# Will the human race become zombies in 20 years from dopamine depletion?



## Ambiguous (Aug 17, 2009)

So basically we're living in the most dopamine hyped culture ever. Nothing has ever come close to giving us this much instant gratification. The scary part is, that leaves no data to let us see what the effects of it are. (Dopamine jolt behind internet addiction - FT.com)

Dopamine is triggered by doing "feel good" or rewarding activities. Back in the day, this rewarding activities required a bit of work. Now, with the rise of the internet, computers, and on demand everything, there's very little work involved.

In one sitting, you can watch your favorite TV show, check your Facebook/Twitter/Texts 170 times, and watch a whole gang load of porn. 

These are all becoming addictive behaviors in which we are forming Pavlovian responses to dopamine inducing activities.

The problem is, most studies have concluded that we can only produce a finite amount of dopamine. (Burnside Writers Collective » Blog Archive » You Never Miss the Dopamine Until the Brain Runs Dry)

What will we do if we find out we're expending all our dopamine too quickly in this current era. Will everyone develop Alzheimers and Parkinsons by the age of 35?

What are your thoughts?


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## Antipode (Jul 8, 2012)

That'd be an interesting twist.


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## RandomNote (Apr 10, 2013)

What if you hardly ever get that feel good feeling?


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## Doc Dangerstein (Mar 8, 2013)

So dopamine, a non-renewable resource? I'm curious, how do you account for the hedonists of times past; be it the Romans or the French libertines. Is it the brain that stops producing dopamine or are we looking for more complex, novel pleasure because we have gotten bored of pleasures past. Or maybe the standard has substantially dropped; I'm not going to even pretend that today's movies are better then ones from the 1960s. They are the same story lines rehashed with more explosions, faster car chases and prolonged action sequences where you know the outcome of the battle. 

If there's one thing to learn from the healthy minded hedonists is that variety is important; it's really not that hard to come up with something original to do. What is our inability to feel pleasure is because we lead increasingly safe and boring life, and the boredom is getting more and more agonising and the only thing that will satisfy is an eight ball chased with electroshock therapy straight to the hypothalamus. There's also the question of focus: everything leads to the climax. Pleasure has become scheduled and goal oriented -- everything about the climax, the release, the satiation, that's kinda boring. 

Also; how do we measure a how much dopamine we have left. Or what causes a depletion of dopamine, is it really a maximum allotment per lifetime or does it work much the same way as insulin. Taking insulin when you're non diabetic makes you diabetic. As does overindulging on the sugar. Each person has their own personal threshold.


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## Ambiguous (Aug 17, 2009)

SputnikExperiment said:


> So dopamine, a non-renewable resource? I'm curious, how do you account for the hedonists of times past; be it the Romans or the French libertines. Is it the brain that stops producing dopamine or are we looking for more complex, novel pleasure because we have gotten bored of pleasures past. Or maybe the standard has substantially dropped; I'm not going to even pretend that today's movies are better then ones from the 1960s. They are the same story lines rehashed with more explosions, faster car chases and prolonged action sequences where you know the outcome of the battle.


Hedonists in the past didn't have 24/7 access to their pleasures though. It was maybe 4 or 5 fun events a day. 

We're having dopamine responses from: getting a text, seeing a new friend request, beating a game, checking your inbox, etc. There was never anywhere close to that much external stimuli in the 1960s. I would easily say an active texter/facebook user is getting 10x the amount of dopamine responses of the largest hedonist 50 years ago.

From every study I've read, dopamine is a finite amount and only so much is produced during a lifetime.

This is still a theory that I'm working out, so I'm constantly reading up on it, but I definitely see a some issues potentially arising in the future from it. I can potentially see people in the future responding in ways that resemble a long time meth addict (minus the gnarly teeth).


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## Kurdomintt (Mar 7, 2013)

Ambiguous said:


> Hedonists in the past didn't have 24/7 access to their pleasures though. It was maybe 4 or 5 fun events a day.
> 
> We're having dopamine responses from: getting a text, seeing a new friend request, beating a game, checking your inbox, etc. There was never anywhere close to that much external stimuli in the 1960s. I would easily say an active texter/facebook user is getting 10x the amount of dopamine responses of the largest hedonist 50 years ago.
> 
> ...


Is this not what is happening right now? People are leading ever more compulsive lives, of course supported by the surrounding commercial structures. Nowhere is there an incentive for integrity, "what's the value of a face?". Individuals and collective are essentially the same, yet indidivuals are supposed to like robots bow before the "collective" and the amoral political system. To what ends? To whose?...


