Dopamine Spike
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Dopamine-driven feedback loop
Dopamine, the feel-good hormone, a neurotransmitter that plays a role as the reward center. It has an immense impact on your cravings and desires. And many studies have done research on dopamine.
One of the most remarkable researches came from James Olds and Peter Milner, who conducted an experiment. The results of this experiment surprised the scientist.
When dopamine is blocked, the subject loses their will to live. Even when experiencing pleasure, the desire for pleasure will die. And without desire, action will stop.
Every desire, pleasures and highly habit-forming activities, such as taking drugs, junk food, games, adult-content, social media are associated with high levels of dopamine. That’s why it’s very addictive.
“Every habit is a dopamine driven feedback loop.”
According to James Clear, dopamine releases when you experience pleasure and also when you anticipate it.
And when your dopamine rises, your motivation will act to it.
The anticipation of a reward is what gets us to act. If you can see the reward, you will be more likely to act than when the rewards are invisible.
To understand this better, you can check out the process of dopamine in the image, below.
The dopamine spike
When you start a new habit. Everything will be new, and you won’t know what you can expect. What will the reward be. And if you like doing the activity. You have to experience it.
So, when you complete the habit, you will experience the reward for the first time. The experience will release dopamine.
Next time, the dopamine will be released before you complete the habit. It will be released in the craving stage. The dopamine spikes because you anticipate the reward that you will receive after completion.
Once you have repeated the activity multiple times, it becomes a habit. When a habit is formed, your dopamine will not be spiked at the reward because you are already used to the reward and expect it.
However, when the reward is not received, your dopamine will drop in disappointment.
Don’t be discouraged if your reward isn’t received yet. It will come later.
Now you know, how dopamine plays a big role in building habits and in the stage of cravings.
“Desire is the engine that drives behavior. Every action is taken because of the anticipation that precedes it. It is the craving that leads to the response.”
When you make the habit attractive, you motivate yourself to act. It’s all about the anticipation of the reward that raises the dopamine, which eventually motivates you to act.