DOPAMINE:
THE GOOD, THE
BAD, AND THE
DOWNRIGHT
UNHEALTHY

If you’ve ever found yourself endlessly scrolling social media for no reason and questioned “Why am I doing this?”, the answer could lie with a single natural chemical – dopamine.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, a chemical brain cells use to communicate with each other – like a neurological courier team. The brain has dozens of these, each carrying different kinds of messages, but dopamine plays a special role in motivating behaviour. It’s released when we experience something pleasant – like watching cute puppies in those “Happy Dog” clips.

The problem? Some of us have a tendency to seek out dopamine spikes in a not-so-healthy fashion, with gambling and tech addiction being two areas for concern.

Habit-forming products such as gaming apps rely on the “hooked cycle” to draw us in. So how do we get out?