The Dopamine Reward System

The Dopamine and Sugar reward systems

“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” –Winnie The Pooh

We are already in a little bit of trouble with fight or flight mode pushing us down and driving us to vent our anger, usually at wrong targets, and say ‘screw it all’ to then engage in actions that literally throw our time and health away. 

Remember that it is possible to get into rest and digest mode where the opposite happens. But let’s consider that a work in progress for now.

There are two other systems that we have to learn to overcome first.

The Dopamine Reward System

The first is the dopamine reward system. Dopamine is a hormone within our body that enables neurons in our brain to control movement. The dopamine reward system is a key element in helping us feel good when we expect rewards and enhances reward related memories, as per brainfacts.org. 

This is what helps us feel good when we read, get stuff done, organize the house and so on. The highest amounts of dopamine release come from unhealthy habits like social media social/Netflix binging, video games, junk food and so on. 

The problem is that our bodies are always trying to get into what’s called homeostasis, which is a fancy term meaning normalcy. So what happens is, if we are constantly playing video games or engaging in these high release dopamine activities, that are more often than not unhealthy habits that do nothing to increase our ability to survive or care for others around us, then our bodies will actually become resistant to it until the thing that used to give us a lot of pleasure slowly becomes to feel meaningless. We may then nervously look around in our lives and realize that we can’t find anything at all that we can enjoy. We make the mistake of thinking that something is wrong with us, but this is how the dopamine reward system works.

We are driven into unhealthy habits because of the sheer amount of dopamine that they release over others. Your body will release far more dopamine from eating ice cream than it will from eating celery or reading a book. The results is that those actions that you would want to do to get smarter, stronger, sexier and more successful, simply become too uninteresting.

The unfortunate truth is that until we can lower our dopamine levels by doing ‘dopamine fasting,’ then we will simply find ourselves unable to enjoy anything in life, including spending time with our own children, loved ones and family. They are the entire reason that we fight for betterment in this life, and thus it is unfortunately ironic that we seem destined to lose our ability to enjoy or love even them.

Some of the most vital actions we need to take may then feel “too boring,” like meditation, affirmations or going for nature walks and bike rides. They are critical to our survival for they help “depressurize” both our high levels of stress AND dopamine levels back to healthy levels. Thus, the more we do those activities, the MORE we’ll be able unchain harmful stress AND become more able to enjoy everything else we do in life. 

Just like facing areas of discomfort leads to our growth, facing areas of ‘boredom’ leads to our ability to enjoy positive actions of our choosing. 

I highly recommend people search on YouTube ‘dopamine fasting,’ as its pretty eye opening.  

We have to be able to pick time we can turn our cell phones off except for emergencies. There are even apps out there that will block all calls and texts unless the caller or person texting puts that it’s an emergency.

We don’t have to incessantly look at social media, Pinterest or what’s new or crazy in the world. We have to find more and more time that we can simply unplug and focus only on the activities of our choosing and nothing else.

If we don’t practice nothing, then we won’t be able to enjoy anything. 

The Sugar Reward System

“To keep the body in good health is a duty... otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” --Buddha

The other system in our body that has really given us a run for our money is the Sugar reward system. The intention behind this system was to drive us to seek out fruits and vegetables that would help us remain healthier for a better chance of surviving over time as a species. 

Our biology believes that the more sugar something has then the better it must be as a food and the more it will make us crave it.

Unfortunately, with the advent of process sugar, fried Twinkie hamburgers and so on, we are literally hardwired to eat foods that skyrocket our inflammation, push us into fight or flight, kill our energy, health, ability to focus, our study and even our mood over time.

And now with 10% of Americans suffering from diabetes, it’s clear how much damage this system alone has been doing to us.

How do I feel about sugar? I hate to admit that the song ‘Pour some sugar on me: Def Leppard’ states my own reluctant love of it all too well. 

And for those who don’t know, inflammation is a relatively effective design of the body to fight bacteria, viruses and helps to heal areas of injury. Think of it like a bunch of attractive bodyguards that will heat up the area and summon troops to help fight and overcome foreign invaders. The increased heat helps the cells move and heal faster in the short term, namely to help close wounds and so on where bone and muscle repair will have to take place in rest and digest later. Yet when those hot heads become chronic, due to a variety of reasons like prolonged fight or flight mode or high sugar intake, it will slowly harm the area it’s in by reducing healing greatly and weakening the strength of tendons and ligaments and even muscle. 

  People with chronic inflammation can usually feel when they feel “inflamy,” and it will generally take a majority of their energy just to fight their own inflammation, much like a person arm wrestling with their own arm. As a result, they generally won’t have enough reserve energy for healing, exercise or generally being able to enjoy life. An entire host of potential diseases can occur as a result of chronic inflammation.

And thus, the sugar reward system has hardwired us to seek our own demise with the advent of processed sugar.

But there is a wellness trick.

It’s important to understand that when you feel those cravings for sugar, what your body is really craving is fruits and vegetables. The call to sugar is so strong that it will be very hard to tell yourself, “no ice cream, eat the apple.” But you can tell yourself, “I’ll have some ice cream but only after I’ve had some celery or an apple.” And thus, the goal is to go ahead and eat some fruits or vegetables and wait 20 minutes for your digestion to take place and see then if you have the power to hold yourself back from that deadly chemical. Don’t get me wrong, I love sugar, I love ice cream, but ever since I almost died in a cult, I’ve had to really watch my diet and I pick and choose when and how much sugar I wish to have instead of letting my body push me to finish an entire carton of ice cream in one sitting while crying to songs of ‘what I used to be.’

It is easier said than done.

If the call to sugar is simply too strong then I highly recommend an extreme response to reset your guts ever strong call- Fasting. 

Fasting can be very good for you because it gives your body a chance to heal and work on things that it has been having to put off because of the amount of energy that digestion alone consumes, but I personally find it too miserable to do a straight up water fast and find that juice fasts generally have a little too much sugar for me, though they have worked for many people. 

I prefer an almond/nut fast with distilled water for three days to a week (with minerals added back in to the water in order to prevent energy loss). The cost of the almonds makes it prohibitive to eat until you’re full. Instead, you only eat until you’re not miserably hungry. This way, you’re still getting carbs, protein and fiber that your body needs to operate and clean itself at the same time. Almonds are also a very powerful anti-inflammatory food. 

Overcoming stress is tough, mostly because it pushes us into inactivity over the very things that stress and upset us. 

This battle becomes far easier if we can simultaneously work to overcome our dopamine and sugar reward systems. 

It may not be an easy path, but I assure you it is more than possible, and as we get better and better over these areas, we will be delighted to find our path back up far more possible. 

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels