Dopamine is the primary factor for drive and motivation, but also influences craving, time perception, movement (Parkinson). You can increase dopamine through behaviors without drugs. Repeatedly engaging in something you enjoy raises the threshold for enjoyment. Genetics made sure everyone has a different level of baseline dopamine level thus excitement. Adrenaline is the main chemical driver of energy and is manufactured from dopamine, meaning that dopamine peaks results in adrenaline peaks. Dopamine makes an activity more pleasurable while adrenaline is about energy. Common things that increase dopamine temporarily are eating chocolate (x1.5 above baseline), pursuing and having sex (x2), smoking nicotine (x2.5), do cocaine (x2.5), taking amphetamine (x10), exercising (x2). Trying to max your dopamine levels to enjoy more may cause severe issues with motivation afterwards. Dopamine returns to a lower level than baseline after peaks, with how low being proportional to how high the peak was (post-partum). Doing something you enjoy too much makes it less enjoyable (addiction) and can impact your pursuit of other things. There is a pleasure-pain balance governed by dopamine as the pain comes from the lack of dopamine that follows the peak. This is due to the fact that your body has no more dopamine left in stock (readily releasable pool) and that he needs time to recover. Addiction is the narrowing of things that give your pleasure until it doesn't even bring it anymore. The more dopamine-craving activities you have, the less you'll have drive for them (burn-out) as the baseline slowly lowers over time. Dopamine is one currency with many usages. To fix a drop in baseline, just reset by stopping the activities for a month. The optimal way to consume/engage in activities is intermittent dopamine release instead of constantly expecting dopamine release. Intermittent reward schedules are used by casinos to keep you gambling, potential partners to keep you chasing, social medias to keep you engaged. Layering pleasurable things increases the number of conditions necessary to enjoying one activity again if done too often even though it maximizes the motivation on the moment. The ability to experience motivation and pleasure for what comes next is dictated by how much motivation, pleasure, and dopamine you experience prior. Mimic casinos for your activities by paying attention to the levels of dopamine/motivation/pleasure you experience and modulating that at random by adding or removing one or two aspects of the activity (no pre-workout, movie alone). One could use a coin to decide whether to enhance an activity or not instead of enhancing it every time. Because smartphones do so much, they layer dopamine and alter the baseline. Smartphones alter your experiences and the way you engage in them. Avoid taking pre-workout, energy drinks, and study drugs repeatedly over time. Stimulants undercut the process and reduces drive over time. Caffeine is an exception because it influences dopamine receptors, not dopamine levels. Working hard to get a reward can make the work more challenging and make you less likely to pursue challenging work afterward. Motivation should be intrinsic not extrinsic, otherwise the pleasure is associated with the reward and not the activity. This also postpone the pleasure to the end instead of it behind continuous. Journey over destination. You have to tell yourself that working is pleasurable, that the work part is the good part, to get dopamine next time you work and keep long-term motivation. The harder it is, the higher upcoming dopamine, the more important you must lie to yourself that you enjoy it. Make the effort the reward. Don't spike dopamine prior or after an effort but from the effort itself. Intermittent fasting is one the rise partly because people find it easier not to eat at all than to eat a bit as dopamine calls for more. Restriction will result in higher dopamine release but is also appreciated as it helps training restriction. Telling yourself that something is good will make it good. If you eat too savory/sugary food, simple/whole food will taste blend. Value is based on what you've experienced recently, which is why pornography (accessibility and intensity) can negatively shape real life sex for example. Mucuna Pruriens increases dopamine, reduces prolactin (more sex drive), increases sperm quality, but you'll feel bad afterward. Oxytocin (bonding) and close social interactions stimulates the dopamine pathway.
Andrew Huberman