Not so long ago, almost nobody heard of dopamine, Only doctors, therapists and most likely Parkinson patients. Now, in combination with addiction, it is everywhere in social media.
What is dopamine?
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, a substance that creates connections between nerves. Dopamine is known as the main pleasure substance. Whenever you do something that gives you satisfaction, dopamine is released. But it is not the only one and, to be honest, you cannot become addicted to dopamine.
What do people mean with dopamine addiction?
Things that give you pleasure and that release dopamine are: Food, sex, a rush, sports, drugs, alcohol and work. But when people have an addiction in one of these areas, we call it what it is and not so much a dopamine addiction. It is the desire for the instant gratification that you get from your screen, by scrolling through movies, music, events and websites, that people mean by dopamine addiction. It is synonymous with phone addiction, scrolling addiction or screen addiction.
What will it lead to?
Well, getting pleasure from something is not wrong, is it? No, only when you only activate substances that give pleasure, there is no recovery and you quickly come to a shortage of these substances. The complaints you get then are:
- Fatigue
- poor sleep
- low motivation to do something even apathy
- nervousness
- irritability
- hopeless feeling
- feeling exhausted quickly
- social withdrawal
- low sex drive
- concentration disorder and other cognitive changes
Sounds a lot like the symptoms of Burn out. Well It is a different name for a similar condition. It only tells more specifically where it comes from.
How to cure this?
By putting away the phone and shutting off the computer is the easy solution.
Sadly it’s not that simple. Like with every other addiction, there is a little more going on.
- Organs are not in sync with each other and in their own healthy rhythm.
- The immune system is out of strength and balance
- Meridians and blood flow is disrupted
- Hormone balance is in a position of use instead of recovery and rest.
All of this needs to be brought back into rhythm, strength and balance, so you need to work on multiple fronts and in multiple directions.
Yuan Medicine
At Yuan Medicine, this is done by a team of experts after a central personal diagnosis.
In this way, all aspects can be treated by the different disciplines and at the same time the complete healing process is built up. In the case of dopamine addiction, you can think of acupuncture, herbal medicine, physiotherapy, psychotherapy, nutritional therapy and personal training to cure all these previously mentioned symptoms and conditions.
And even that is not enough if you do not teach yourself that there is a more stable life with a more stable gratification. In other words, you have to replace the use of your phone with something more valuable. Not just replace it, you have to actually see and feel it. Yuan Medicine’s occupational therapy ensures that this happens. Not an easy task, but it all starts with the will to change.
Yuan medicine in Thailand.
At Yuan Medicine, a team of professionals works on your condition. In a beautiful setting on the Thai coast, far away from all social and work-related influences.