Dopamine is about expecting to feel good, not actually feeling good

You like to feel good.

Some things that seem to make us feel good don’t. Not really. Some things give us a gratification hit, a little chemical boost, but aren’t good for us. They make us feel good for a minute, but it fades fast. Sometimes after the feeling-good fades, we feel bad.

So let’s distinguish this type of feel-good as its own thing, which it is: Instant Gratification.

Instant Gratification isn’t the same as Feeling Good.

[[_feeling good or just dopamined.png]]

Instant gratification is related to the nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain which is central to the reward circuit. Its operation depends mostly on dopamine and serotonin.

Delayed gratification is related to the hippocampus, the part of the brain that connects emotion with information and creates new memories.

Instant gratification activities cause your NA (that’s neuroscientist slang for the nucleus accumbens. Just kidding. I don’t know any neuroscientist slang) to produce more dopamine, which increases anticipation. You click that little FB notification button, or you eat that piece of candy, and you get a dopamine hit. But anticipating that you’ll feel good about something isn’t the same thing as actually feeling good. GARDEN/notes/Dopamine isn’t that great.