I want cookies 🍪, and pizza 🍕, and beer 🍺, and sex 🍆, and drugs 💊, and fame 📸, and power 💪. I want, I want, I want. I want till I want no more. Which is when I’m dead.

This front is about explaining want and addiction simply. I am no expert. Most of my thinking arises from this podcast episode. Help build on my work by submitting a rival text.

How dopamine works.

Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that drives you to act. It does not reward you! It is weird but the actual reward system does not drive habit formation.

Dopamine however predicts the reward. It then uses this prediction to drive you to act.

It does this in a nasty way. It gives you a spike of anticipation, then it gives you a spike of pain. This results in craving. This craving drives you to seek that reward.

When given a high reward substance.

High reward substances result in much greater anticipation and much greater pain. This can lead to addiction. Over time, with so much dopamine release, the brain lowers your dopamine baseline. With a lower baseline, you become less motivated to seek the rewards that you once enjoyed.

You can shift your baseline back! It usually takes about one month without the high reward substance. Though this will not be pleasant, especially the first two weeks. You will know when it is working when food starts tasting better, music leads to dancing, sunny days bring happiness, etc.

HOWEVER, you will still periodically receive powerful cravings for the addictive substance. This is generally triggered by some stimulus, or change in your life. A common saying in AA is, “No matter how far I drive, the ditch is still right next to the road.”

Lots of things can be addictive

Well shit. Addiction is a spectrum, and there are many different forms of it. You can get addicted to your phone, eating, dancing, shopping, sex, working, hell you can even get addicted to an idea in your head. These may not necessarily be bad... I would consider balance as a good guiding principle.

Dopamine Drips

In todays age, perhaps the most important addiction type is the dopamine drip. Instead of giving you a big spike in dopamine, these substances give you lots of little hits. Social media and video games are designed to trigger this (some more than others).

I do not know how dopamine drips compare to other substances with high rewards. Do they also shift the baseline? My experience says yes, but I have no evidence here. If you know please submit a rival text with the additional information.