Healthy vs Unhealthy Dopamine

What is Dopamine?

• Dopamine is a neurotransmitter which is basically a chemical in our brains that influences the way we think, behave and move.

• ADHD is associated with lower levels of dopamine which impacts our ability to focus, control impulses and sustain motivation.

• To counteract these low levels ADHDers may be driven to engage in activities that will boost dopamine levels.

Why do we engage in less healthy dopamine seeking behaviours?

• Our brains are wired to get the maximum reward out of the smallest possible effort meaning we use shortcuts whenever possible.

• This made perfect sense for our ancestors who needed to conserve precious energy for things like hunting and escaping predators. But in the modern world this can make us to engage in less than healthy behaviours to get dopamine, leading to challenges with motivation and even addiction.   

• It’s much easier and takes less energy to pick up our phones and start scrolling through TikTok than it is to work on a rewarding hobby or go to the gym.

• The problem is the more we engage in high-dopamine low-effort activities the harder it becomes to engage in high-effort activities and their outcome becomes less satisfying. This is because these high-dopamine activities cause our brains to produce less dopamine by default making it harder to engage in tasks where the reward comes further in the future.

• Making informed choices about where we get our dopamine from is an essential part of managing ADHD.

Examples of healthy vs less healthy dopamine sources:

Healthy	Less Healthy
Socialising with friends	Getting a like on social media
Exercising	Drugs / Alcohol
Working on a hobby	Doom scrolling
Protein rich foods	Junk Food / Sugar
Playing team sports	Playing video games
Walking in nature	Binge watching TV series
Setting and achieving goals	Procrastinating
Mindfulness/Meditation	Online shopping

How do I make better dopamine choices?

Because our brains like to take short cuts making less healthy choices harder to access while making the healthy option as easy as possible. This can look like:

• Deleting social media apps on your phone and accessing them on a computer instead.

• Having a bowl of your favourite fruits in a visible place and hiding sugary treats in the back of a cupboard.

• Finding an exercise buddy or joining a sports team so there is accountability to be active.

• Making shortcuts to a meditation app on your phone so it is visible every time you pick it up.

• Deleting stored card information on your devices so you physically have to get the card to shop online.

• Turn off notifications for social media so you’re not constantly drawn into the websites.

• Have everything you need to go to the gym packed and ready so it’s as easy as possible to go.

• Cycle between different healthy options to keep things interesting.

Where can I get support to make better choices?

• One of the best ways is to find an accountability buddy to help keep each other on track. There are lots of ADHD communities online on websites like Facebook, Reddit and Discord. These are great ways to celebrate wins when making better choices which is a great source of dopamine in itself.

• Use apps like Habitica to gamify making healthier choices.

• Speak to your doctor or psychiatrist about medication options which could help reduce less healthy dopamine seeking.

• Join a class or group related to a habit you want to keep on top of.

• One to one coaching can help stay on track, you can click here to book a free discovery call to find out how I can help you.