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## Elistra (Apr 6, 2013)

I do not understand why dopamine would be a finite resource? If memory serves, it has molecular precursors that the body can use to make more, just like every other neurotransmitter? I could see the system going wonky with many years of habitual cocaine abuse, congenital weakness, etc. but for everyone?

And to be perfectly crass, the dopamine surge provided by copulation and orgasm is _considerable, _and people have been doing that practically every chance they get for a long, long time. :tongue:


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## Doc Dangerstein (Mar 8, 2013)

As much as I love you guys, I promise you, no dopamine was harmed or wasted in the writing of this message. Some people must have a really low threshold for pleasure; and how much dopamine do we really secrete when we answer a text? The same argument could be used against people who are on the phone non stop. I'm more concerned with people reaching for medication to often and too soon. I imagine the body will react similarly as to insulin, steroids and other hormonal treatments -- if I'm getting my intake from external sources, why should I continue producing it on my own?

I'm willing to argue that the content of our media, the monotony of nonsensical communications will turn us into zombies sooner then dopamine depletion. bwains? :wink:


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## mikki104 (Apr 7, 2012)

I am having trouble finding studies that say that dopamine production is finite in normal individuals. The cited article explicitly deals with Parkinson's patients, who have abnormally dysfunctional dopamine production. Where does it say that dopamine production is finite for all human beings?


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## The Alternate (Jan 14, 2013)

I don't have any science to back up my facts, but I would actually think that due to so much instant gratification that it decreases the amount of dopamine one has. Kind of like "too much of a good thing". If you are feeling good 24/7, eventually it will ramp up and you'll need something much better to feel the same way. With that in mind, it means things that used to give you pleasure before no longer do as much, and then there isn't a depletion problem.



Ambiguous said:


> We're having dopamine responses from: getting a text, seeing a new friend request, beating a game, checking your inbox, etc. There was never anywhere close to that much external stimuli in the 1960s. I would easily say an active texter/facebook user is getting 10x the amount of dopamine responses of the largest hedonist 50 years ago.


Damn, low standards there!


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## Hurricane Matthew (Nov 9, 2012)

I don't understand why today's world is any more rewarding than living life in the past...? Wouldn't doing things like completing a household chore also give gratification? I feel pretty satisfied after raking all the leaves in the yard or collecting the eggs from the chicken house. That's something people have done for ages. I'm outdoorsy so I get gratification from seeing wildlife on my hikes, successfully starting a campfire, finding interesting wildflowers, watching the sunset... those are non-internet things that are pretty simple and don't have to work that hard for >.> People get gratification from reading a book, seeing friends/family, playing with the family dog... how much more gratification can the internet really give that we weren't getting already? How can seeing your friend come onto skype be any more rewarding than hanging out with them in person?


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## Bricolage (Jul 29, 2012)

I read an interesting article which said multitasking stressed procedural memory and the corpus striatum whereas focused attention stressed declarative memory and the hippocampus more. The latter definitely seems healthier. I suck at multitasking, though, so I don't have much choice. :tongue:


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## Bricolage (Jul 29, 2012)

You wouldn't "lose" dopamine anyway, although impulse control would be a cause and effect of attentional problems and over-valuation of instant gratification. But basically synaptic pruning and synaptic plasticity have a very use it or lose it vibe: used areas are retained and consolidated (mainly during sleep). Even when you look at physiological tolerance from caffeine or heroin, your body is creating more receptors to counteract the foreign agent's effect and bring about homeostasis. So with caffeine you will have more adenosine receptors after a few weeks. You don't "wear down" or "lose" the adenosine receptors, which caffeine superficially but only temporarily plugs up ("antagonizes") to exhibit its effect; there's some glycogen effect but that's not important. The point is tolerance and addiction don't exactly work by indiscriminately obliterating receptors. :crazy:


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## ForlanceAbice (Jan 18, 2013)

.... This is something that is right out of an TheOnion article. 
If so, then we would be pretty much out of a job, eh?
I mean, zombies really don't have much of a personality to begin with, 
save for "BRAAAAAAAAINS.... *Moans*"


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## jaydee01 (Jun 14, 2013)

*What too much Dopamine can cause?*

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## jaydee01 (Jun 14, 2013)

*What too much Dopamine can cause?*

Good article. Did you know that if Your brain is exposed on too many drugs, it can lead to addiction in some ways, reports suggest. If you have chemistry on the brain, think about this. With too much dopamine on the brain, consumers might be more subject to impulsiveness, in shopping and even in more destructive pursuits. If retailers were to weaponries this, God help us all. An installment loan will be needed to pay for all purchases if it is not controlled. take a look at personalmoneynetwork.com/installment-loans


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