This article will be a bit long; I’ll briefly summarize 2-3 different topics and connect them together.
What Is Addiction?
It’s the need to be regularly exposed to a substance or a situation.
Where does this need come from? Because we release dopamine.
Why do we want to release dopamine? Because it provides a sense of reward, pleasure, and happiness.
If you’re wondering, “Can’t we just get a big dose of dopamine all at once and stay happy forever?” the answer is no.
That’s because after rewarding you, your brain rebalances the scale to keep you alive. In other words, that sudden burst of happiness gradually fades, and you have to return to your normal state.
If you ask, “Why does this happen?” it’s likely because in ancient times, when a caveman caught and ate his prey (and thus released dopamine), he still had to survive the next day—meaning he had to go hunting again.
If you think I’m making this up, here’s an experiment (with references at the end of the article):
Scientists significantly reduce the dopamine levels in a mouse’s brain through chemical and/or genetic methods. Thus, the mouse loses the driving force stemming from “motivation and the expectation of reward.” As a result, the mouse doesn’t even bother to eat the cheese in front of it and dies of starvation.
So, dopamine is what motivates us to achieve the things we believe we need.
Having understood how critical dopamine is, let’s continue.
Dopamine Release Today
Compared to ancient times, the mechanism for dopamine release works very differently today and can be triggered in various ways for different people. Some people drink alcohol and feel happy, while someone else may get the same dopamine rush from the “likes” they receive on Instagram. Everyone feels as if they’ve achieved their ultimate goal.
For instance, let’s consider alcohol. You drink a lot and feel very happy. The next day, your brain will likely try to balance that out by giving you a severe hangover—sometimes even “extra negativity” to compensate.
Picture it like a scale, with happiness on one side and negativity on the other. Your brain will strive to return you to “homeostasis” as quickly as possible. The happier you felt, the more it will pump out negativity in the short term so you can get back to normal.
To escape that unpleasant, negative feeling, you’ll seek more dopamine and turn to drinking again.
And there you have it: a vicious cycle—alcoholism.
But we shouldn’t reduce the concept of addiction to just clichés. In one way or another, everyone is addicted to something.
We generally go for whichever dopamine source is easiest to access within our comfort zone.
In our current era—digital or not—we’re surrounded by these sources.
What Is Stress Tolerance?
Blood exerts pressure on the walls of blood vessels, and when that pressure is above normal, it damages the vessels. We call this high blood pressure. One important characteristic of high blood pressure is that patients often don’t realize they have it. So, even though hypertensive patients endure much higher pressure than normal people, they may not feel it. The same blood pressure that would make a healthy person faint might allow a hypertensive patient to keep playing basketball.
I’m not here to discuss types of blood pressure. We encounter a similar situation when it comes to stress in our lives.
Some people continue to act normally under high levels of stress. The stress is still there, but these individuals respond differently from most. When someone is exposed to stress over a long period, they may start to normalize it over time. This is not “being resilient to stress” but rather “getting used to it.”
Just like how the blood vessels of someone with hypertension keep getting damaged—even if they feel fine—people who develop a defense mechanism against chronic stress still remain affected by it. They may appear “relaxed” on the outside, but just like hypertension, stress wears them down internally.
This situation is just as dangerous as real high blood pressure.
Victim Mentality
There are, broadly speaking (though there are countless shades of gray in between), two types of people:
- Those who adopt a “victim” role in the face of events,
- Those who take responsibility, question themselves, or try to find solutions to problems.
Individuals inclined toward victim mentality often display a pessimistic attitude and frequently complain. When facing a problem, they don’t ask, “Was I part of this problem?”
In the other group, when they encounter a problem, they first look for their own mistakes and then try to find a solution.
Again, there are countless shades of gray, but I’m giving these clear examples to make the concept more understandable.
A “victim” often avoids or escapes difficult situations in their own way to find relief, while those who choose to face these situations add an extra level of stress onto their plate.
Why Did I Discuss These Three Topics?
Let’s elaborate:
If you have a tendency to take responsibility and solve problems, it generally means you’re always dealing with challenges. Although being solution-oriented and responsible seems psychologically healthy, if your stress tolerance is high (and you’re not aware of the stress you’re under), the scope of what you take on can become boundless.
For some people, the accumulation of long-term (chronic) stress and a lack of personal awareness—combined with factors like taking on excessive responsibility or ignoring emotional needs—can set the stage for addiction. The critical point here is how you define stress tolerance and what coping mechanisms you have in place.
Even if you don’t experience panic attacks and can handle all sorts of stress, you might not realize how large a “web of problems” you’re tangled in. Meanwhile, as a “hunter,” your brain will still want to satisfy its dopamine needs. You’re at high risk of latching onto the first method you find (alcohol, social media, gambling, etc.).
Within this equation, if you can manage to preserve your true “homeostasis” state as much as possible, your real expectations from life—and the things that genuinely make you happy—will be far more likely to surface.
And yes, I wrote this article while I was at a bar, and the next day I edited it over coffee. 🤷♂️
Zhou, Q. Y., & Palmiter, R. D. (1995). Dopamine-deficient mice are severely hypoactive, adipsic, and aphagic. Cell, 83(7), 1197–1209.
Hnasko, T. S., Sotak, B. N., & Palmiter, R. D. (2005). Morphine reward in dopamine-deficient mice. Nature, 438(7069), 854–857.
Szczypka, M. S., Rainey, M. A., & Palmiter, R. D. (2000). Dopamine is required for hyperphagia in Lep(ob/ob) mice. Nature Genetics, 25(1), 102–104.
Palmiter, R. D. (2008). Dopamine signaling in the dorsal striatum is essential for motivated behaviors: Lessons from dopamine-deficient mice. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1129(1), 35–46.
Björklund, A., & Dunnett, S. B. (2007). Dopamine neuron systems in the brain: An update. Trends in Neurosciences, 30(5), 194–202.
Brooks, S. P., Trueman, R. C., & Dunnett, S. B. (2012). Assessment of motor coordination and balance in mice using the rotarod, footprint analyses and ladder tests. Current Protocols in Mouse Biology, 2(2), 37–53.
