Better Living Through Neurochemistry - A guide to the optimization of serotonin, dopamine and the neurotransmitters that color your world

by James Lee

If you discover a way to boost dopamine, your brain will force you, with some degree of urgency, to do whatever is was, over and over. Then, as tolerance takes hold, you will need larger and larger doses to achieve the same effect. This is contrasted with serotonin, which is not typically associated with tolerance and addiction. This is a potential explanation for why methamphetamine (which works mainly on dopamine and noradrenaline) is highly addictive, yet the closely related MDMA (ecstasy), which works predominantly on serotonin and much lesser so on dopamine, is not considered addictive. My general feeling when it comes to boosting dopamine is to first exhaust all non-drug options before you consider the pharmaceutical route. I believe that dopamine is much more responsive to certain behaviors and thought processes than serotonin is – at least in the short term, as therapies like CBT can, over time, also boost serotonin.