You've heard of dopamine. It's a neurotransmitter involved in biological processes: reward, motivation, pleasure, and motor skills. This occurs through various signaling systems in various tissues of our body (especially the brain).
Dopamine affects tissues through dopamine receptors , of which there are apparently five types. For those unfamiliar with receptors, they're like "switches" on the surface of cells. A molecule of something (like dopamine, for example. This is called a ligand ) enters the cell, hits this "switch," and the cell receives a single signal. If multiple molecules enter and activate multiple "switches," the cell receives multiple signals.
So, we receive a lot of dopamine signals when we watch porn, when we scroll through Instagram reels, when we eat sweets, when we drink, when we take drugs/nootropics, etc.
When there's too much dopamine, our cells freak out and start reducing the number of these switches on their surface to get rid of the excess dopamine signal. In other words, the number of dopamine receptors on the cell decreases, or, more accurately, the density of dopamine receptors decreases. Sensitivity to dopamine decreases.
In other words, in the modern world, the dopamine system is overloaded in many people, especially in places where technology has become available (porn sites). But in the past, our ancestors got dopamine from relatively natural sources and relatively less frequently. These included alcohol, sex, food, and travel. The density of dopamine receptors in our ancestors was higher.
Why am I telling you all this? The fact is that our ability to experience pleasure and motivation in life depends on the density of these receptors. Moreover, the density of dopamine receptors affects the aging of our brain. With age, the number of dopamine receptors in the brain already decreases, in everyone! This explains the passive behavior of older people and the loss of joy in the things they once enjoyed.
Modern people force themselves into this state of senility through various unnatural means. For example, many men (and slightly fewer women) are addicted to pornography and no longer experience joy from sex in real life. Their brains have learned to "raise" dopamine levels in various scenes from pornographic websites. If, against this backdrop, a real "signal" is suddenly given in the form of a naked person of the opposite sex, the desire to mate may not even arise.
This is partly why guys have sexual problems, a lack of desire to go out and meet new people (this is what's happening to girls these days, with vibrators and porn at home). Such people, behaviorally speaking, have the brains of old people!
Another example is addiction to nootropics/drugs. These substances further reduce dopamine receptor density. For example, modafinil, which is popular in the West. Of course, you can recover from nootropics, or stop using them constantly. But drugs (opioids, amphetamine, etc.) permanently alter dopamine signaling pathways in the brain. Former drug addicts are no longer as capable of experiencing full pleasure from natural things.
In general, I won't even mention computer/gambling games and other examples. Make it a rule to get dopamine naturally, through some effort:
- For example, cook food (or better yet, sometimes forage for it) rather than buying ready-made food.
- Go on dates, meet people in person, dating sites for losers
- Earn big money (“unique” dopamine is better than drugs).
- Travel and explore new places instead of sitting under an umbrella on the beach.
By following these principles, you'll eventually notice how all your friends, who live in a paradigm of easy and excessive dopamine, have fallen behind in development and activity!
