To get a better understanding of the mechanism by which dopamine acts and responds to external stimuli, Dr. Huberman first explains the role of dopamine dynamics with regard to addiction. As mentioned, in a typical dopamine release response you have peaks, and you have valleys. In a dopamine response, the valleys and peaks are typically found sequential to each other: when you get out of a peak, you tend to fall into a valley, and when you get out of a valley, you tend to rise to a peak. In this particular response, it is not only the sequence of events that matter but also the magnitude and rate of said events. If you experience a very high peak, it is likely to be followed by a fairly low valley. Not only that, if you experience a near-instantaneous peak which is a sudden increase in dopamine, your valley is not only going to be even lower, but it is going to come even quicker. And this is also true in the other direction. Think of this as if the dopamine level is represented by a rubber band – the further it is stretched in one direction, when it is let go it will shoot back further and faster in the opposite direction. This law of dopamine dynamics is where addiction comes from. Most things that are addicting are addicting because they cause sudden bursts of dopamine spikes – these things include bad foods, drugs, sex, etc. Not only are the spikes high due to these things, but they occur almost instantaneously. Because of the relationship mentioned above, following these intense and instantaneous spikes of dopamine come a crash and rapid fall into an even deeper trough. When in this trough, all the person wants to do is to get back the feeling of the peak you just had, so you go back to what it was that got you there. And then this vicious cycle of extreme peaks followed by increasingly deep troughs begins – and this is addiction. 

When you are depressed, or when you really lack motivation, you are finding yourself in a dopamine trough. Having ‘motivation’ is merely having the ability to climb out of your current trough. In order to optimize your motivation and overcome procrastination, you need to understand the best ways to get out of the trough. The first way is to understand that, with time, your dopamine will always return to your baseline levels. Everything in the universe wants to return to its equilibrium state. Using this concept, one way to get out of the trough is to let time run its course and let it rise back up on its own. Though this is one option, it is not the most efficient option. The most efficient option involves utilizing the concept of dopamine dynamics to your advantage. As mentioned before, both the magnitude and rate of change of your dopamine levels affect how your body and mind will respond. If you are deep into one side of the response (trough or peak) and moving that way rapidly, your body will react accordingly and your next dopamine response will be proportionally related in the opposite direction – so how can you use this relationship to get out of a dopamine trough? If you are in a trough, and you find yourself lacking motivation or procrastinating on something that you need/want to be doing, you need to force yourself to do something ‘harder’ than what you want to do and/or what you are doing. I don’t mean harder in the sense that it is physically harder (although it may be?), I mean harder in the sense that you’d rather do the thing that you are procrastinating about than do that thing. For example, say you are procrastinating a workout. Instead of working out, you start procrastinating by cleaning up the kitchen – obviously cleaning up the kitchen isn’t as hard for you as working out is, or you wouldn’t be cleaning. Find something you absolutely hate doing and make yourself do that instead. Maybe you hate meditating, you just hate sitting there and doing nothing trying to relax your mind. Make yourself meditate instead of clean. After sitting there for a minute trying to meditate and driving yourself crazy doing something you hate more than working out, your mind will finally convince you to get up and work out so you don’t have to meditate anymore. This is using the behavior of dopamine dynamics to your advantage. When you are in a trough, when you are down and unmotivated, make your trough deeper and rebound back up out of the deeper trough quicker and shoot yourself back to baseline. In no way shape or form am I (or Dr. Huberman) saying to physically harm yourself or mentally harm yourself, but find something that you hate doing more than the thing you are procrastinating for, make yourself do that task, dig your trough deeper and rebound back out of it a little quicker. 

To summarize, dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain that is released whenever something favorable happens to you – a lot of people refer to dopamine as your ‘happiness’ chemical. This chemical is strongly correlated with your reward-motivated behavior. The dynamics in which dopamine behaves in your mind & body can not only explain where things like addiction come from but it can also be used to your advantage to help you overcome procrastination and push through a lack of motivation. When you find yourself down in a dopamine trough and it is taking too long to come back to your baseline, find something reasonable that is slightly harder than what you are procrastinating with, push your dopamine level down a little further, and use it to propel yourself back up to and/or above your baseline.

 Learn how to get out of the trough.