Understanding Addiction and Dopamine
Your hand reaches for the phone again. You tell yourself this will be the last scroll. The last drink. The last bet. But your body moves almost on its own, as if someone else is steering.
Afterwards, there’s that familiar wash of shame, fear, and confusion. The thought that you should be able to just stop. That if you really wanted to, you could.
When we talk about addiction and dopamine, this is the lived reality behind the science. Not a moral failing. Not a lack of willpower. But a brain that has learned certain patterns so deeply they feel like instinct.
We’ve all heard the story that addiction is about choice, about being strong enough. That narrative ignores how our brains actually work. When patterns of substance use or compulsive behaviour keep repeating, it’s because neural pathways, brain chemistry, and stress systems have shifted. The reward system in your brain begins firing differently. Over time, it can genuinely feel like your choices aren’t your own anymore. That can feel frightening and isolating, especially if you’re already coping with anxiety, depression, grief, neurodivergence, or past trauma.
In this piece, we’ll explore how dopamine, your brain’s motivation messenger, supports healthy reward and learning. We’ll look at what actually happens in the brain during addiction, how to recognise signs of dopamine dysregulation, and what tends to trigger compulsive patterns. Most importantly, we’ll explore evidence-based ways to support recovery, from natural lifestyle shifts to therapy and professional care.
I sit with people in these in-between spaces, helping them develop tolerance for uncertainty, new ways of coping, and a kinder relationship with themselves. Neuroplasticity means your brain can change and heal. I’m here to walk alongside you as that change unfolds.
What Is Dopamine and Why Does It Matter?
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, which is just a fancy way of saying it’s a chemical messenger that nerve cells use to communicate. It plays a crucial part in motivation, pleasure, learning, and movement.
When you eat a nourishing meal, meet a friend, reach a goal, or receive a warm message, dopamine helps create that sense of reward and satisfaction. It’s the feeling that says, “That was good. Let’s remember this.”
Much of this happens along what scientists call the mesolimbic pathway, often described as the brain’s reward system. When you do something helpful for survival or connection, that pathway releases dopamine.
The pleasure that follows nudges you to repeat the behaviour. Simple as that: behaviour leads to dopamine release, which leads to a good feeling, which then shapes future choices.
On its own, dopamine isn’t “good” or “bad.” It’s vital for healthy brain function, focus, and drive. Problems arise when substances or behaviours push this system far beyond its natural range.
Understanding addiction through this lens can be genuinely relieving. Instead of seeing yourself as weak, you can start to recognise addiction as a brain-based response to stress, pain, and repetition. That shift opens the door to compassion and change.
The Myth of “Dopamine Addiction”
The phrase “dopamine addiction” is everywhere these days, but it doesn’t match how addiction actually works.
You can’t become addicted to dopamine itself because dopamine is a normal part of your biology. It’s present in every healthy brain. You need it to move, to think, to learn, to feel motivated.
What people mean when they say “dopamine addiction” is usually an addiction to substances or behaviours that create fast, intense spikes in dopamine. Drugs, gambling, fast-paced gaming, endless scrolling. These can all flood the reward system with far more dopamine than natural rewards ever could. Your brain learns that these artificial hits matter more than food, rest, or genuine connection. That’s when compulsive patterns start to form.
This distinction matters. When we blame dopamine, we risk blaming our own brains. When we understand that external triggers are exploiting a normal system, we can start looking more gently at why we reach for them in the first place.
“The question is not why the addiction, but why the pain.”
Dr. Gabor Maté
At Liminal Therapy, I support people to explore the emotional pain, stress, trauma, attachment wounds, and unmet needs sitting underneath dopamine-seeking behaviour, within a safe and non-judgemental space.
How Addiction Hijacks Your Brain’s Dopamine System
Addictive substances and behaviours can raise dopamine to levels that natural rewards never reach.
Stimulant drugs like cocaine or methamphetamine can raise dopamine up to ten times higher than baseline. Methamphetamine can reach around one thousand percent of normal levels. Even alcohol and nicotine produce noticeable spikes. The high that follows can feel powerful, sometimes like relief from deep emotional or physical pain.
Your brain is designed to pay attention to intense experiences. When a drug, bet, drink, or notification produces a huge surge of dopamine, your reward system tags that event as extremely important. Over time, your brain begins prioritising the substance or behaviour over other needs. Hunger, sleep, relationships, safety. They all fade into the background when the urge for the next hit arrives.
To protect itself from constant overload, your brain starts a process called neuroadaptation. Dopamine receptors become less sensitive. In many people, their number falls. Baseline dopamine production can also decrease. This means everyday activities bring less pleasure, while the same amount of the substance or behaviour no longer gives the same high. Tolerance grows. Anhedonia, which is a loss of pleasure from normal life, often appears.
