Dopamine (part 1)

It all started when, one more day in the middle of summer, we packed up our picnic items and went to the island to take a dip in the water and swim as usual every Saturday, to enjoy the beauty of the island and its clean air. But I felt that I was no longer interested in swimming like before, even when I went into the sea, I felt nauseous and came out early, I couldn't even see the beauty of the island and I was just tired. I just wanted to get home as soon as possible, and rest.

I who always loved to jump in the blue water of the ocean, in the hot summer weather, I who loved the beauties of the island, I had no interest in traveling this distance, from the following Saturdays I preferred to stay home, to rest.

At the same time, I read somewhere about the normalization of our interests due to repetition in satisfying them, all this goes back to the dopamine level of our body in dealing with that interest. So I decided to read more about it, because it was a very interesting topic for me. Now here I decided to share the results of my studies in two posts.

What exactly is dopamine? Dopamine is the most important factor in motivating and moving the body, helping us to pursue our desires. In our ancestors, or in other words, early humans, the most important function of dopamine was to help move around in search of water and shelter and to communicate with fellow human beings. In modern man, in addition, dopamine helps to motivate and strive to achieve our goals.

Also, that feeling of pleasure after achieving goals or doing what we love all comes from dopamine. You can search for more details yourself. I'm going to topics that I think were new.

First, we all have a certain amount of basic dopamine in our bodies, depending on our genetics, let me call it the baseline, which in some, may be a little more than others. But we can increase dopamine levels by eating certain things and doing certain things.

For example, chocolate raises dopamine levels by half a percent of baseline, and its effect is short lived. Sex and exercise increase dopamine levels twice as much as baseline. Nicotine and cocaine in each form two and a half times, glass or methamphetamine increases dopamine secretion up to ten times. But don't be quick to conclude, the dopamine mechanism is very adventurous.

The most important point in this mechanism is the ratio of dopamine secreted in the peak state and the basal amount. The higher the rate, the greater the enjoyment of the activity. But the story is that, after we experience the pleasure of that activity, our dopamine levels drop. Where is the point now? How long does this decline continue? Up to the previous level, which is the same as the base value before the activity?

No. Dopamine levels fall below baseline. Do you understand what happened now? That is why people feel empty after achieving their dream or success for a short or long period of time. Or going to the best restaurant that we like after going a few more times doesn't have that initial ON feeling! There are too many examples, right? Have you ever experienced this? Tell me your experiences, so that in the next post I will tell you the solution to this problem... 😉

Finally, thank you very much to my dear supporters, who are always by my side, they are the ones who always give me hope and motivation, I know them as my family, you can look at their articles. Thank you, dear friends and readers, for always supporting me and empowering me with your kind comments. God bless you. I wish you exciting and happy days with high dopamine levels... 😃😉

Lead image source: https://pin.it/2ATZ9A1