How to Build a Dopamine Menu
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By Mariana Corrales
Do you ever find yourself doom scrolling or binge watching shows and ultimately feeling more drained than before? This is due to the short-lived boosts of dopamine that unsustainable habits such as endlessly scrolling on social media provide. They model feelings of “happiness” but are short-lived and eventually lead to a dopamine crash, unknowingly roping you into a perpetual cycle of seeking out your next dopamine hit. This “dopamine hit” is the root of a multitude of obsessive behaviors and addictions. The key is to regulate one’s dopamine levels with healthy sustainable activities. This is where dopamine menus come into play.
Dopamine, as described by Harvard Health is the “the pathway to pleasure.” It’s considered to be the “happy hormone” because it promotes feelings of satisfaction, pleasure, and motivation, and is part of our body’s reward system. Positive reinforcements would be regular low dose jolts of
dopamine like going on walks daily and quality time with friends. Negative examples involve constantly engaging in activities that release large amounts of dopamine in such a brief time frame such as scrolling on TikTok or eating sugary foods. In exchange your body will obsessively seek the pleasure of rewards that aren’t beneficial to your well being. These negative reinforcements are also dangerous because they promote procrastination, lack of attention span, task switching, and impulsivity. This is why many people are unable to watch a movie without going on their phones and scrolling on a social media platform. The brain begins to crave a constant need for stimulation. “Quick fixes” like this are bandaids for depleted dopamine levels and the deficiency will only continue to aggravate, ultimately leaving you feeling more tired and unmotivated than before.
A dopamine menu (dopamenu) is a personally curated list of habits and activities that you enjoy and can do when looking to improve your mood without resorting to those “quick fixes.” It’s especially helpful for people with adhd who already have a natural deficit in the hormone. Adhd advocate Jessica McCabe and Eric Tivers, founder of Adhd Rewired, are the original creators of the dopamine and compared living without a dopamenu to going to the grocery store hungry and without a shopping list, so you throw the first thing you see into the cart. Even though it was originally meant for adhd patients the concept blew up on TikTok which ironically is where I discovered dopamenus and was immediately hooked along with thousands of others by the idea of finding stimulation in sustainable activities that I love all while simultaneously lowering my appallingly high screen time.
Dopamenus are quite easy to create. All you need is under an hour, your imagination and somewhere accessible to store it. I made mine on Canva but you can also use slides/docs, an
online template, handwrite it, or even TikTok as over 30,000 people have done. It resembles an actual menu and consists of appetizers, mains, sides, desserts, and specials. Each section is tailored to different circumstances to balance you throughout the day or month to steer your life into a more blissful and serene state.
My Dopamenu Example
Appetizer: Short activities you can do in under 45 minutes for when you need an accessible quick burst of dopamine that is easily incorporated into your daily routine like making a cup of coffee, or blasting your favorite song.
Mains: Longer activities that are meant to fill your cup and leave you feeling revitalized. These pastimes tend to go on for over an hour but are a form of self care as it gives your body and mind a recess. Choose activities you truly enjoy, for example doing your favorite hobby, or reading your favorite book.
Sides: Meant to compliment your appetizer or main activities, such as listening to music or a podcast while studying, and lighting a candle while doing chores.
Desserts: Rewards you give yourself every once in a while but know that if you overindulge you won’t feel great by the end. You can still scroll on social media but try setting a timer for an hour or only watching one episode of your favorite show. This may seem daunting at first but the more you practice regularly filling your cup with other activities the less drawn you feel to the short term stimulation from the desserts section.
Specials: Just like restaurant specials these activities are only served occasionally but can be some of the most replenishing and delicious dishes. Some examples would be traveling to a new place or going to a concert. They are specials because they involve a considerable amount of time, planning, and/or money but are the perfect cherry on top to end the dopamine menu. Dopamine menus are an effective way of curbing those harmful dopamine surging habits because it’s a straightforward way to identify what activities you can do regularly to feel good and stay productive for longer periods of time. A study done by the National Library of Medicine stated “This mechanism would allow an organism to learn the optimal choice of actions to gain rewards, given sufficient trial-and-error experience.” You have the power to retrain your brain to seek dopamine from healthier sources and enter a new cycle, one that leads to prosperity and bliss.