At that stage, many people no longer chase a high. Instead, they use simply to feel normal or to ease withdrawal symptoms like low mood, anxiety, irritability, or physical discomfort. The cycle of craving, using, and short-lived relief becomes deeply wired into neural pathways.
For people with ADHD or naturally lower baseline dopamine, these effects can feel even stronger. Addictive behaviours may have begun as self-medication for focus, restlessness, or emotional distress.
Throughout this process, we’re not dealing with a moral failure. We’re looking at a brain that has been reshaped by repeated exposure to intense dopamine surges, stress, and often trauma.
What Overstimulates Dopamine
Many different substances and activities can tap into the reward system in this intense way. Some act directly on dopamine release or reuptake, while others change other neurotransmitters that then affect dopamine. It’s helpful to understand the difference between chemical addictions and behavioural addictions, even though both rely on similar brain pathways.
Substance-Based Addictions
Stimulants (cocaine, amphetamines, methamphetamine): These cause dramatic dopamine surges. They block the normal recycling of dopamine and often force extra release, leading to euphoria, alertness, and a sense of power or focus. With repeated use, dopamine receptors downregulate, and baseline levels fall, so people often feel flat, empty, or depressed between hits.
Opioids (heroin, prescription painkillers): Opioids reduce pain and create a warm, calm sense of pleasure while indirectly boosting dopamine in core reward areas. Withdrawal from opioids can be physically and emotionally intense, which further fuels the cycle of use and avoidance of discomfort.
Alcohol, Nicotine, and Benzodiazepines: Alcohol and nicotine might seem milder, yet they also raise dopamine and are linked with high rates of substance abuse. Benzodiazepines like diazepam calm the nervous system by acting on GABA, and over time this can disturb normal dopamine balance as the brain tries to adjust. Many people first reach for these substances to cope with stress, trauma, grief, or chronic anxiety, so compassionate support needs to address both the chemical effects and the pain underneath.
Behavioural Addictions
Behavioural addiction works through the same reward circuits, even without a drug.
Social Media and Online Platforms: Social media platforms often use intermittent rewards, where likes and messages appear at unpredictable times. That pattern is especially powerful for dopamine release, which is why many of us find ourselves checking feeds far more often than we intend. Feelings of FOMO and social comparison can then add extra emotional weight.
Gambling and Gaming: Gambling combines risk, uncertainty, and the hope of a big win. The anticipation phase, just before the outcome is known, produces a strong dopamine response. Even repeated losses may not break the pattern because the brain keeps focusing on the rare times a win did occur. Fast-paced gaming can trigger similar cycles of anticipation and reward.
Food, Shopping, and Other High-Reward Behaviours: Junk food, especially items high in sugar, fat, and salt, can create dopamine spikes that override natural signals of fullness, pushing people into cycles of overeating and guilt. Other behaviours like shopping, video gaming, pornography, or even constant busyness can begin as normal activities and drift into behavioural addiction. When they become the main way we regulate emotion, avoid stress, or soothe shame, they start rewiring the reward system in similar ways to substances.
Noticing these patterns with honesty and kindness is the first step towards change. It’s something we explore gently in therapy.
Recognising the Signs of Dopamine Dysregulation
Recognising signs of dopamine dysregulation can feel uncomfortable, yet it’s often a turning point. This isn’t about criticising yourself. It’s about noticing how your brain and body are responding so you can choose a kinder path.
Common signs include:
Growing tolerance: needing more of the substance or more intense behaviour to get the same effect
Strong, persistent cravings, especially when triggered by certain people, places, feelings, or times of day
Feeling “pulled” towards a behaviour even while another part of you is saying no
Continuing despite clear harm to health, work, money, or relationships
Short-term reward overshadowing long-term plans, with bills, family, studies, or health pushed aside for the next hit
Mood swings and emotional crashes, temporary highs during use and deep lows, anxiety, irritability, or emptiness afterwards
Anhedonia: everyday hobbies or time in nature bring little pleasure
Cognitive effects like poorer focus and memory, weaker decision-making or impulse control
Risk-taking and denial, taking bigger risks to chase the high while explaining away the behaviour in ways that don’t quite fit reality
When we view these patterns through the lens of brain chemistry, they become signs of distress rather than proof that you’re failing. At Liminal Therapy, I invite people to speak about these experiences openly, to bring shame into the light of a compassionate therapeutic relationship, and to start building safer ways of coping.
What Triggers Dopamine-Seeking Behaviour?
Triggers for dopamine-seeking behaviour are deeply personal, yet many fall into a few broad categories. Understanding your own triggers is one of the foundations of relapse prevention and long-term change.
Psychological Factors: Conditions like anxiety, depression, ADHD, and autism can affect dopamine balance and emotional regulation. People with adverse childhood experiences, like neglect, abuse, or chaotic caregiving, may have learned to rely on external comfort early in life. For some, substances or behavioural addiction serve as self-medication for trauma, grief, or chronic stress that hasn’t yet been processed. When your nervous system is stuck in fight or flight, with cortisol and adrenaline often raised, anything that provides fast relief can become very tempting.
