Dopamine Stacking: An Experiment In Self Care

By Erin Deborah Waks

When I started to train for the 10k I decided I wanted to run, I started rewarding myself for any longer runs by stopping at a new bakery afterwards for a cappuccino the size of my head and a sweet treat.

When I get the bus to work, I usually sip my coffee, blast music through my headphones and read a book on my Kindle.

When I watch a movie, I often accompany it with a giant quantity of popcorn and a beverage and paint my nails throughout.

I could go on, but you get the picture. In short, when I do something fun, or something good for me, I often add on another fun (or delicious) thing with it. I thought I was hacking life, overloading myself with joyous things. 

Turns out, I was wrong. Now here goes a bad attempt to explain science (with a little help from a much-trusted source, who shall remain anonymous…)

Stanford neuroscientist Dr Huberman says dopamine functions as a driver to action. It is behind essentially all motivation but can manifest as positive, negative, or neutral outcomes. So dopamine is neither essentially good nor bad. People have different baseline levels of dopamine, which can result from genetic and environmental factors, but can be altered through different behaviours and habits. 

It's a little overly simplistic, but someone with a lower dopamine baseline will generally be less motivated, energetic, and engaged in things than someone with a higher baseline. Whenever we get a dopamine spike, there is a high followed by a low, then there is a period of time until you return to base levels - the bigger the spike, the longer that period lasts. 

So, when we are doing a pleasurable, dopamine-inciting activity, if we layer another dopamine-inducing activity on top, it'll spike the levels very high, making the comedown difficult. For example, if we spend time scrolling tiktok, snacking on crisps, and listening to music all at the same time, afterwards, we might struggle just to focus on a conversation, find the energy to work or read a book. We will need more excitement to even reach our baseline. This can easily spiral and diminish focus and the enjoyment of life, in a way akin to addiction.

Right, so what does that mean for me? Well, I guess it means that layering my treats in such a way means that smaller pleasures in life - like staring out the window on the bus, enjoying a coffee or pastry, really getting into the meditative state of running or even watching a movie - become less of a treat. 

All of a sudden, I was noticing this in almost every aspect of my life. I wasn’t enjoying reading a book unless I had a hot drink to go with it. I didn’t really fancy going to the cinema unless popcorn was involved. I didn’t want to go on a run if I wasn’t promised a slice of cake at the end, and I didn’t even really feel like going to an art gallery if I couldn’t stop at the gift shop or cafe on the way out.

Huh. Not such a super-smart life hacker then, am I?

Last week, I took a couple of days off work to rest, and decided to conduct an experiment. Every time I wanted to do a dopamine-inducing activity, I would do just that activity. No treat, reward, secondary dopamine-spiking activity to go alongside. 

On Monday, I started off strong, walking to morning Pilates. I tried to focus on the enjoyment of the class itself, rather than any reward afterwards, and I found it did really help me to get in the zone, to be more in the moment. Instead of grabbing one of 1Rebel’s delicious protein shakes, I decided just to walk back home and make my own breakfast there. Food is fuel, and is necessary, but I didn’t want Pilates to be about a special treat or ‘reward’.

The next day, I went out for lunch with my best friend. We spent the day together, and that was plenty of dopamine in and of itself. We went for a long walk - no overpriced beverages in hand - and enjoyed the cosiness of the pub for a couple of hours. No alcohol. Just food and each other.

On Wednesday, I went thrift shopping by myself. I got the tube to Brick Lane and passed a gorgeous little cafe. Not now, Erin. Focus on the task at hand. 

I browsed for an hour or so, and permitted myself the purchase of one item I could really love (a Whitney Houston album on vinyl, if you’re interested). I didn’t buy more, and I didn’t get a takeaway coffee to enjoy whilst browsing.

The day after, I spent the morning browsing the National Gallery, and exited without a single gift-shop purchase. In the afternoon, I went to the cinema to watch Conclave, without so much as a kernel of popcorn.

Each morning, I enjoyed my breakfast without reading a book or drinking coffee. Then, an hour later once the supposed dopamine spike had settled, I’d enjoy my coffee, without reading. Each run I went on was ‘rewarded’ in sweat alone. Each manicure was done in silence, without music blaring. Each shower was taken slowly and quietly. Even doing my groceries was done without the crutch of headphones and an audiobook.

What I didn’t want to do was create a punishing cycle in which I feel I am constantly depriving myself of little self-care treats. I’ve spent years trying to derail that mindset. But, it must be said, forcing myself to enjoy things I already like for themselves alone meant I appreciated them more. From a scientific perspective, I was probably lowering my dopamine levels enough that I suffered less of a ‘happiness comedown’ each time I treated myself, as such allowing my baseline mood to stabilise at a higher point.

In treating myself with one thing at a time, I enjoyed them for what they were. I was more in the moment. In limiting the amount of dopamine influx in my brain at any given time I was, contrastingly, creating better odds for myself to feel happier - even more of the time.