage in that behavior during a week. For example, if you are consuming a lot of social media, you will write down which social media you use and the time you have spent each time you engage in it. Your cellphone can actually help you with that as it sums up the time already for you. But I would invite you to sit with this part of the observation to get a feeling of what you are actually doing with your time and energy. You probably will be surprised on the amount of time you really spent on it.

• Figure out why you use the drug

Why do engage in the behavior or use the drug? Part of the answer you already find under the bullet point 1. A simple strategy for figuring the why out, is that normally we engage in our drug of choice for two of the following reasons: to have fun or to solve or escape a problem. And you can add one more question here, which is the change in frequency. Meaning you realize that the “normal” frequency is not giving you the same satisfaction that it gave you in the beginning! If that is the case it means your nervous system is already starting to desensitize your nervous system.

• Pick a start date and tell people!

Prepare for the dopamine fasting! The first thing you will do is chose a day when you want to start the fasting. Make it a special day for you and let the people close to you know that you are going to fast, so that they know what they have to expect from you during those first days. Because you will not be in a good mood as your body, your nervous system, will be craving for the dopamine.

• Write your triggers down and create your “if-then” plan

Be aware of the triggers. Those can be people, situations or internal states that activate your nervous system and that make you want to go to your addictive behavior. Working with betrayers, this is the classical middle or yellow circle within the circle plan. The question is what are the external and internal factors that will push you towards your addictive behavior. Another way to prepare and deal with this is the “if – then” strategy. On the “if” side you will write down the behavior that you don’t want to engage in and then you put on the “then” side a healthy behavior. For example, if a betrayer has the urge or craving to watch pornography then he chooses to go and connect with his partner and talk about it.

• Choose your Self-Binding Strategies

We cannot rely on willpower alone. If it comes to overcome our addictive behavior, we cannot rely on our own willpower alone. Even if we feel very confident in the morning. During the day our energy level goes down and at the end of the day we don’t have the power to withstand the yearning for our addictive behavior. Question here is, what healthy behavior can you engage in, when you are craving for your drug of choice?

Here are some strategies to have in mind that can help you with the craving when your willpower fades away.

Space – get your drug of choice away from you physically, so you do not have an easy access to it.

Time – After the 30 days don’t believe that you are complete sober, you have to start slowly engaging in the behavior and observe you very carefully if you engage again in an addictive structure.

Meaning – What is your meaning of life and what are your priorities for your life? With which activity and with whom do you really want to spend your time with? In case you desire to go back to your addictive behavior, have those things very clear, they help you push towards healthy behavior.

People – we massively regulate our behavior through other people! Make clear choices towards healthy people, that can push you out of the craving. If they are close to you, you should let them know when you start the fasting and that you need their help during that time.

• Activities that will help you with the dopamine fasting

Here are some general ideas for healthy activities that can help you during and after the 30 days of dopamine fasting.

Physical activity – Find your activity of choice and be consistent with it. Physical activity expulses dopamine into your system but in amounts that are healthy and it is often expulsed after the activity has finished. By that your nervous system learns to not get immediate rewards.

Meditation and spiritual activity – Find your way of connecting with yourself. It helps you to listen to yourself and it also helps you break through the cycle of repeating your habits over and over again without awareness. Meditation opens the space to create awareness.

Really connecting with your loved ones and friends – Actively choose to connect with your friends and family members, people that are healthy and helpful for you in your process. We are social beings and any social contact is healing for our nervous system. It will leave us with a certain level of joy. Behind a lot of the addictive behaviors (and the addictive behavior itself) there is a loneliness that we try to cover up with that behavior.

Cold exposure – Take a cold shower, put your hands in a box of ice cubes, anything that exposes your body to extreme experiences helps you stay away from the addictive behavior. It sets your body into a short-term alarm stage; your body has to deal with it and forgets about the craving.

Eating healthy – We need energy and the way we get energy is by eating. You can decide what kind of food you want to consume. Healthy food with awareness connects you with your body and with yourself. You will learn over time what your body really needs and what is healthy for him.

Some last thoughts

The 30 days of dopamine fasting is the beginning of getting out of your addictive cycle. It helps you to reset your nervous system. If you believe that after those 30 days you are clean and you can go back to your addictive behavior and you can control it, you are mistaken. It is the starting point of a longer journey. If you want another piece of scientific information: to change a habit it takes at least 90 days! And you will struggle during those 90 days. If you stay connected with your goal you can create a new habit.

We are actually not fasting from the Dopamine; we are helping with the fasting our body to stay away from our drug or addictive behavior so that our body can bring the reward pathway back into a healthy balance and bring our pleasure pain balance back to a normal state of homeostasis. That is what we are intending to do with the fasting.

Science have shown that a person that stays away from the addictive behavior or the drugs will need 30 days to start getting sober again. But! You will feel worse before you feel better. The first 8 to 10 days you will have some classical symptoms which are known as universal symptoms of withdrawal. Next to the yearning for the substance or behavior, which is named as craving, you will experience anxiety, irritability, insomnia, and depression to name the most common symptoms. It is important to push through those first days and not go back to your addictive behavior.

And last but not least: Recovery is not a straight line! You will have slips and fall backs. The question is can you get up and continue doing what you started, so you end up sober and healthier? I wish you good luck with your dopamine fasting and getting away from your addictive behavior.

Gundolf