Do you ever wonder why you can’t enjoy the present? Or maybe you’re curious to know what’s behind a gambler’s addiction or a painter’s creativity? Dopamine. This single neurotransmitter is in charge of a wide range of otherwise unrelated human behaviors, pulling the strings in people prone to dating too much or overworking. Dopamine is the brain chemical which moves our minds beyond the present and into a world of desire and imagination. It functions in opposition to neurotransmitters such as serotonin and endorphins, which are more concerned with our abilities to enjoy sensations of the present moment. Psychiatrist and professor Daniel Lieberman and writer Michael Long delve into the unexpectedly diverse world of dopamine in an investigation of how one neurotransmitter shapes the structure of experience.

First discovered in 1957 by Kathleen Montagu at the Runwell Hospital, dopamine was initially believed to function as the chemical which activates pleasure in the brain. Soon, this belief gave way to a much different understanding of the neurotransmitter. Anticipation, desire, and newness create and sustain dopamine. This stimulation of expectation for the future within the present is called dopaminergic excitement, and it’s a kind of elation that chemically cannot last, though it may drive you to ask someone out.

In fact, dopamine is the orchestrator of why we fall in love, and the chemical behind that electrifying sensation of meeting a new person in whom we’re interested. While this kind of exhilarating experience of love may sound and very well be novelesque and romantic, according to science and anthropologist Helen Fisher, it doesn’t last. This is the inevitable downfall of dopamine. According to Fisher, feelings associated with new love called “passionate love” only last 8-12 months, as opposed to the more cultivated feelings of familiar intimacy inherent in “companionate love.” Passionate love is driven by dopamine, the chemical which fires when something unexpected occurs.

The authors note popular culture figures to exemplify their claims, including the prolific Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and the comedic George Costanza from Seinfeld. Both totally different men are serial lovers for the same exact reason—dopamine. Not only is it the chemical which ignites the flames of romantic passion, but it’s also the one that ends those relationships almost as quickly as they started, making it nearly impossible to truly enjoy them in the present. In order to sustain long-lasting relationships, the lovers must literally change the way they think. Sustainable companionate love engages the neurotransmitters oxytocin and vasopressin in order to thrive. These brain chemicals allow lovers to enjoy each other in the present moment, something that dopamine actively works against as it pins our minds to unexpected future rewards that never truly arrive; the joy of dopamine is in the dream.

Once the dopaminergic thrill quiets down and passionate love cools its flame, the lover is left to make a mental shift or simply find the next person in an endless chase of that illusory glow. The longing for love is not wrong; rather, it serves an obvious evolutionary purpose. But recognizing that this fleeting sensation is really just a powerful little chemical in your brain telling you it’s just not satisfied will enable you to diagnose unhealthy patterns and nurture fulfilling relationships here and now.

Have you ever wanted something so badly until you got it, only to realize that you didn’t really want it in the first place? That’s dopamine for you—the insatiable craving that promises no completion. In the brain, the mesolimbic pathway or the dopamine desire circuit is the area in which the function of motivation and craving begin. This region evolved to help us find food and reproduce in order to sustain life, and it continues to drive us towards what the brain perceives as necessary behaviors. In other words, our brains want a particular thing for its life-sustaining qualities, but that doesn’t necessitate that we like the item or that the item is healthy for us.

While cravings for most things like food dissipate once the hungry person eats, cravings for drugs are a completely different story. When drugs enter the bloodstream, they ignite unprecedented amounts of dopamine in the desire circuit, creating a craving that cannot be chemically satisfied due to the fact that drugs have no satiety circuit, the function of the brain that tells us it’s time to stop. This leads to an inevitable addiction and a constant yearning after a substance which has no power to fulfill. 

Additionally, the mind creates powerful associations between the drugs one has used and a variety of other stimuli, making it extremely difficult for addicts to reach sobriety because many physical items initiate a chemical craving. The authors note an example of a former addict’s confusion at why he felt a desire for drugs while shopping in the grocery store. Bringing his counselor along, they both later realized that the bleach on the laundry detergent aisle triggered a chemical desire due to its association with the hypodermic needles he used to soak in bleach before injecting drugs. 

All drug addictions stimulate dopamine, from heroin to marijuana, but the amount of dopamine released depends on the drug itself and the way it’s delivered. For instance, smoking cocaine leads to a greater high due to the lungs’ larger surface area, making it a much more efficient route to the bloodstream. After a long period of exposure to drugs, the brain cannot naturally create dopamine, making the process of getting clean a battle of true mental anguish with the addict functioning at a complete dopamine shutdown.

