Where’s The Dopamine

This is a question that I always ask/asked people to ponder when I was working with young people ~ where’s the dopamine??

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a role in pleasure, motivation, and learning. So in essence it’s a feel good stimuli!

The behaviour that’s being exhibited is done in order to achieve a feeling, to feel good!

We are look at this through the lense of nutrition. We often eat in order to feel good – to have that hit of dopamine, to be able to have that wee high.

Is there other ways that this can be achieved? In the moment we probably can’t think what those other things are.

Maybe consider bringing together a little list of things that can be alternatives, think about the things that give you that feeling that you crave that are sometimes feelings you chase through food. If we have the ideas already easily accessible (i.e. we don’t need to think what they might even be) then it might be that every now and then we can find alternative ways of chasing the dopamine.

That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t eat for pleasure, we most certainly should AND it doesn’t mean that emotional eating is bad, it’s a tool we can use every now & then for sure BUT sometimes having alternatives supports us to feel nourished in every way, in the long term.