![]() “Without music, most people aren’t going to enjoy exercise enough to do it regularly,” she says. “We need to experience the pain to appreciate the pleasure.” But Wendy Suzuki, an NYU neuroscientist who studies exercise, sees music as a great motivator. “We need some period of time when we’re not stimulating our brains,” Lembke says. Just be careful about mixing exercise too often with other exciting stimuli, such as texting and blasting your favorite music. ![]() Otherwise, they dip about 10% each decade. “It’s adrenaline.”Įxercise is also shown to protect dopamine receptors as we age. (Alexis requested to use her first name only for privacy reasons.) She joined a program run by Odyssey House called Run for Your Life, in which people recovering from substance addictions train for marathons in Central Park. Alexis, a 29-year-old health aide from Brooklyn, got hooked on phenylcyclohexyl piperidine, or PCP, to numb feelings of sadness after loved ones died. When people addicted to methamphetamine cross-trained for an hour, three times per week, their dopamine receptors increased. “It’s really hard, but I come back feeling refreshed,” he explains.Ĭamping entails exercise, another hormetic stress. This involves cold showers, eating intermittently, and sleeping in a small tent. Not glamping, he clarified, but roughing it in state parks for several days. Kenneth Kishida, a Wake Forest neuroscientist who studies dopamine fluctuations, gets hormesis through camping trips. “These are modest natural rewards without a big comedown,” she says. ![]() More research is needed, but a few studies suggest the body responds to painfully cold water by upregulating feel-good molecules, including dopamine. One example of hormesis is taking cold showers, Lembke says. “Well-timed deprivation can do wonders for pleasure,” says Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford biologist who wrote about dopamine in his 2017 book, Behave. Dopamine peaks can result in painful lows filled with cravings, but the reverse holds true as well: some initially painful experiences drive upswings in motivation and positive mood-minus the crash. Good replacements for unhealthy fixations take full advantage of dopamine’s seesaw effect. “Individuals are much likelier to succeed if they have social support systems and access to healthier activities that raise their dopamine and motivate them,” Volkow says. Nora Volkow, a psychiatrist and dopamine researcher who leads the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, says that prolonged breaks from addictions could work in theory, but studies must explore whether this approach actually reduces the unwanted behavior in the long term. “But for many,” says Lembke, “abstinence is the starting point.” People often need more aggressive interventions, such as medication. “I’ve seen people abstain for one week and reset their reward pathways.” On the other hand, these breaks don’t work for everyone. “Not everyone needs 30 days,” Lembke says. His compulsion gradually cleared up, and he started feeling “natural highs” again, such as the buzz of anticipation for seeing friends. Instead of pills, Lembke prescribed a full month without online shopping. ![]() ![]() Eventually, new packages lost their thrill, and he piled up large debts-but couldn’t stop buying. In her book, Lembke writes about a patient who became obsessed with online shopping. If your dopamine levels spike constantly, the brain, seeking balance, may respond by dropping its number of dopamine receptors, eventually diminishing motivation and pleasure of any kind. According to a recent report, people spend a third of their day checking their phones.Īddictive behavior is a spectrum even if an activity doesn’t meet the scientific criteria for addiction, too much of a good thing can still undermine happiness, Lembke says. An example could be in your hand right now smartphones deliver “digital dopamine 24/7,” Lembke wrote in her 2021 book, Dopamine Nation. Anna Lembke, a Stanford professor and psychiatrist, suggests tracking your daily activities to see if they’re turning into compulsions with negative consequences. ![]()
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