Alcohol and video games can also be extremely addicting in their abilities to trigger the release of dopamine in the brain. For instance, the dopaminergic high caused by alcohol is greater the more quickly one drinks. This means that people are more apt to continue drinking, wanting to keep up or regain that chemical high, unaware that the likelihood of receiving it decreases over time. Psychologist Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University found that one out of ten gamers between the ages of eight and 18 are actually addicted to their virtual worlds.

An understanding of the integral role of brain chemistry in creating and sustaining addictions allows for a better knowledge of just how consuming those behaviors can be and how painful it is to correct them. To combat an addiction, especially one to drugs, individuals must literally struggle against themselves, fighting against both body and brain in order to recover, repair, and heal.

The dopamine desire circuit has a better, more demanding half called the mesocortical circuit, or the dopamine control circuit. Just as the desire circuit regulates dopamine-driven cravings, the control circuit keeps those cravings in check, ensuring that they really are worth wanting. This function of the brain nudges us to channel those persistent longings into beneficial outcomes. Located in the neocortex in the frontal lobes, the control circuit also enables us to plan for the future, imagine unexplored or nonexistent places, dream up a plot for a novel, or solve a frustrating math equation.

The entire human environment, from natural resources to human relationships, is the domain of the control circuit, which seeks to gather and employ every possible resource to its eventual benefit. It’s incredibly future-oriented too, making it tough for the dopaminergic personality to be content with her present successes, always striving for the next accomplishment. Now is never enough. Think of the workaholic or the straight-A student—both individuals are driven by the chemical need to utilize the present in order to provide for the future. More than that, with every accomplishment triggering the release of dopamine, individuals are motivated in an endless pursuit of the next hit, moving from success to success, devoid of the ability to actually take pride in the present.

Another facet of controlling one’s environment for the future takes root in relationships. Agentic relationships are stitched together by dopamine and exist for the sake of some other end or pursuit besides simple human friendship. On the other hand, affiliative relationships are those kinds of friendships that exist as ends in themselves, functioning as fulfilling and mutual companionships. These kinds of relationships trigger neurotransmitters that revel in the pleasures of the present rather than preparing for what’s to come, a desire that never fully arrives. Agentic relationships are used as material for future benefit, fueled by dopamine and the hunger for more. It’s not so clear-cut, though; most relationships take both forms at one point or another, with teammates enjoying each other’s company over dinner and close friends helping each other on a project for work. While it may seem that dopamine’s approach to relationships is a rather overbearing one, this is only partially true. Oftentimes, it’s more efficient to be kind and submissive to others in order to achieve some external end than it is to be abrasive and demanding. Kindness is a mastermind.

Success is good—there’s no doubt about that. But in some cases, the functioning of the dopamine control circuit runs rampant across the human brain, sprinting in endless circles of success to dissatisfaction to desire. In people with too much dopamine, this is especially evident. The highest-achievers are often the least satisfied, and that is because of a chemical imbalance in which their brains weigh dopamine far more heavily than they do the present-focused neurotransmitters. For instance, the author cites an interview with renowned and prolific astronaut Buzz Aldrin in which the interviewer asks him how he felt after achieving a feat as unparalleled as landing on the moon. Being the dopaminergic man he is, Aldrin appears not even to process the question of what it means to feel a particular emotion after an accomplishment. Instead he tells the interviewer he felt that it was time to channel his efforts into another pursuit. He did just that, but he also fell into loops of mental illness, depression, and intense dissatisfaction. 

Aldrin’s brain simply could not function without the process of attaining, enabled by the chemical behind the most remarkable advances in human society and the most debilitating lows rooted in a lack of contentment.

As the neurotransmitter of the nonexistent future, dopamine is the director behind the scenes of imaginative activity. The brain of the highly creative mathematician or painter is incredibly similar to that of the delusional schizophrenic patient. Delusions, hallucinations, and imagination thrive in the world of the unseen, which turns beneath the surface of physical reality.

