Dopamine: A boon or curse?

 How is it going, everyone? Welcome back to my blog.

Today, we'll discuss a hormone that confuses your mind and indirectly harms your body, and yet you are happy in the end.

It's DOPAMINE!

Let us first understand what dopamine is

It is a neurotransmitter produced in our brain. For a long time, scientists believed that dopamine was a one-time pleasure hormone, which meant that the hormone is responsible for happiness.

But latest studies have proven it baseless. Endorphins, another hormone, also a stress buster hormone, are responsible for happiness and other stuff.

So, what is dopamine's role then?

It is related to the motivation and reward system of our brain. Dopamine gets produced when our brain predicts some activities which give us happiness, and in this anticipation itself, our dopamine levels rise. 

For example, your friend is about to throw a party at your dream restaurant, and he tells you just one day before it. You haven't made it to the party, but the anticipation makes you happy because your brain knows how much fun you are about to have there. This anticipation period increases the levels of dopamine in your body. The party is your reward.

But now there is a problem. Your mother won't let you go because you don't study and haven't finished your homework. But instead of arguing, you feel motivated to go there no matter what. So you start to study and complete your homework just before a few hours of the party so that your mother is satisfied with your work. She allows you to go there, and you enjoy it to the fullest. Now you return home and start procrastinating things as usual because you have received your reward, and you don't have the *motivation* you had before the party. This is how it works.

Now you would ask me, "Mayukh, why do we get addicted to mobile phones but not studying?" 

There are two main reasons for it, Ease of Access and Speedy Reward, aka Risk Factors.

Dedicated studying requires a lot of concentration, hard work, and consistency. Whereas mobile phone applications are just one click away.

This factor is the 'Ease of access.'

Now, for example, you are prepping for JEE examination. You work hard for two years of your high school and get into a reputed governmental institute, it takes two years to give you the result that you want. But for mobile phones, you are readily awarded a high dosage of dopamine.

This factor is the 'Speedy Reward' 

And the heart-wrenching part is friends that these big companies have specifically designed their apps to keep you addicted to their stuff. They have deeply studied what keeps a human brain stuck to mobile phones. I talked this about in my last blog itself. Go read it :)

The problems that surface here are:

1. You think you're wasting your precious time, yet you do nothing when you surf through social media.

2. You are radicalized. Your viewpoints change when you continuously come across specific factions of society. These media companies have set up their algorithms exactly to promote these.

3. Also, you suffer from insecurity and depression. These filters make other people look good, you get jealous and get insecure about your looks.

Let's conclude our topic by answering this question, how to stop addiction? That is how to maintain dopamine levels.

The answer lies in the risk factors themselves amigos, and ease of access.  

For ease of access, I have elaborated in my previous blog itself, go and read. You'll understand the consequences as well as techniques.

That's it for the day guys, I hope you enjoyed it as always. Kindly apply these rules to your real-life guys, and tell me your progress in the comments below. You'll get it, trust yourself :)

Till then, that's your Bhai Mayukh, signing off!!