Fantastic piece. I’ve been noticing dopamine’s ubiquity in mainstream discourse lately, too. I hear undergrads on my campus say things like “how are your dopamine levels, bro? Have you been meditating and hitting the gym?” And I agree that this slippage has been spurred on by facile appropriations of addiction science. It doesn’t help that huge names in the field like Anna Lembke (author most recently of “Dopamine Nation”) use neuroscientific concepts to explain process addictions. We now live in an age of poly-addictions, it seems. Anyway, great piece!
amazing article. im always relieved after reading your analysis of these ridiculous trends, bc it means im not the only one who thinks theyre ridiculous.
Love this!!! Yet again the people who are being harmed by a system that is not serving us are the ones meant to keep going on self-improvement. Treating the symptoms, not the underlying needs. Thank you for sharing such a fascinating piece!
another funny thing is just how simplistic these theories are... for example: dopamine has many subtypes, and some agonist drugs actually result in sleepiness, some partial agonists modulate energy levels, and dopamine levels can be indirectly modulated by tens of other neurotransmitters eg prozac, an ssri, increases dopamine receptor numbers in the PFC, the area responsible for executive function.
I was tempted to say that what they are more likely looking for is norepinephrine or glutamate... but that would be me falling into same trap!
“American work ethic finds many of its roots in Puritanism, a sect of Christianity that hooked up with capitalism and gave birth to the horror of hustle culture.” Ding, ding, ding!!
Fantastic piece. I’ve been noticing dopamine’s ubiquity in mainstream discourse lately, too. I hear undergrads on my campus say things like “how are your dopamine levels, bro? Have you been meditating and hitting the gym?” And I agree that this slippage has been spurred on by facile appropriations of addiction science. It doesn’t help that huge names in the field like Anna Lembke (author most recently of “Dopamine Nation”) use neuroscientific concepts to explain process addictions. We now live in an age of poly-addictions, it seems. Anyway, great piece!
Thank you for this hilarious parable about a sick society that replaced the spiritual with capitalism. Awesome work👌
amazing article. im always relieved after reading your analysis of these ridiculous trends, bc it means im not the only one who thinks theyre ridiculous.
Love this!!! Yet again the people who are being harmed by a system that is not serving us are the ones meant to keep going on self-improvement. Treating the symptoms, not the underlying needs. Thank you for sharing such a fascinating piece!
another funny thing is just how simplistic these theories are... for example: dopamine has many subtypes, and some agonist drugs actually result in sleepiness, some partial agonists modulate energy levels, and dopamine levels can be indirectly modulated by tens of other neurotransmitters eg prozac, an ssri, increases dopamine receptor numbers in the PFC, the area responsible for executive function.
I was tempted to say that what they are more likely looking for is norepinephrine or glutamate... but that would be me falling into same trap!
“American work ethic finds many of its roots in Puritanism, a sect of Christianity that hooked up with capitalism and gave birth to the horror of hustle culture.” Ding, ding, ding!!
This is really great. It made me think again about how I deny myself easy dopamine as if it was junk food, and whether that's really a good thing.
All this dopamine thing resembles a lot a neurotic behaviour. Today it is the “dopamine”-related habits, tomorrow it will be something else.
I didnt really get which part of self improvement is a myth???
So dopamine detox is bad then???