We used to think people did activities associated with dopamine release because they were pleasurable.

But what we have learned tells us to pay attention to what happens in the next 4-5 minutes after we stop (or are forced to stop) an activity associated with high dopamine release. The desire triggered by dopamine goes away and typically the urge, or irritation, will stop!

Since there is so much in the media that incorrectly tells us about the positive effects of dopamine, we wanted to provide MOM2 readers a more accurate and effective way to understand the impact of dopamine.

NPR published a very useful article that offers 4 tips to outsmart dopamine that are excellent tools FOR ALL AGES!

At the top of the article they also include a very interesting (pretty scientific) interview that is just a 6 minute listen.