Mental

Wow, another great message :) Happy with what I wrote and it will bring insight! Read it when you have some time or rest. No one is forcing you to read it now but don't be lazy 😠 and forget, just because its long ❤️. We briefly talked about it, but then the conversation moved away and either way, dopamine is best understood via the whole picture, not chatting about tips and tricks over a phone call. The brain is incredibly complex, but here is extremely simplified story anyone can follow, ask questions and criticisms etc. all are welcome, we can discuss anything. All of this is part of my life's work. For a little while especially with Vika, I was not a healthy example of dopamine balance, but every month I got better.

Does dopamine imbalance mean I consume too much dopamine?

• NO, absolutely not. In fact, in my experience, the best way to lose dopamine balance is by not giving yourself enough dopamine during times of struggle. When you treat yourself with kindness and allow yourself to be lazy, in the face of extremely low life dopamine, you develop a deep, biological handshake with your brain. When you can rationally recognize yourself going through a difficult time, and be honest with yourself instead of being guilty about increasing your dopamine, you begin to take control. No longer does "life" make you miserable, but "you" have the power to make yourself miserable. And you absolutely can make yourself more miserable if you're not disciplined and aware. But when you control the destiny of your own misery instead of the outside world, you begin developing intense and unrealized inner power, as a result of you managing this wild beast
• 
  
  A drug is a single source of dopamine. Give a socially isolated, single meal, no stimulus rat a single source dopamine (cocaine) and in the lab they'll eat it nonstop, eventually starving to death. Give a rat diverisifed dopamine (surrounded by toys, colors, tasty food, places to crawl, fun games, surrounded by his rat family AND also cocaine) the rat fails to become addicted to the cocaine over time even if they have access to it.
• Conclusion: same way we make better investers, we make better dopamine balance - Diversify your dopamine portfolio
• So that example leads to next important discovery: a huge part of dopamine we don't control. Divorce, losing a loved one, cumulative and chronic stress and fatigue from work, etc. these all contribute to low dopamine that has nothing to do with us.
• This also means we cannot ride the highs and lows. If we are temporarily very happy, we can enjoy our peace but do not frolick in the ecstasy. Think ahead: will this happiness last? Is it dependent on someone else? Can I sustain it? Similarly during times of extreme misery, we must ask: am I doing everything in my power to make me feel good? Not tomorrow, not next week, right NOW. It's not about being strong and cold in the face of misery by denying yourself fun. It is the extreme opposite: am I kind enough to myself to realize when I need to inject fun into my life, even if there is absolutely nothing about life that is injecting fun for me? Or further, am I aware that by better balancing my short term self repeatedly and across time, I develop the routines to solidify long term health?

How do I know my dopamine balance is low?

Many ways, a few come to mind:

• "I don't like to think about working tomorrow, all I want to do is think how I can best rest tonight. Tomorrow is more misery, it might as well be imaginary, only tonight is what matters"
• "When I wake up in the morning, I am plagued by anxious thoughts or worry"
• "I am on my phone 25-30+ times a day. And when I spend a little time away from my phone, my instincts kick in and I want my phone again." Your brain may even trick you, make you think you need your phone because you are doing something useful or helping someone. But the reality is, it could absolutely wait, 2 hours, 3... or more with no harm and full benefit to your intelligent, but weakened brain.
  
  Because our phone is actually a small dopamine box, a little box of pills we take everytime we use it. There is nothing wrong with this, we should not feel guilty about using our phone but if you fully believe that heroin and your phone has 0 shared similarities, you are misunderstanding a fundamental part of human biology
• "I am unable to sit still for 20 min, doing absolutely nothing, except breathe. No phone, TV, water, food. I feel misery, or I feel bored, or I feel stressed. Because I don't have time and I have things to do. and I need to rest in the best way possible and I cannot afford 20 min to stare at a wall"
• If two people begin a conversation positively, on average the conversation should end positively. I know my dopamine is low, when I talk to a different person and more than 50% of our conversations lead us to feeling WORSE, even if we began the conversation positively? Sometimes I had good dopamine balance, and Vika had bad balance, but people affect other people. Low dopamine Vika will lower my dopamine if I talk to her so sometimes part of increasing my dopamine meant understanding when Vika (or for you, Joe) has low dopamine. And letting them deal with their own issue, with kindness. Not leaving them after I insulted them, or leaving a conversation after I proved myself right, just leaving them to deal with their problem and argue with themselves.

