My Theories About Dopamine

On this site I've talked about dopamine, but I'm just a layman.
I learned about it in college-level anatomy, but most of it I learned here and on
your brain on porn, and by looking stuff up. I never took chemistry.

But I think about how dopamine affected me before I rebooted, how it is
to be off of dopamine, and how different things affect my own dopamine levels.

Or, to be more accurate, I should probably say "perceived dopamine levels".

Anyway, my theory about this is that if I use M, then there comes a point where the dopamine starts to wear off. Like most people, I could use M, but then have to get a shower, get to work, get other stuff done. So then I am in some hours where I can't use M. This seems to me like a time when dopamine in my brain is rapidly decreasing
off of the O peak.

I believe that this recession of dopamine, even though it might only be a few hours
causes a "micro-withdrawal". If you ever watch someone detox off of street drugs or alcohol, they feel like total crap. I quit drinking in 2011, and I had to suffer to get sober. It is because the brain freaks out because of lower dopamine levels.

But a micro-withdrawal happens in just hours, and sometimes it even seems to go away
before I can get back to another session of M. During the micro-withdrawal, the symptoms can be huge. I get anxiety, nervous, unfocused, uncoordinated, confused, and other stuff. Sound familiar?

Another way this plays out is with cigarette smokers. I know about this, I smoked for a long time. Most cigarette smokers aim to smoke one cigarette per hour that they are awake. But a cigarette is not an O, and it's not alcohol or heroin. Still, why else would the smoker go back so often? This behavior happens in the near certainty of emphesema or cancer, and at a high purchase price per pack. It has to be the recession of dopamine.

This recession makes someone uncomfortable. I read somewhere that the reason someone smokes is because they just smoked. I think a similar effect happens with all drugs and PMO. The dopamine receeds and someone feels a "minor" illness, discomfort, nervousness or other weirdness.

Again, I don't know if any of this is true. It's just my guess based on empirical self-observations.

The other theory is that once someone is off of dopamine long enough, they can't tolerate it the same way. This theory is more robust for me. Having quit coffee, sugar, been on diets, and long streaks/reboots, using dopamine just does not feel the same.

For one, the pleasure of the dopamine is a lot weaker when I use PMO. It smacks of anhedonia. I'm hardly motivated to pursue "real sex" anymore. Why bother? I don't feel certain I will enjoy an O anymore. The difference between me before my first reboot 3 years ago and now seems to only be that I've spent chunks of time at low dopamine levels. Not just the PMO-induced dopamine, either. Sugar, coffee, fast foods, and junk foods are things I've had long breaks from.

One time, when I was on my 233 day streak in 2020, I was having a bad day. I was not eating sugar or drinking coffee. I decided that to keep the streak going, I would eat ice cream, just to get another day on NoFap.

After eating it for a while, I felt awful. My brain was so foggy and hazy. I laid there in my bed, overcome with an incredible misery. I wondered if I should commit suicide or something. I needed to use the bathroom, yet I could not gather the energy to get up. I am a guy who has had a recent personal best of a six minute mile.

After pitching the rest of the sugar I'd bought, I started to come around the next day. Dopamine had really floored me, and I believe it is because I was going from a state of zero all the way to red line.

Once again, all this is speculation, although all of the details about myself are true.

So I have to think that dopamine is dopamine. It can come from alcohol, street drugs, sugar, coffee, PMO, cigarettes, gambling, among many others. Probably the only difference is the "amount" of dopamine that the brain generates. An O, I've read, produces an initial amount greater than street drugs.

And that is why I think that the more dopamine sources I can discontinue, the better. The brain doesn't "need" dopamine. That is bad information that well-meaning doctors believe in You Tube videos. It doesn't match up with reality, at least for my grey matter.

If the brain is cleared of dopamine, it can better utilize serotonin. Serotonin is thought to have hundreds of functions in the brain and body. Not the least of which is the utilization of nitric oxide to power the cardiac muscles.

I suggest trying to eliminate dopamine as much as you can, experiment on your own.

The thing about it is that you can't just quit one day, and come back like, hey man, this doesn't work. The dopamine needs several days to completely process out, and then there will be withdrawals. After that, then somebody is adjusted. It can take longer too, maybe weeks. If you go that far, to the point of the new homeostasis, that is when you have an informed opinion.

What do you think? Post your thoughts.

 

My guess is no. As in studying a textbook or reading? No, dopamine is part of the reward system. Gary Wilson talks about it a lot.

 

Serotonin and dopamine are the two major neurotransmitters and everything else are
chemicals that are in some phase of processing.

 

You should take a scalpel and open up his brain and find out.

 

Joking? About performing brain surgery at home? No way...

About dopamine, I don't think it comes from anything fun. Certain things spike it, and some don't.

If you take a drug or drink, that spikes it, of course.
Some claim that listening to music or taking a walk gives you dopamine, but I am not convinced on that.

I play a lot of music and listen a lot also. I can play or just listen, but I still can do
the things I need to do, at work, while working out, anywhere.

But if you get drunk, you can't usually work. There are "functioning alcoholics" but
they usually devolve into regular drunks.

If you are doing something, and you feel the dopamine hit you hard, then it doesn't matter
what it is.
Just consider avoiding it or decreasing it.

 

Oh sorry, I was only kidding around.

Yes, I think Gary Wilson talks about how dopamine is connected to adrenaline,
which can be big when you play.

I don't know how it is anymore, I stopped playing computer games with AOC.

 

I'd agree that video games are slightly better than porn, but video games are a huge vacuum of time, and there's nothing that helps you in your life.

Why not just read a book or find something physical to do for 2 hours a day like running?

Get in shape, and girls will get interested.

 

Politely, I disagree.

 

I agree with that, but notice that they say dopamine "regulates pleasure."
That is different than "needing it".

I just don't think anybody really needs dopamine. I've spent long periods of time
at near zero dopamine. It is a good place to be. I wasn't looking for the next thing
to feel good. I just felt good all the time.