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Dopamine Quotes

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Dopamine Quotes

“For some people, the reward is the driving force behind the habit. We’ve already established that powerful neurotransmitters cause a chemical reaction to reward the ritual and increase pleasure (dopamine) and/or feelings of happiness and positive mood (serotonin). However, other neurotransmitters may also be involved, like endorphins (which reduce stress and alleviate pain) or oxytocin (which increases a sense of trust and intimacy).”

PositiveTrustIntimacyRitualRewardDopamineEndorphinsOxytocinSerotonin
Book:The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down and Rise to the Occasion
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“A different Japanese study showed that playing with a dog with which you have a strong bond—a dog that is more likely to make eye contact with you—can increase oxytocin. This suggests that having someone look to you for support or trust can increase oxytocin. Simply petting a dog can also start an upward spiral. Petting, like other forms of light touch, boosts oxytocin. And petting a dog, even someone else’s dog, also increases dopamine and endorphins. The increases in these other neurotransmitters provides even more thrust to an upward spiral.”

PlayDogTrustPetBondDopamineEndorphinsOxytocin
Book:The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time
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“The phylogenetically uber-ancient neurological machinery for processing pleasure and pain has remained largely intact throughout evolution and across species. It is perfectly adapted for a world of scarcity. Without pleasure we wouldn’t eat, drink, or reproduce. Without pain we wouldn’t protect ourselves from injury and death. By raising our neural set point with repeated pleasures, we become endless strivers, never satisfied with what we have, always looking for more.”

PainPleasureNeuroscienceScarcityPain And PleasureDopamine
Book:Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence
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“In contrast to dopamine-fueled feelings of pleasure, feelings of happiness are caused by another neurotransmitter—serotonin. Serotonin also helps create feelings of contentedness, significance, and importance. Among other functions, serotonin is a mood stabilizer. Sure, dopamine will give you the quick pleasure rush, but serotonin will keep you happy in the long term—a positive upbeat mood that chases the blues away.”

HappinessPleasurePositiveImportanceMoodSignificanceDopamineSerotoninContendNeurotransmitter
Book:The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down and Rise to the Occasion
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“There is now good scientific evidence that expressing appreciation for what you have has a remarkable effect on your self-judgment system and your overall well-being, most likely because it confronts negativity and increases the production of dopamine—your brain’s pleasure juice. Scientific studies have also revealed that the simple act of looking for things to be grateful for is as important as finding them.”

PleasureGratefulAppreciationDopamineConfront
Book:The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down and Rise to the Occasion
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“Reward. The feeling you get once you’ve done or are doing the behavior. For new behaviors that aren’t intrinsically pleasurable, you might need to pair a separate reward (something that does provide a dopamine squirt) with the new behavior so you still feel good after completion.”

PleasureFeel GoodRewardCompleteDopamineIntrinsic
Book:The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down and Rise to the Occasion
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“A great way to open the dopamine floodgate is to watch and listen to inspirational stuff about the activity you are prone to quitting at. Unlike meme-turds, videos are a more immersive sensory experience, and virtually all capitalize on the dopaminergic power of music. Music has the ability to not just arouse pleasurable feelings but also increase craving or wanting—two critical elements of sports motivation.”

InspirationalMotivationPleasureMusicCravingDopamine
Book:The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down and Rise to the Occasion
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“...since their minds have been conditioned to seek stimulation, they can't tolerate even the slightest moment of silence and stillness. They either hum something, make melodies by hitting objects, or openly complain about “how boring” the situation is—then proceed to open “prophetical topics” to talk about at length. They desperately need something that regularly stimulates their brains in order to feel “entertained.”

SilenceOrdinaryEntertainmentBoringBoredomStillnessDopamineChaseStimulantStimuli
Author:Sov8840
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“Being around other people and developing close relationships feels good for a reason, and that reason is dopamine. Thus it’s not surprising that dopamine and oxytocin interact with each other. Dopamine neurons connect to the part of the hypothalamus where oxytocin is produced, and oxytocin stimulates the area of the brain stem where dopamine is produced. In addition, the dopamine-rich nucleus accumbens receives input from oxytocin neurons.”

RelationshipDopamineOxytocinHypothalamus
Book:The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time
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“Fortunately, suppressing an impulse doesn’t always have to decrease your dopamine—it can actually feel good. The key is the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for pursuing long-term goals and has the ability to modulate dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. So suppressing an impulse can be rewarding, as long as it’s in service of your larger values.”

