We all know dopamine as one of the brain's key feel-good neurochemicals. It’s a main player in a lot of mental-health-related things like addiction, mood, focus, sleep, and even psychoses. And it seems as though keeping dopamine levels in check is difficult for many of us.
Millions upon millions of people are looking for a way to raise their mood and motivation so they can start feeling better. But how do you know if you need to supplement your body’s dopamine production? And what are the health risks of maintaining a deficiency?
Dopamine Is More Than Just a Feel-Good Chemical
More dopamine doesn’t necessarily mean a good mood, just as less dopamine doesn’t mean you’ll be in a bad mood. Things are more complicated than that. Plus, this neurotransmitter plays more roles in the body than just mood.
Dopamine is also involved in:
- Motivation: Release occurs when something good happens, making you more likely to work for that feeling again.
- Movement: Signaling is involved in motor function, coordination, and balance.
- Learning/memory: Release occurs when you learn something new, which helps you retain the new information.
- Focus: Release also occurs when you're trying to focus on something, helping you to keep attention on a task.
Other functions this neurotransmitter is involved in include pain processing, sleeping/dreaming, mood regulation, and more. When you think about it, this one neurochemical is involved in every aspect of your daily life, physically and mentally. That’s why sub-optimal levels or dysfunctional activity has such wide-ranging consequences. It’s also why the adverse effects of a deficiency are more than just feeling kind of down sometimes.
How Chronic Stress Keeps Your Dopamine Levels Down
There are biological contributors to low dopamine levels that we’ll discuss, but no matter your predisposition, chronic stress is a major culprit of feeling low, sluggish, and full of brain fog. And it makes sense, because stress hurts pretty much every piece of your mind and body, pushing you into a bad feedback cycle:
- The constant release of cortisol and CRF does two bad things: CRF directly interferes with dopaminergic activity in the prefrontal cortex, and cortisol decreases the density of dopamine receptors and suppresses its release, too.
- High stress levels also cause more glutamate to be released. Glutamate is a major excitatory neurochemical. Too much of it leads to something called excitotoxicity, where chronic over-release can damage dopaminergic neurons.
- Chronic stress can actually change how your brain processes dopamine - in a bad way, of course. Particularly in the reward-processing center of the brain, dopamine receptors are suppressed, so even if you had enough of it, your brain won’t feel it like it should.
- Stress also releases pro-inflammatory proteins that cause neuroinflammation, which damages your dopaminergic system. This affects your entire mind and body, too.
- Enzymes released in a stress response can inhibit dopamine synthesis if the stress is prolonged, meaning it makes it harder for your brain to process and actually use this motivation-memory-mood booster.
This list of things that aren’t at all scary creates a feedback loop between chronic stress and the dopamine system. Constant flooding of stress chemicals suppresses dopamine and reduces sensitivity to it. Eventually, these chemicals start to erode the pathways and mechanisms by which dopamine is produced, released, and used. This contributes to stress, and it also makes it even harder to motivate yourself because you don’t feel the reward as much.
And let’s not forget how hard it is to sleep when you’re feeling down in every way. We won’t even get into how that’s its own horrible thing, but you can check out our article: 20 Scary Sleep Stories to Tell in the Dark: The Importance of Rest in Wellness.
Eventually, these processes can lead to actual structural changes in the brain, resulting in semi-permanent to permanent dysfunctional pathways, reduced production and release, and damaged ability to uptake and use dopamine.
Signs Your Lack of Motivation Might Be Biological
Aside from the telltale sign that you don't have enough of this neurotransmitter being produced/used – namely, low mood, other signs your levels are lacking include:
- Fatigue
- Low sex drive
- Mood disturbances
- Inability to concentrate
- Disturbed sleep
- Hand tremors
- Restless leg syndrome
- Muscle cramps/pain/stiffness
There are several things that can cause neurotransmitter dysregulation, meaning the body’s dopaminergic system isn’t functioning correctly. This can cause too high or too low levels of this pro-motivation chemical or a problem with release and reabsorption:
- Traumatic brain injury
- Genetic predisposition
- The body being resistant or too receptive to the effects
- Disrupted production by the brain
- Too few or too many receptors
Dopaminergic dysfunction is diagnosed indirectly, because we don’t have a way to directly observe levels in the brain. Instead, medical professionals test patients’ sensitivity to this far-reaching neurochemical to try and figure out what's going on.
Low Levels of Feel-Good Signals, Long-Lasting Consequences
Dopamine deficiencies are associated with several serious medical conditions, many of which can prove fatal, and many of which can be managed or corrected, in part, by increasing levels and activity of this particular neurochemical:
- Psychosomatic conditions involving reactivity, mood, affect, stress, attention, and compulsive behavior.
- Physiological pathologies, particularly neurological and neurodegenerative complications.
How to Promote Motivation on a Biological Level
It’s important to remember that not all deficiencies can be self-corrected, because not all of us are lucky enough to be neurotypical. But all neurotypicality aside, everyone can at least give their body a hand in producing more feel-good chemicals. Some effective healthy habits include:
- Exercise releases endorphins and spurs the production and release of feel-good chemicals via several neuronal pathways.
- A healthy diet keeps blood sugar balanced. Blood sugar spikes from unhealthy carbs can affect mood regulation and energy levels. Lean proteins and leafy vegetables provide the amino acids and nutrient support for healthy neurotransmitter activity.
- Quality sleep promotes healthy levels and availability of this pro-focus molecule by reducing stress, improving mood, giving the brain time to relax and repair, etc.
- Nootropic supplements can support balanced function by acting as neuromodulators. For instance, L-theanine works to balance levels of the major neurochemicals involved in mood, memory, motivation, and cognition, which is an integral function for the treatment of chronic affect and mood dysfunction.
The cool thing is that the production of this particular neurotransmitter is a self-perpetuating cycle. Just like chronic stress creates a feedback loop with dopamine, getting your levels back on track starts a positive feedback loop that leads to balanced mood, motivation, and clarity. That’s why your chosen method(s) of encouraging its production should be daily and consistent.
MTE: You Don’t Have to Keep Running on Empty Energy
The L-theanine in MTE supports balanced neurochemical production, use, and signaling throughout the brain and body. Paraxanthine not only boosts energy without inducing a false stress response, but also promotes dopaminergic activity - a key reason we call MTE the feel-good drink.
Along with our blend of 9 other adaptogens, nootropics, and superfoods, our ingredients promote calm, even energy and support mood, stress response, and recovery, too.
We designed our daily wellness blend with comprehensive wellness in mind so you have the energy you need to live your best life without having to mainline caffeine to get things done. MTE isn’t about getting more energy – it’s about having more energy so you can have more fun.
