Choosing Enduring Dopamine
“That’s one thing I really want people to understand: Once we're in the loop, the loop drives the loop.”
“If you’re not aware of what’s going on in your mind, you can’t transform it.” — Dr. Richard Davidson
We often hear that awareness is the greatest agent for change. Our guests teach me it’s also a gift of understanding.
Insight around how dopamine influences our behavior is one I carry with me from Dr. Anna Lembke, Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford and Chief of their Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic.
Her description of dopamine deficit states offers a moment of clarity when I find myself engaged in a habit I know doesn't serve me. She illuminates our agency to choose a healthier path…
“Once we’re in the cycle of compulsive overconsumption, there doesn’t have to be a reason for us to use. The dopamine itself is driving the despair, which then drives the dopamine seeking…We continue our drug of choice just to feel normal, needing more and more over time to get the same response. That’s one thing I really want people to understand: Once we're in the loop, the loop drives the loop.
We’re often trying to come up with reasons: Why am I unhappy? It's my job. I don't like what I'm studying. It's where I live. But, really, it's a dopamine deficit state that is engendered as a compensatory function in response to too much dopamine.
The solution is to abstain from our drug of choice for long enough for our bodies to regenerate their own dopamine.
The other piece of it is, even without this chasing of dopamine, life is hard. We all crave not wanting to be in our own heads. That's very normal. We need to find ways to do that that are adaptive and not ways that get us into this chasing dopamine phenomenon.
Mindfulness, meditation, prayer, these practices can be really helpful. They're ways to transcend the self by being fully present in our bodies…Creative endeavors, again, effortful engagement in the present moment. If you're not somebody, like me, who can sit and meditate, a parallel activity is painful biking until I forget myself. We need to actively explore what works for us.”
Habits can be a source of stress or sustenance. In this episode snippet, Dr. Lembke illustrates the pain-pleasure balance that drives them and how we can harness them for good.
Where is one area you might be in a dopamine deficit state? What action may help you break the cycle?
With gratitude,
Jenna
Choosing Enduring Dopamine
What do you do if your dopamine is just broken forever