Ok, if my dopamine balance is low, how do I return it to order and justice?

This is where things TRULY become fun and where you regain your power, happiness, and motivation for work:

• Firstly, do an assessment: is my life and my habits giving me the dopamine I believe I deserve?
  
  For ex: when I was with Vika, I had too little dopamine in my life. Every day was misery. To successfully survive, with my health perfect, my brain intact, my house and job intact, keep her from killing herself etc. I had to use more dopamine. I wasn't doing it because it felt "good", or because I "wanted" it (yes, this reason but not just this , I'm trying to highlight a deeper, advanced motivation). I injected more dopamine because like in a lab, I recognized a dopamine gap that needed to be medically corrected. Similarly, when Vika left, things needed correction. The habits I had to keep me balanced against a difficult time were no longer relevant when that difficult time is over. And I was adding too much dopamine in my life. Like we talked about in our conversations the last month, it did not make sense to me how I was not happy enough living life, even with all the nice things I have = bad dopamine balance.
• I'm not claiming to have the healthiest approach. Not saying this is the correct way to live life. But what I'm saying is, you can make it such that life does not control how happy you are, you control it.
  
  Not your lover, the one in your head or one you have, not how much money you make, not how much free time you have to rest, 100% you.
  
  And if life is not making you happy, you have a RESPONSIBILITY to cheat and make yourself happier. If you have everything you want, but you're still not happy, now you know --> you have way too much dopamine in your life and you need to learn misery and boredom again.

Final step. I know which direction I need to rebalance my dopamine, what do I do?

Increase short term dopamine (because I've had a bad day or terrible week)

• Look indirectly at the sun. Spend time out in the sun, even a few minutes is enough. Your ancestors have been seeing the same sun for millions of years. Your brain feels better when it has missed the sun
• a walk in nature
• doing something you like doing
• exercise
• cold shower will increase² dopamine by several hours
• dopamine promoting foods such as unprocessed animal proteins and healthy fats, like avocado or seeds. If you're deeply interested, the most effective supplements I have found, that in my experience taken together make dopamine balance about 25% easier to manage: Magnesium Glycinate, Vitamin D3, Tyrosine
• on especially bad days, nothing wrong with stronger dopamines like porn (for women this includes romantic reading) , alcohol or Marijuana¹ etc.
  
  Remember: you're putting trust in your future self to succeed by making your present self more happy, and there is nothing wrong with doing this, especially if history has shown you time and time again... you to be a repeatedly dependable person to yourself

Decrease short term dopamine (because I fail to feel happy even when my life has the essentials)

• Spend time away from your phone. This will naturally cause boredom, which will repair your brain
• Decrease porn. Natural sex OK
• Decrease drug, coffee, sweets, carbs usage
• Minimize the impact of highs and lows
• Do some boring but useful work, partially for purpose of making you more miserable

Why do I need to manage my dopamine like this?

Other people are happy and they don't have to manage their dopamine like this:

• Because this is what it required to be keep an intelligent person happy. Any moron can be happy if their brain gives them peace. Some of us have to earn it by diving deeper into the secrets hidden by our biology...

Additional Notes: Oct 8/25

• sometimes "Increase short term dopamine" and "Decrease short term dopamine" can be used same day and should compliment each other. A lot of life can occur in span of 6 hours and that's alright. Be kind, but responsible.
• though I wrote a lot, I was actually in a rush while writing. Added "conclusion" for rat lab to help clarify point. "rat" here is mostly used as fun example (result replicated in other animals incl. humans)
• Minor spelling/grammar. Added few sentences

¹ - list is long and different for different people. General rule: high dopamine, repeatable but importantly, safe activity

² - My least miserable, most repeatable "perfect" cold shower : begin at comfortable, warm temperature. Every few min, decrease temperature. Exit shower in medium or strong uncomfortable cold water. Feel the magic stepping out

Additional Notes: March 26/26

• Added an author's note