Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is made by your body to communicate information between nerve cells. Often associated with pleasure, dopamine can almost be thought of as your body’s reward station, providing you with a little dose when you perform certain tasks. Making money, having sex, and taking drugs are all common unhealthy ways to raise your dopamine levels.
Thanks to dopamine’s relationship with pleasure, finding ways to raise it naturally and healthily in your body can be an excellent tool for those who are fighting an addiction. But how exactly should you approach this?
Exercise
People have long used exercise as a way to make themselves feel good, with the exertion you perform releasing high levels of dopamine into your system and making you feel uplifted. Going on a walk, bike ride, or any other type of exercise can make you feel amazing, providing you with a tool that can be used when you are battling cravings or struggling to keep your mind away from drugs.
The Right Diet
There are a lot of different foods out there that can help to raise the dopamine levels in your brain. Your body needs a chemical called Tyrosine to produce dopamine, and this can be found in foods like almonds, eggs, fish, bananas, and much more. Adding more of these elements to your diet will be a good way to increase the feeling of reward you get when you do things that release dopamine.
Healthy Sleep
Alongside Tyrosine, your body also needs a healthy sleep routine to be able to produce dopamine properly. The connections between nerve cells in your brain recover while you sleep, strengthening their bond and increasing the effect that chemicals like dopamine can have on them. Lack of sleep can reduce your concentrations of neurotransmitters like dopamine, along with hurting the receptors that would usually detect it.
Music
Music is an incredibly powerful tool when it comes to the emotions it can inspire. Some songs are sad and filled with melancholy, though some are much happier. Calming music is a good choice for those who want to increase their dopamine levels, but you need to make sure that it is music that you like to benefit from the full effect.
Supplements
Alongside improving your diet and sleep routine, supplements can be a good way to improve your dopamine levels. This option is best for those who have tried other methods but still want to push this further in their own lives, with loads of options available on the market that promise to raise your dopamine levels and leave you feeling better for more of the time.
Dopamine is a crucial neurotransmitter that is essential to survival in complex animals. Not only does it make you feel good, but it can also drive you to repeat positive actions the leave you feeling good, making it easier to push yourself in your daily life and avoid the need for things like drugs to enable you to enjoy life.
