A BRIEF CHAT ABOUT THE ROLE THAT DOPAMINE PLAYS IN CRAVING
I’m busy reading “ATOMIC HABITS”, by James Clear.
Several points have been profound to me.
Like:
We know that Dopamine is the drive / desire / addiction neurotransmitter… That this is what is released when we “use” our drug of choice (amongst having many other practical and important purposes).
But the author speaks of how, contrary to conventional assumption, dopamine is actually released BEFORE the craving is fulfilled. And that’s why our urges can be so strong. There’s a trigger in our environment, which signals that a desire could be met, and THAT releases the dopamine which compels us to act and and fulfill the craving.
How interesting.
And alarming.
It basically means we need to override chemistry to surf an urge without yielding to it. That takes a lot of tenacity and mind power.
The other interesting truth that this explains is why the desire for something is often stronger than the realistic enjoyment of it… (You know what I mean..? – crave something, have it, and feel somehow let down and disappointed by the reality of it, and cheated somehow, that it wasn’t worth it..?). This, again, is because the dopamine hit is released to activate the craving, and not, as we’ve often thought, on consumption.
I find this rather interesting.
And, on a practical level, it helps a little to at least know WHAT is happening inside us, as it’s happening.
I.e. “I’m craving something hard right now”. Obviously my system has released dopamine in anticipation of getting that desire fulfilled, and the dopamine is driving me towards acting out.
“Ok, hold tight… We’re just going to use grit to surf the urge until the wave of dopamine abates”.
I teach the idea of “urge surfing” in both of my bariatric self-help programs:
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