What the hell is this dopamine?
I will explain dopamine, which we are beginning to hear frequently today, with a very simple example. Let’s say you post a new photo on your social media account. Do you leave your phone aside after your sharing or do you constantly check the likes? I am sure that you often pick up the phone to see the likes. Here, your tendency to pick up the phone is actually due to the activation of the dopamine chemical. The likes on your photo are actually your reward. As your brain sees these likes, the release of the chemical dopamine begins to increase. The more likes, the more dopamine. In this way, your hand often goes to the phone to see the award, and after a while you cannot stop looking at the phone. In short, we can say that dopamine is a chemical that releases the reward hormone.
Dopamine everywhere
What we all see as a reward is different. Some may feel rewarded when they receive food orders, while others spend time on social media. Unfortunately, in our world surrounded by technologies, there is hardly any area without dopamine. This is especially dangerous for children. Computer games are the biggest source of dopamine. Since game companies are aware of this situation, they set some levels in the game world they have created. The person playing the game, on the other hand, continues the game to jump one more level at a time, thus releasing dopamine as much as the levels he jumped.
Dopamine detox
So how can we get rid of the effect of this reward hormone, dopamine, which drives us to addiction? Yes, we cannot say leave your phone aside at once. However, in order to somehow get rid of this addiction, you need to get away from the stimuli coming to your brain. What are these stimulants? Phone, social media, games… that is, everything you can’t give up is a stimulant for you. You may not be able to put the phone down. But you have to do something to get rid of this addiction. For example, you can get away from the stimulants by putting your phone in airplane mode for 1-2 hours during the day. Even if you can’t completely quit your addiction by finding small solutions for yourself, you can at least reduce your addiction.
