Dopamine receptors are expressed in the central nervous system, specifically in the hippocampal dentate gyrus and subventricular zone.
This is concerning for people that have any longstanding addictions because the hippocampus is responsible for neurogenesis, which leads researchers to believe that it’s harder for people to break old habits and engage in new habits if they are hooked on dopamine.
This can take people away from activities that would boost their serotonin levels, that’s how downward spirals start. It’s a negative feedback loop that’s hard to break.
For example if you’re craving dopaminergic activation over serotonergic activation and this pattern continues for a long period of time. You’ll end up with more receptors for dopaminergic activation which will make your moods unstable.
Remember serotonin is a mood stabiliser, and dopamine isn’t a mood destabiliser but it can be if you’re not releasing enough serotonin and oxytocin, especially if you’re releasing dopamine in toxic ways.
Dopamine can’t be the only thing that motivates you to take action, you have to have love and satiety boosting activities in your day to day life to be truly happy. If your sympathetic nervous system is overactive and consequently drained then the functions of your central nervous system such as awareness, movement, thinking, speech, seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting smelling and proprioception etc will be affected.
This is what stress does, it has the power to halt neurogenesis and this can keep us stuck in old patterns of behaviour.
This can also make people protective and cause them to shut down and block new relationships that may be positive.
The spinal cord is an extension of the brain, so yoga and just sitting quietly in full lotus during meditation can help to calm the nervous system down again, and bring back that equilibrium.
If you release dopamine in toxic ways you will be on a chemical roller coaster.
It’s easy to get addicted to dopaminergic euphoria if you’re stressed, lonely or anxious.
Drugs of abuse, stimulate brain dopamine signaling in the nucleus accumbens which is a mechanism believed to underlie the rewarding effects of drugs and this triggers the neuroadaptations that result in addiction.
So dopamine is released when you:
- Eat sugar
- Take certain drugs
- Have casual sex
- Gamble at a casino
- Set a goal
- Receive a like notification on TikTok or Instagram
- Meet new people
- Expect a reward
- Have a new experience
- Receive a compliment
- Buy something useless you don’t need
Serotonin is released when you:
- Eat healthy fats like salmon & raw nuts
- Meditate
- Have sex with someone you love -you release H&Ns the body’s form of natural morphine when you’re in love.
- Experience forest therapy
- Sing
- Do Qi Gong or Kung Fu
- Do yoga
- Eat foods that are rich in tryptophan.
- Are exposed to natural bright light
- Exercise
So after reading through these lists you should know what you need to do to be happier.
Serotonin is sustainable, dopamine can be unsustainable.
So if your nerves are depleted and your nervous system detects a threat, real or perceived, the sympathetic nervous system will trigger a flight or fight response. In periods of chronic stress, our body perceives this as a threat, and therefore the Sympathetic nervous system can remain in an overstimulated state. Serotonin fuelled activities can help to calm down the sympathetic nervous system, over doing it with dopaminergic activities can aggravate it further especially if you’re not releasing much oxytocin.
It’s important to remember that your brain doesn’t know the difference between something you imagine and something you experience. That’s why we tend to crave excitement when we have stability and security in our lives.
Most people seek excitement when they’re on holiday or selecting a book to read.
It’s normal to seek stimulation from a book or a movie if you’ve had a boring week, engaging in novel activities that are new and interesting regularly may stop you from craving dopaminergic activities that may be destructive like over drinking or consuming too much sugar.
There are many different types of signaling receptors in the human body, with the majority being the superfamily G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs).
Neuromodulation is largely mediated by these G protein-coupled receptors, this family of seven transmembrane-domain receptors are expressed in all neurons and they elicit downstream signaling through the activation of heterotrimeric G proteins. They are modulated by our environment, our thoughts and ultimately our actions.
So if every action was dopaminergic or serotonergic then it would be easy to pinpoint what activities and behaviours you should be cultivating but there are so many crossovers.
Lots of activities make you release serotonin and dopamine simultaneously, the reason why some people feel empty is because they don’t get to release oxytocin whilst they’re releasing serotonin and dopamine, so the dopaminergic euphoria is never enough for these people.
Having a dog can help, but it’s never comparable to the amount of oxytocin release that you get from interacting with a partner or a child.
So many people release oxytocin with their dog and then they’re not motivated to pursue human relationships anymore, not realising that the oxytocin they’re releasing with their dog will never satiate them the way a healthy human relationship would.
#growthmindset