Dopamine plays a crucial role in our mood, motivation, mindset, and even movement. That’s exactly why you need to know how to naturally increase your dopamine levels.
Low levels of dopamine are linked to Depression, Schizophrenia, Psychosis, and, you can even get paralyzed if your Nigrostriatal dopamine pathways get damaged.
So, clearly, dopamine is responsible for a lot of things in your brain and body, not just mood and motivation.
You need to have high baseline dopamine levels, otherwise, you will get depressed, moody, miserable, and sad. (and possibly even psychotic :D)
In the next section. We will look at exactly how to accomplish that.
How To Naturally Increase Your Baseline Dopamine Levels
So, in order to understand how to naturally increase your baseline dopamine levels, you need to understand how dopamine is made in the first place.
Don’t worry, I won’t make this too complicated.
The first thing that needs to happen is, that you need to consume some Amino Acids.
What Amino Acids?
Namely, these two.
- Phenylalanine: Phenylalanine is a precursor to Tyrosine and is found in Protein rich food such as: Meat, such as, Beef, Pork, Lamb (you will find the most of this Amino Acid in these foods). Poultry, For example, chicken and turkey. And finally, Fish and Eggs.
- Tyrosine: Now, Tyrosine is made in the body from The Amino Acid Phenylalanine I talked about earlier. But the thing is, it doesn’t matter because it can be found in the same foods as Phenylalanine.
How Protein Gets Converted Into Dopamine
Now, after you consume these Amino Acids, they get converted into another Amino Acid (unfortunately not found in common foods) called L-dopa
However, L-dopa can be found in a tropical legume which you may have heard of called: Mucuna Pruriens.
Now, you can buy many supplements with Mucuna Pruriens in them, and what you’re basically doing is skipping the entire process of synthesizing L-dopa from the Amino Acids mentioned above and getting it directly.
After that, your body just converts L-dopa into dopamine and BAM, you’re good to go.
So in short, this is what the process of making dopamine looks like
You eat Phenylalanine. Phenylalanine gets converted into Tyrosine (or you eat it). Tyrosine gets converted into L-dopa (you can supplement with Mucuna, which I talked about earlier, to skip this entire process). And then L-dopa gets converted into Dopamine.
Now, there is one crucial factor here, and that is sleep. The entire process I talked about happens while you sleep, so getting good sleep is crucial for your dopamine levels. (and a thousand other things.)
So basically all you need to know from this chapter is:
Eat protein, Sleep well, Supplement with Mucuna Pruriens. That’s it.
Stuff That Lowers Your Dopamine Baseline Levels
Excellent. Now you know exactly what you need to do in order to increase your dopamine levels.
But here’s the thing. There is stuff that lowers your dopamine baseline levels, and here we will take a look at them.
Fortunately for you, the list of things lowering your dopamine baseline levels is pretty straightforward.
They are called Super-Stimuli.
Maybe you have heard of this phrase, maybe not. doesn’t matter.
Super-Stimuli Work in a way that spike your dopamine so much that it drains your limited levels of dopamine you have in your brain. Thus, lowering your baseline dopamine levels and, with them, your mood and motivation to do other things rather than spend your time jerking off and scrolling TikTok. It’s called addiction.
Naturally Increase Dopamine Levels by Eliminating Unnatural Stimuli
Here, I’m giving you a list of the worst Super-Stimuli to cut out of your life. It’s not going to be easy, but it is going to be worth it.
- Porn: The worst offender by far, porn spikes your dopamine so much, you probably won’t have motivation to do other things afterward. Not only does it spike your Dopamine. But by watching porn you basically tell your brain that you have achieved the ultimate goal of all humanity (to reproduce) and your brain responds by being lazy and not wanting to do anything. Porn is fucking disgusting, and you should cut it out immediately. The best way to do that is through the EasyPeasyMethod. That’s the way I quit my porn addiction. And if you watch porn more than 2 times a week, you are addicted too.
- Social Media: The second-worst offender by far. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, YouTube, you name it. In today’s society almost everyone is addicted to their social media and no wonder. After all, it spikes your dopamine. You may have a limiting belief right now that it’s impossible to live without social media these days. WRONG. Personally, I don’t have any social media other than YouTube and even for YouTube I use a front end called FreeTube which is basically YouTube but without the addicting algorithm. And additionally, I only use YouTube for education. No mindless content consumption.
- Video Games: I already hear your “But I only play 1 hour of video games” cope. But the truth is, video games (even just 1 hour of them) FUCK your dopamine baseline levels, thus making you more depressed and moody.
- Junk Food and Sugar: That’s right. Not only does the standard American diet destroy your health. It also destroys your dopamine. The hyper-processed foods of the United States of America not only give you obesity, diabetes, and cancer. They also give you an addiction and depression.
- Movies and TV Shows: Yes, binge-watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was my childhood, too. But, for your own well-being, you need to give this shit up.
Conclusion
Yes, I know. It may be difficult to give up these Super-Stimuli. After all they are super stimulating right?
Yes, and that’s the problem.
Giving up these Super-Stimuli draining your life and your energy should be your number 1 priority.
Not only will you be more productive, you will also be happier.
And if you think it’s not possible, well.
I don’t watch movies I do not have any social media and I do not indulge in porn nor video games.
So, the conclusion of this article is: Eat protein, Sleep Well, Supplement with Mucuna Pruriens and cut out Super-Stimuli from your life. For your own sake.