Nação dopamina
dopamine is a neurotransmitter released in the brain to motivate you to achieve something. The body always tries to maintain homeostasis, so when you receive a dopamine boost, your body tries to counteract with some suffering, attempting to maintain homeostasis – opponent-process theory.
when you receive many stimulus originating from a dopamine source, your tolerance increases, so you need more doses than the first time to reach the same dopamine level. This causes dissatisfaction because you never receive the same amount of dopamine and the same feeling of happiness as the first time.
dopamine comes before achievement, "If you expect disappointment, then you can never really be disappointed" because when you have a routine for receiving dopamine and that routine is broken before achieving the goal, your dopamine level decreases.
we are a cactus in a tropical forest, we transform the elements of a simple world into something that is a dopamine bomb, we transform scarcity into abundance. Something that should be difficult to achieve now needs to be avoided.
dopamine detox has 8 steps that can be remembered using the first letter of DOPAMINE word:
- D - Data - is information about your addiction: what it is, when it occurs, simple data.
- O - Objective - is the goal of using the addiction, why do you use it? Fun? Pain? Depression? Anxiety? Anger? Fear? Social phobia?
- P - Problems - are the problems it causes. Health? Relationships?
- A - Abstinence - is a strategy to try to rebalance brain homeostasis. Dopamine detoxification.
- M - Mindfulness - is the act of diving deep into your brain, thinking about everything and tolerating boredom.
- I - Insight - is your reflection on what you have freed yourself from, how it has impacted your life, and how you realized it was harmful.
- N - New steps - are the next steps after freeing yourself, new hobbies, how to fill that "void".
- E - Experiment - is how you will deal with all of this after some time.
self-commitment involves creating obstacles between you and your addiction. There are three types of self-commitment: material, temporal, and meaningful.
material self-commitment involves avoiding addiction by using material things, such as locking your smartphone in a safe while working, removing all beer from your home, using only cash instead of cell phones, credit cards, etc.
temporal self-commitment involves setting limits on your addictions, such as using drugs only on weekends, drinking only on your birthday, using some instrument to measure time, etc.
meaningful self-commitment involves avoiding triggers related to your addiction, such as not seeing naked people, avoiding going to bars, etc.
is accepting suffering better than using excessive medication? Medications are as addictive as drugs. Poverty and drug dependence are proportional; studies show that poorer places tend to have more addicts and people with drug problems.
likewise the scales toward pleasure leads the brain to compensate on the pain side, the opposite also occurs. It is possible to feel pleasure through stimulus of pain and discomfort, as in the ice bath method… it s as if, to achieve homeostasis, the body needs to try to reward the pleasure side. Studies in people who practiced this habit indicated a significant increase in dopamine release in the body after exposure to these situations.
after experiencing only pain for a long time, the brain begins to reward pleasure more, making it more lasting. This has already been discussed thousands of years ago, in the thoughts of Socrates about suffering and pleasure, in his work "Reasons for Not Fearing Death".
pain is the price we pay for pleasure, just as pleasure is also our reward for pain.
hormesis is a branch of science that studies the benefits of exposure to small stimuli of discomfort and pain, seeking to create barriers and adaptations. Intense physical exercise helps to better tolerate pain; the vaccine itself is a small insertion of the virus into the body to learn how to fight it.
being a workaholic and overtraining also addicts the brain to one side of the dopamine balance, creating a pattern of discomfort and deregulating receptors.
talking about feelings and being honest is a way to build trust and strengthen intimacy and relationships with other people; this activates areas in the brain related to emotional trust.
telling the truth is contagious, and so is lying. When you are with people and role models who tell the truth, it influences you to make long-term decisions because you feel safe in the environment you are in. When you are in an environment of people who lie a lot, you tend to choose short-term rewards because you are afraid of what might happen. This involves two mindsets: one of profit and one of scarcity.
telling the truth makes it easier to avoid sustaining an unreal world and reduces the cognitive load of dealing with the world. Honesty increases awareness, creates more satisfying relationships, makes us responsible for a more authentic narrative, and reinforces our ability to delay gratification.
Destructive shame: hyperconsumption > shame > lies > isolation > hyperconsumption…
Pro-social shame: hyperconsumption > shame > acceptance > belonging