Environmental Cues: Walking past a pub, sitting at a gaming set-up, receiving a message from a using friend, or being alone at a certain time of night can all trigger cravings. Stress, boredom, exhaustion, and isolation act as emotional triggers, especially when healthy coping mechanisms feel out of reach. As neuroadaptation and tolerance grow, your brain can feel “hungry” for stimulation, so even small cues spark strong urges.
Social and Cultural Norms: Social circles and cultural expectations can reinforce use, especially when substance abuse or high dopamine behaviours are seen as normal ways to relax. In therapy, we map these layers together so you can plan ahead and meet triggers with more awareness and choice.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.”
Viktor Frankl
How Addiction Affects Brain Chemistry and Mental Health
Addiction affects both the structure and function of your brain. Over time, repeated dopamine spikes lower baseline dopamine and reduce the number or sensitivity of dopamine receptors. This means ordinary pleasures bring less reward. Life can feel grey and flat. Many people describe feeling as if nothing is worth the effort unless the addictive behaviour is involved.
The prefrontal cortex, which supports planning, impulse control, and weighing up consequences, often becomes less active or less connected to deeper brain regions. At the same time, the limbic system, which processes emotion and threat, becomes more reactive. Your stress response can sit on high alert, with your body moving easily into fight or flight. The parasympathetic nervous system, which calms the body, may be less engaged. The vagus nerve, which links brain and body, can struggle to bring the system back to rest. This mix of dysregulation helps explain why urges can feel so strong and calm states so rare.
These brain changes link closely with mental health. Depression, with its low mood, lack of motivation, and loss of pleasure, often appears alongside addiction. Anxiety can rise, especially during withdrawal or when the addictive stimulus is absent. Emotional regulation becomes harder, with sudden shifts in mood, anger, or despair. In some people, dopamine imbalance is also connected with bipolar patterns or psychosis. We then talk about co-occurring disorders or dual diagnosis.
I work with the whole picture. That includes substance use or behavioural addiction, but also attachment patterns, trauma history, chronic stress, grief, and identity questions. I see people not as a list of symptoms but as whole human beings moving through a difficult phase.
Can Your Brain Heal? Understanding Neuroplasticity and Recovery
Here’s the hopeful part: your brain is not fixed.
Neuroplasticity is your brain’s capacity to form new neural pathways, strengthen some connections, and let others fade. The same process that allowed addiction to reshape your reward system also allows new, healthier patterns to grow.
When you reduce or stop an addictive behaviour, dopamine receptors can begin to recover and baseline dopamine can rise. Research often points to around ninety days of abstinence as an important milestone for reward system healing, though the exact timeframe varies. The type of substance or behaviour, the length of use, age, physical health, and mental health all make a difference. Executive functions and emotional regulation may take longer to stabilise, especially when trauma or chronic stress are part of the picture.
Recovery rarely moves in a straight line. There can be setbacks, relapses, spikes in shame, and periods of doubt. Yet over time, with support, many people notice subtle shifts. Sleep improves. Concentration becomes steadier. Natural pleasure returns. A sense of resilience begins to appear.
“Neurons that fire together wire together.”
Donald Hebb
I hold hope even when my clients feel none. I keep sight of their movement towards greater integration and wholeness, step by step.
Natural Ways to Reset Dopamine and Support Recovery
Alongside professional support, there are many day-to-day practices that help your brain regain balance. I see these not as rigid rules but as acts of self-respect. Small, repeated choices can have a powerful effect on brain chemistry over time.
Planned Dopamine or Digital Detox Periods: A dopamine or digital detox means taking a planned break from high-stimulation activities like social media, video games, online betting, pornography, or ultra-processed snacks. Even a weekend of reduced input can reveal how restless your brain has become. With gentle persistence, your reward system starts responding more to quieter pleasures. For some people, a gradual reduction feels safer than stopping all at once, especially when withdrawal brings strong distress.
Regular Physical Activity: Regular movement raises dopamine and other neurotransmitters in a steadier way, which can ease depression and anxiety and support better sleep. It also strengthens the connection between body and mind, which is vital for emotional regulation. This doesn’t need to be intense. Walking, yoga, dancing, or swimming can all help.
Mindfulness and Somatic Practices: Mindfulness, breathing practices, and somatic therapy approaches that focus on body awareness can calm the stress response, support the parasympathetic nervous system, and stimulate the vagus nerve. These skills help you notice cravings and urges without acting on them straight away.
Supportive Nutrition and Hydration: Nutrition plays a part too. Foods rich in the amino acid tyrosine, like eggs, fish, lean meat, dairy, almonds, bananas, and avocados, support dopamine production. Simple patterns like regular meals, stable blood sugar, and good hydration can make a bigger difference than many people expect.
