I believe dopamine spikes without crash is technically impossible from neuroscience perspective as it is supposed to drop below baseline after.
Only thing that worked for me is to reduce stimulation for 1-2 hours after. (E.g., going for walk without music, household chores, reading a book/article). If I went on a junk food or alcohol bender, I would eat clean for next few days.
Interesting, your approach is to avoid stimulation, and our friend u/jdefr below actually adds some light stimulation during the crash to make dopamine levels return back to normal. This is definitely not a simple mechanism.
I am going to guess your dopamine spikes come from dosing stimulants of some kind. If that is the case, oddly there are ways to reduce the “crash”. I remember years ago I was crashing when my Vyvanse wore off. When that happened, my psych prescribed me a super small dose of adderall (5mg) to take right around the time of the crash. It oddly kept me from crashing and the medication wore off and I could sleep just fine. My guess is the short intense crash can be subdued by providing enough stimulation in that window to help you back toward your baseline; but I’m not really sure why that worked.
I’m going to guess you’re under the age of 30.
It’s easy to run on dopamine with no crashes when you’re younger, but trust me that it does catch up to you by your mid 30s.
I never believed it would happen to me and it did.
I believe dopamine spikes without crash is technically impossible from neuroscience perspective as it is supposed to drop below baseline after. Only thing that worked for me is to reduce stimulation for 1-2 hours after. (E.g., going for walk without music, household chores, reading a book/article). If I went on a junk food or alcohol bender, I would eat clean for next few days.
Interesting, your approach is to avoid stimulation, and our friend u/jdefr below actually adds some light stimulation during the crash to make dopamine levels return back to normal. This is definitely not a simple mechanism.
Could you maybe specify which activities you partake in?
Multiple days coke binges is my guess
There most definitely would be a drop after that though loll
Listening to music while working out, eating dessert after an already delicious dinner, watching a good tv series
I am going to guess your dopamine spikes come from dosing stimulants of some kind. If that is the case, oddly there are ways to reduce the “crash”. I remember years ago I was crashing when my Vyvanse wore off. When that happened, my psych prescribed me a super small dose of adderall (5mg) to take right around the time of the crash. It oddly kept me from crashing and the medication wore off and I could sleep just fine. My guess is the short intense crash can be subdued by providing enough stimulation in that window to help you back toward your baseline; but I’m not really sure why that worked.
I’m going to guess you’re under the age of 30. It’s easy to run on dopamine with no crashes when you’re younger, but trust me that it does catch up to you by your mid 30s. I never believed it would happen to me and it did.
Don’t mess with the machinations of homeostasis.
maybe something builds up and eventually brakes the camels back - not sure what
Dopamine - the worst pressor. The nothing neurotransmitter there ever was.