When an expected reward fails to materialize, the dopamine system shuts down. In scientific terms, when the dopamine system is at rest, it fires at a leisurely three to five times per second. When it’s excited, it zooms up to twenty to thirty times per second. When an expected reward fails to materialize, the dopamine firing rate drops to zero, and that feels terrible. That’s why a dopamine shutdown makes you feel resentful and deprived. It’s how a recovering drug addict feels every day as he struggles to get clean and sober. It takes an enormous amount of strength, determination, and support
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