Consistent Sleep Routine: A regular sleep routine allows your brain to repair and rebalance neurotransmitters. Going to bed and waking at similar times, creating a dark and quiet sleep space, and winding down away from screens can all support this.
Re-Learning Natural Rewards: Re-learning how to enjoy natural rewards is central too. Creative hobbies, time outdoors, reading, meaningful work, volunteering, spiritual practices, or deep conversations can all provide moderate, steady dopamine release. Over time this helps your brain shift away from extremes and towards a more stable, satisfying way of living.
Professional Support for Addiction
Lifestyle changes are powerful, yet many people find they also need professional support. Rewiring patterns linked with addiction usually involves emotional pain, vulnerability, and uncertainty. It’s hard to face those alone.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) helps you notice the thoughts and beliefs that drive addictive behaviour. Together, we test those beliefs and practise new responses. Motivational interviewing supports people who feel unsure about change by gently exploring their values, ambivalence, and hopes. Contingency management uses small rewards for healthy choices, which works with the reward system instead of against it.
For many, emotional regulation is a central task. Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) teaches skills in distress tolerance, mindfulness, and relationship effectiveness, especially helpful for people who feel emotions very intensely. When trauma or adverse childhood experiences underlie addiction, EMDR can help your brain process painful memories that were previously stuck. Internal family systems (IFS) and other parts-work approaches support you to meet your inner child, your shameful parts, and your protective parts with more compassion, rather than fighting or avoiding them.
Medication-assisted treatment may be offered for some substance use disorders, for example, with opioids or alcohol. This can reduce withdrawal symptoms and cravings so people can engage more fully in therapy and daily life. Support groups like SMART Recovery or twelve-step meetings offer community, accountability, and a sense that you’re not alone.
My focus is person-centred. I pay close attention to the therapeutic relationship because a safe, steady bond can itself repair attachment wounds and shame. I work with people who are anxious about therapy, introverts, autistic and ADHD clients, and anyone who feels on the edges of usual services. Counsellimg sessions are available in person in Cornwall and online, so support can fit around life.
Together, we explore stages of change, harm reduction or abstinence goals, and the deeper meaning-making around addiction and recovery.
Preventing Relapse: Managing Triggers and Building Resilience
Relapse prevention isn’t a one-off task. It’s an ongoing practice of self-awareness, boundary setting, and honest reflection. Many people have slips at some stage. Learning from them is part of long-term recovery.
A helpful step is to map your personal triggers in detail. Note which moods, thoughts, places, people, times of day, and physical states tend to lead towards use or compulsive behaviour. Writing this down can reveal patterns that weren’t obvious. From there, you can plan how to respond, whether that means avoiding certain situations for a time, going with a trusted friend, or having a different activity ready as a healthy coping skill.
Mindfulness and urge surfing are very helpful tools. Instead of fighting a craving or giving in at once, you notice where it sits in your body, how strong it feels, and how it rises and falls over time. This strengthens impulse control and self-trust. A written relapse prevention plan, agreed with a therapist or support group, can set out warning signs, coping mechanisms, emergency contacts, and steps to take after a slip.
A strong support network is another key part of resilience. Regular therapy, peer support, honest friendships, and sometimes family involvement all help. Exercise, sleep, good nutrition, and meaningful activities continue to support brain chemistry and mood. When setbacks happen, responding with self-compassion rather than harsh self-talk makes a real difference.
I sit with clients through relapses as well as successes, holding the bigger picture of their growth even when they feel stuck.
Moving Towards Healing
Addiction is often described as a brain condition because it changes brain chemistry, neural pathways, and behaviour in deep ways. Substances and behavioural addiction tap into the dopamine-based reward system, create intense highs, and over time lead to tolerance, withdrawal, craving, and anhedonia.
When we understand how addiction and dopamine interact, we can see that people aren’t weak. They’re living with a brain that has adapted to repeated stress and stimulation.
Knowledge brings both power and kindness. Seeing addiction through the lens of neurotransmitters, reward circuits, stress response, and trauma allows us to replace blame with understanding. It also shows us why strategies like exercise, sleep, nutrition, mindfulness, social support, and therapy help so much. Through neuroplasticity, dopamine receptors can recover, the prefrontal cortex can regain strength, and natural pleasure and purpose can return.
Change takes time, patience, and self-compassion. It often means sitting in the uncomfortable space between old habits and new ways of living. No one has to face that space alone.
If this resonates, I invite you to reach out to Liminal Therapy & Counselling. Whether you seek support in Cornwall or online, I’m here to offer a calm, caring environment where you can explore your relationship with addiction, build healthier coping mechanisms, reconnect with your values, and move towards a life that feels more grounded and meaningful.
