Dopamine Has Nothing to Do with Fun

A brain works based on relative importance. This means it’s focused on what is important to you – and this evolves over time.

Through your brain, you learn what you find important.

So, somebody who is low on dopamine is doing things that they (or their brain) consider unimportant.

Somebody who is way too high on dopamine finds specific things too important – drugs, for instance.

This is a significant difference in nuance compared to the common view, which is that dopamine is linked to pleasure. It’s pleasure because of things you find important. Dopamine from Adderall doesn’t feel the same as dopamine from a workout (I’ve tried both).

Our Brains and Bodies Are Not Broken

But learning what you truly find important in life is very hard and takes a long time. Most of us end up valuing long-term healthy things like working out or eating clean food. But a lot of us (myself included) have to go through addiction-level intensity first — because you do know what you find important.

Use Your Imagination

I have ADHD. I start with the laundry, and three minutes later I’m calling a friend while painting the attic. Over the years, you get progressively better at that.

Increasing dopamine via medication is a trick to make it feel like you're doing something extremely important — even when you’re not. You can also increase dopamine by fantasizing a complete story while you work, convincing yourself the work is important. That’s natural, and often works better.

You have thoughts now that will no longer exist in the future.

There’s No Such Thing as Negative Thinking

It’s normal to need extra time after something emotional happens. For example: you’ve worked all week. Many people have come to you to share things. On Sunday, you might need an extra day to recover — also from the emotions of others.

I’m not a soldier, but I can’t imagine it’s any different when it comes to something like PTSD. If you’ve been fighting for months or years, it seems only natural that you’d need a few extra months to process everything. That’s normal. So really take the time to think things through.

I’ve experienced something terrible — now what?
Think about it as often as you can. About the memory. About what happened. About what you thought then — and what you think now. Every time you revisit it, it becomes a little less intense. Eventually, it’s no longer a problem. You’ll still see the memory, but you’ll already know what you think about it. Then it no longer hurts.

But I don’t want to be thinking about something negative all the time...
There’s no such thing as negative thinking. You can’t think about things in a way that makes you sick or worse. I’ve spent weeks thinking about ‘bad’ things. You know what happened? Nothing — except that I’m no longer afraid of them.
The reason people are afraid of negative thoughts is because they’re afraid.

The Past Still Exists, But in a Different Shape

It goes from something that is into the memories of people and animals (and other living things).

So the past still exists, but in another shape – as small electrical signals, tiny balls of energy in the brain.

The past, present, and future exist simultaneously in different shapes.

In every moment, everything coexists:
 • Past – memories
 • Present – what is
 • Future – imagination, sparks that may grow into something real