GoalValueImpulseRewardDopaminePrefrontal Cortex
Book:The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time
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“We are no longer in that primitive state of mind. We have an expectation of survival and have conquered most of the obvious predators that plagued us day to day with our superlative contemplation skills born of language. We sit in our comfy heated houses while the snow flutters like butterflies around us and we bask in a feeling of general contentment.”

MindPsychologyEvolutionBehaviorDopamineEvolutionary Psychopathology
Book:Footprints of Schizophrenia: The Evolutionary Roots of Mental Illness
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“…we use the dopaminergic power of the happiness of pursuit to motivate us to work for rewards that come -after we are dead- depending on your culture, this can be knowing that your nation is closer to winning a war because you’ve sacrificed yourself in battle, that your kids will inherit money because of your financial sacrifices, or that you will spend eternity in paradise. It is extraordinary neural circuitry that bucks temporal discounting enough to allow (some of) us to care about the temperature of the planet that our great-grandchildren will inherit. Basically, it’s unknown how we humans do this. We may merely be a type of animal, mammal, primate, and ape, but we’re a profoundly unique one.”

LifeMindHappinessDeathSexBrainGoalsPursuitRewardDopamine
Book:Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
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“Massage. Numerous studies have examined the effects of massage on everyone from babies and new mothers to breast-cancer survivors and people who suffer from migraines. The results are fairly clear that massage boosts your serotonin by as much as 30 percent. Massage also decreases stress hormones and raises dopamine levels, which helps you create new good habits.”

HabitStressMassageDopamineHormoneSerotonin
Book:The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time
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“By protecting our children from adversity, have we made them deathly afraid of it? By bolstering their self-esteem with false praise and a lack of real-world consequences, have we made them less tolerant, more entitled, and ignorant of their own character defects? By giving in to their every desire, have we encouraged a new age of hedonism?”

PainHappinessParentingAddictionHuman BrainAddiction And RecoveryDopamineChild DevelopmentHedonismPleasure And Pain
Book:Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence
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“The pursuit of personal happiness has become a modern maxim, crowding out other definitions of the “good life.” Even acts of kindness toward others are framed as a strategy for personal happiness. Altruism, no longer merely a good in itself, has become a vehicle for our own “well-being".”

PainHappinessBalanceNeuroscienceHuman BrainAddiction And RecoveryDopaminePleasure And Pain
Book:Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence
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“What this suggests is that ‘widely used’ obstetric and infant drugs such as phenobarbital dysregulate the infant’s dopaminergic (dopamine-activating) system, permanently reducing his potential for pleasure and creating an imbalance he later seeks to redress through dopaminergic compulsions – substance-use disorders involving drugs such as cannabis, heroin, or LSD, say. Or sexual addiction. And, while the nature of pornography is determined by the culturally sanctioned birth abuses of mothers and babies, the impact of pornography is determined by the susceptibility created by drugs given to mothers and children.”

BirthAbuseAddictionProfitPornographyAcidLsdDopamineObstetricsObstetricians
Book:Apple: Sex, Drugs, Motherhood and the Recovery of the Feminine
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“Mapenzi, kama ilivyo kwa vitu vyote hapa ulimwenguni, hayawezi kuwepo bila kujumuishwa na fizikia na kemia yake! Bila kemia hakuna mapenzi ya kudumu. Tamaa ya ngono kimsingi huanza pindi unapokutana na mtu. Tamaa hiyo huweza kukua na kuwa kitu kingine kadiri muda unavyokwenda lakini chanzo kinakuwepo toka siku ya kwanza mlipokutana. Kemikali inayosababisha tamaa ya ngono na hata kuikuza tamaa hiyo ni 'phenyl ethylamine' ('fino itholamine') au PEA ambayo ni kemikali ya mapenzi ndani ya ubongo. Husisimua watu na huongeza nguvu za kimwili (fizikia) na kihisia (kemia). Tamaa husababisha mtu azalishe PEA nyingi zaidi, kitu kinachosababisha kujisikia kizunguzungu (cha hisia za kimapenzi) na dalili zingine kama magoti kutetemeka, jasho kutoka viganjani na kutokutulia. Kemikali hii inapozalishwa kwa kiwango kikubwa, hutuma alamu ('signals') kutoka kwenye ubongo mpaka kwenye viungo vingine vya mwili na kutumika kama 'dopamine' au 'amphetamine' ambazo ni kemikali za ulevi ndani ya ubongo. Iwapo unajiuliza kwa nini wewe au mtu mwingine unavutiwa na mtu ambaye hamwendani kimapenzi, inaweza kuwa ni kwa sababu una kiwango kikubwa cha kemikali hizo kuliko mwenzako, kitu ambacho huzidi uwezo wa kutumia kichwa na kutoa maamuzi bora kulingana na akili ya kuzaliwa. Kwa jumla, mapenzi yote ya kweli uhitaji angalau kiwango kidogo cha PEA kwa wale wanaopendana. Cha msingi kukumbuka ni kwamba kemikali hizi huja kwa vituo, nikiwa simaanishi kwamba tamaa ya ngono hupotea pale mtu anapoelekea kwenye uhusiano wa kudumu. Lakini mambo hubadilika. Hatuwezi kuvumilia zile hisia kali kadiri tunavyozidi kusafiri kuelekea kwenye uhusiano wa kudumu na kwenye maisha ya pamoja yenye furaha. Katika uhusiano wenye afya hata hivyo matatizo hutokea hapa na pale. Chanzo cha Murphy na Debbie kupendana kilikuwa kemia zaidi kuliko fizikia. Kama hakuna kemia hakuna mapenzi.”

