# Dopamine For Happiness

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha1ZbJIW1f8&ab_channel=AfterSkool

## 1. What is dopamine ?

Dopamine is conceived as the pleasure of achievement. Dopamine is associated with rewards, but it's more about motivation and craving.

So animal with more dopamine are more motivated to work toward a reward

Other animal with low level of dopamine can still enjoy the rewards and feel the pleasure but whether they are motivated to get those rewards depends on the level of dopamine.

Dopamine can explain your emotion. Do you feel motivated and happy to work or you're feeling kind of low, it has everything to do with dopamine (rats example).

The molecule of dopamine makes us wants to build, create and pursuit things that we don't already have

## 2. Pain and Pleasure Balance

There needs to be a pain pleasure balance. For people who doesn't feel motivated. The problem is they're not motivated but they're getting just enough or excess substances of pleasure.

So they're hooked on an adictive loop ( see the image demonstrated down below ). So they are motivated to a certain addictive trigger of dopamine and unmotivated to work toward other reward. Because why bother to pursue anything that require much efforts when I can get instant reward easily.


**The problem is not pleasure. The problem is pleasure experienced without prior requirement for pursuit is terrible for us.**

## 3. How to live a happy life:

Nowadays, people who are more successful, young or old will be people who can control their relationship with pleasure. The proximity to pleasure and availability to pleasure is the problem.

Here is a definition of addiction. Addiction is a progressive narrowing of the things that bring you pleasure.

A good life is the expansion of the things that bring you pleasure and include pleasure through motivation

Society will select for the people who can self-regulate. Knowledge does help in self-regulation. When you are feeling kind of low, understand that you have been through the high of dopamine and you are now in the pain part and dopamine is low. What you need to do is you need to stop engaging to a certain behavoir in order to replenish dopamine.

The amount of pleasure you experience is directly related to the amount of pain that you experience (Electrical shock experiment).

Pain evokes dopamine releases after the pain is over. Therefore: More Pain = More Dopamine. The key are to pursuit the rewards, but understand the pursuit is the reward. Getting closer to your goals trigger more dopamine and that's why the pursuit is the reward. If you want to have repeated sense of pleasure, you need to continuously pursuit things.

Quote from Buddha: "Happiness is a journey, not a destination" - "Hạnh phúc không phải là đích đến, hạnh phúc là một hành trình"