The person with schizophrenia experiences delusions and hallucinations due to a low latent inhibition which assigns importance to otherwise mundane aspects of life that fly below a non-schizophrenic person’s more balanced radar. This importance is called salience, and in the mind of the schizophrenic person, it functions at an unhealthy high and is fired at inappropriate times, thus enacting desire dopamine and paving the way for delusions. For instance, the schizophrenic person might believe that the FBI is after her because she just witnessed FBI agents in action on the TV news. The unbalanced brain assigns undue recognition to events which are otherwise completely disconnected from one’s life. One of the medications for schizophrenia is an antipsychotic which actually blocks the brain receptors responsible for receiving the dopamine transmitter, decreasing its movement in the desired circuit and eliminating various delusions and hallucinations.

Researcher Oshin Vartanian at York University in Toronto wanted to compare activity within the brain of the mentally ill with that of the highly creative person. His research concluded that the same region of the brain is active in both kinds of people, an area called the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Just as delusions are triggered by excess dopamine, so is creativity, an art described by the authors as the ability to relate seemingly disconnected things into one coherent form. This kind of creativity is apparent in acts as diverse as including an unusual instrument in a song, devising a solution to an abstract physics problem, or thinking up a poetic arrangement of words to accompany an otherwise ordinary experience. 

A study of 86,000 people in Iceland found that people with genes which predispose them to mental illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder were more likely to be a part of an artistic organization or community of some kind. The brains of creative people are inherently threatened by the possibility of mental illness due to a similarly large dosage of dopamine.

Dreaming is no different. Whether you can paint beautifully textured mountains or draw a simple straight line, your dreams introduce a dopaminergic state that parallels the activity of the schizophrenic’s hallucinatory brain and the musician’s creative process. In all cases, physical reality is superseded and the limitations of everyday life are destroyed. This dopamine release functions as a kind of psychosis which may even have the potential to answer some of your conscious and subconscious queries. Studies show that dreaming enables people to gain clarity in decision-making, providing creative solutions to problems they would not have entertained otherwise.

You don’t have to be a poet or a physicist to experience the vivacity enabled by dopamine. All you have to do is shut your eyes and dream.

The cells that produce dopamine may only comprise a miniscule .0005% of the human brain, but dopamine levels dictate a variety of human behaviors. Studies show that this one chemical actually tells us which political party we lean towards, with more dopaminergic people following more liberal parties and those with less dopamine populating a more conservative ideology. Still, dopamine is only one neurotransmitter in the multitudinous story of the human brain. More influential than dopamine are the other factors that weigh on a person’s personality, such as upbringing, habits and genetics.

Scientists at the University of California conducted research which found that a particular gene of human DNA, the DRD4 gene or the 7R allele, conducts the risk-taking and novelty-seeking portions of our lives. Their research also showed that this dopamine-driven gene is more common in populations that had migrated from their original land. With every 1,000 miles traversed through unknown territories and inhospitable climates, the likelihood of a 7R allele appearance increased by 4.3%. Such attributes were beneficial to our early ancestors just as they allowed for our more recent relatives to establish countries despite fear and difficulty. In fact, the United States boasts a highly dopaminergic population due to its assemblage of immigrants. 

Dopamine is the force behind relentless innovation, but it fails to unlock arguably the most talked about, philosophized, sought-after human experience—happiness. The authors advocate for a better balance of the dopamine neurotransmitter with other brain chemicals like serotonin in order for the brain to maintain a better, more contented balance. Knowledge of the brain’s internal activity may be the first step towards fostering this more equitable relationship within the mind. While dopamine is a force of unconquerable progress, it also prevents people from taking the time to consider the consequences of their achievements, which may not be as wholly positive or beneficial as they seem. Advancements in industry and technology, like the growth of Artificial Intelligence, present society with new, oftentimes dangerous dilemmas.

In an era of constant information, it’s a challenge to bypass the trap of the solely dopaminergic way of life. An appreciation for the present is a difficult mentality to cultivate, but it is integral to happiness and satisfaction beyond endless, exhausting achievement. Paying attention to your surroundings in the moment actually works to release dopamine as it unleashes a wealth of new and surprising events that you can only experience through active awareness. Modern-day habits of multitasking rail against this, actually proving to be incredibly inefficient since your brain must split its energy between two tasks, neither one done properly. One way to create a more balanced mind is to create. It’s simple. Creative activities like knitting, gardening, or cooking engage the physical world with the hands, unlocking benefits for the dopaminergic and non-dopaminergic chemicals in the brain.

Though it can be counter-cultural and chemically difficult to dim your dopamine and grow grateful for the physical moment, it’s rejuvenating. Understanding just a fraction of the human brain illuminates a surprising range of human experiences and empowers individuals to live more mindfully, turning away from complacency and nurturing the moment.