PeopleLoveFeelingsUniverseBrainPhysicsLustCommon SenseChemistryProblemsSweatHappy LifeSignalsPersonDrunkennessPhysicalDopamineWatuHealthy RelationshipMtuMatatizoJohn MurphyChemicalUbongoDebbie PatrocinioDizzinessUlimwenguniPeaAlamuMapenziTamaa Ya NgonoAmphetamineUleviAkili Ya KuzaliwaFino ItholamineFizikiaJashoKemiaKemikaliKihisiaKimwiliKizunguzunguKneelsMagotiMaisha Yenye FurahaPermanent RelationshipPhenyl EthylamineUhusiano Wa KudumuUhusiano Wenye Afya
Author:Enock Maregesi
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“Breaking through the fear barrier is a big deal. The dopamine hit that comes with completing a previously insurmountable goal or getting through a shit-scary challenge is indescribable. Aside from the neurological benefits, you walk a little taller immediately. Confidence grows, and you redraw the boundary of what you think you can do in the future.”

FearBreakConfidenceChallengeBreak ThroughDopamineInsurmountableBoundaryBarrier
Book:The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down and Rise to the Occasion
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“The most powerful predictor of self-efficacy is “mastery experience,” a posh way of saying “actually being successful.” Successfully doing something, even if just once, has a tremendous effect on your self-efficacy. The reason that success boosts confidence is that it changes your brain’s production and receptiveness to testosterone and dopamine—two chemicals that increase the impulse to try it again.”

SuccessConfidenceExperienceImpulseMasteryTestosteroneDopamineSelf Efficacy
Book:The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down and Rise to the Occasion
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“Infantilising yourself can often seem like a plea for diminished responsibility. Most of us will have encountered someone who, when criticised for behaving badly, appeals to their own vulnerability as a way of letting themselves off the hook. No matter what they do or the harm they cause, it’s never fair to criticise them, because there’s always some reason – often framed through therapy jargon or the language of social justice – why it isn’t their fault. Childishness grants them a perpetual innocence; they are constitutionally incapable of being in the wrong. But we will never make the world better if we act like this. Thinking of yourself as a smol bean baby is a way of tapping out and expecting other people to fight on your behalf. It also makes you a more pliant consumer. Social media is awash with the idea that ‘it’s valid not to be productive’, as though productivity were the only manifestation of capitalism and streaming Disney+ all day is a form of resistance. It’s much rarer to encounter the idea that we have a responsibility about what we consume, or that satisfying our own desires whenever we want is not always a good thing: “there is no ethical consumption under capitalism” has morphed into “there is no unethical consumption under capitalism”.”

Social MediaDopamineCancel CultureInfantilizationDigital Society
Author:James Greig
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“Whether lying in bed, sitting, eating, on the toilet, pushing a stroller, walking the dog, shopping, walking, “listening” to others, talking, driving, crossing the street, waiting in line, brushing their teeth, watching a movie, attending a meeting, having a conversation, engaging in sexual intercourse, arguing, showering, at a funeral, in a lecture, or during a family meal—even in moments of supposed intimacy or solitude—they always have their phones in their hands. The device is there. Always there. Even in DPRK—a country they tirelessly insult, hate, and belittle for being “anti-democracy”—one would be hard-pressed to find such addicted beings populating every street, mechanically wandering about like reverse L-shapes, their “opiums” (i.e., phones) in hand.”

InternetAddictionSocial MediaDigitalBlindnessAddictPopular CultureDopaminePhoneDigitality
Author:Sov8840
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