The Truth About Dopamine (You’re Not in Control)

Added: 2026-05-04

[00:00:00]good habits are harder to keep. Like I know that working out is good for me. I know that going for a walk is good for me. I know that stretching is good for me. I know I I know all these things >> and then I'll do them and I'll feel good after doing them.

[00:00:12]>> But then I don't I don't find myself craving like a gym session. I don't find myself being like, you know, be nice right now. A little bench press. M I know it's midnight, but I can sneak in a little 250.

[00:00:26]>> You see, I like to do that sometimes, but I'll tell you, there's a couple things there. All right. So, if you want to talk about the neuroscience of habit formation, the way that every single habit is formed is it first begins as a dopamine-driven activity, right? So, when social media first came out, you weren't going on social media out of habit. You went on there because you could connect with your friends or you could, you know, see you could post something or whatever it is, right?

[00:00:49]You're you went on there for a a goal, for a reason. Um, same thing with ice cream or, you know, vaping, whatever it is. You knew you started it because it felt good. That's why you started.

[00:01:01]>> Okay? So feel good is the first thing, >> right? And then that dopamine. So dopamine actually drives learning. It drives neuroplasticity, which is the ability for your brain to rewire. So dopamine drives learning. So and dopamine does isn't just released when something great happens. It's also released when something not so great happens. It's more of a a salance molecule, which means like look at me.

[00:01:21]So, anything that really like grabbed your attention, that's why you have really strong memories of bad events as well because they're emotional and they raise dopamine as well, just in a different way.

[00:01:31]>> So, yeah, anything that really boosts dopamine, it will drive that learning, right? And so what actually happens is that over time the dopamine moves from being released when you get the good thing to being released whenever you see sort of a cue or something that represents that good thing, right? So for example, it's super super easy to just talk about it with, you know, drugs of abuse, but we can talk about ice cream. it. Initially, you got dopamine from eating ice cream, but over time you get the dopamine from seeing the ice cream because your brain's anticipating a reward. So, your dopamine moves from actually getting the reward to the anticipation of the reward. And that's craving.

[00:02:17]>> So, that's sort of how habit formation works. And then once that happens, then you kind of begin this this it goes from this goal directed behavior, right? and it moves to um a stimulus response behavior or a cue response where like before it was like oh I want to eat this ice cream because I know like I want to eat this ice cream it's going to taste good and now it's like oh no I see the ice cream dopamine is released when I see the carton and that's going to drive me because dopamine is also a molecule of action to go and eat it and you're not even you don't want to it's just that your dopamine has learned to associate the picture of the ice cream that you're seeing with a reward and now you're not even deciding it. It's just your brain is driving you to do it.

[00:03:00]>> This is why ads work.

[00:03:02]>> Yeah.

[00:03:02]>> But but I guess it also explains to me why ads are more effective when you've actually had the thing.

[00:03:08]>> Mhm.

[00:03:08]>> So genuinely, whenever I watch a Taco Bell ad, I don't have a Oh, I should get that now.

[00:03:13]>> But Pizza Hut or like a McDonald's or one of >> Let them flash a McFlurry on the screen >> for half a second.

[00:03:23]>> Yeah. I will find that machine wherever it is. I will turn it on myself.

[00:03:29]>> You have ice cream.

[00:03:30]>> Hey, my friend.

[00:03:30]>> He's the only guy I know who chews ice cream.

[00:03:32]>> Yo, bro, you know me and you love me.

[00:03:34]You see you you see me. You You see me.

[00:03:36]Eugene >> choose ice cream.

[00:03:38]>> You choose it >> even without I chew it. I I savor it. I >> It's like an ice cream silier.

[00:03:46]>> This guy loves me. This guy knows me.

[00:03:49]No, but that's what I mean. It's like so like the ads have more power over you >> when you've actually experienced the thing.

[00:03:55]>> Do you get what I'm saying?

[00:03:56]>> Yeah. Absolutely.

[00:03:56]>> Right. Right. Because your brain has learned that it's rewarding.

[00:03:59]>> Wow. So then it becomes now it becomes a trigger. That's how it can work on you is like because now you've had it when you watch the ad or when you see like the social media thing scroll.

[00:04:08]>> I think this explains so much.

[00:04:10]>> What you're saying also explains why going cold turkey on anything never works >> because anything that you love there's a process to it. how we explained the shop, choosing a flavor, paying for that, getting the reward of paying for it cuz you know it now is cut short, then the reward is not there anymore, then you start missing the thing more. But I find that when you have the vape inside your car, but you choose not to do it, >> then you're slowly taking away the >> the I love that you made that point of like feeling stressed too because that was another thing and that's why I decided to do it the way that I did because when you go cold turkey, it almost especially when you're addicted to something, you feel this sense of like stress without it and not having it. And stress reduces activity in the prefrontal cortex, which is the area of your brain that allows you to control your impulses. So it actually makes you and that's why you know when people quit an addiction or something and all of a sudden they feel stressed they are more likely to relapse because it your ability to control your impulses is reduced.

[00:05:11]>> But here's my thing. Do we quit things that we're addicted to because they're hurting other people or do we quit because they're hurting us? Cuz initially everything there was a dopamine spike. I liked what I was doing. I was having too much of a good time at a strip club. Now I have kids.

[00:05:25]Now I have to think, do I tip strippers or do I pay for school fees? Is it the strippers or is it the kids that am I stopping this because I want to stop or because they are crying because they're hungry now? Not the strippers. The kids.

[00:05:37]>> These analogies are so crazy.

[00:05:40]>> So Trevor thinks this is really funny >> cuz you choose ice cream.

[00:05:44]>> No. No. But I'm sitting here like thinking about this very much from my own perspective and experience. And the way that I decided was it's always about who I'm wanting to become.

[00:05:55]>> And it's always about that. And you know, you can never force somebody to quit something they don't want to. Like, you have to want to do it. And I think for me, I didn't care to quit vaping. I didn't care how many ads showed me what happens to your lungs. Like, I didn't care about any of that. I was young. I don't care about that. I don't care about my health. Like, whatever. The the thing that actually made me care about stopping was understanding that there is a gap currently between the who you are now and the version of you who's achieved everything you've ever wanted in life.

[00:06:24]>> Dang. And when you visualize that version of you, when you have hold that version of you in your mind, like that version of you has different habits than you do right now. And the version of me who's boss woman like achieving everything she doesn't, babe. And so I was like, damn. Like, if I want to become that version of me and achieve everything I want to achieve, then I need to stop doing this because it's creating a gap between where I am now and where I want to go.