The Dopamine Nature is the powerful, fast-acting, and quick-witted nature of them all. If your brain has increased production of dopamine you fall under that category. If your dopamine levels are optimum you’ll probably be feeling this powerful, reflexive, and fast-acting edge in you. And if you feel like you’ve lost your edge it is probably a sign of deficiency, and by fixing your dopamine levels you can correct some of the symptoms you are experiencing.
Dopamine Personality
If you are dopamine dominant nature, you are a balanced individual, pretty strong-willed who knows exactly what he wants and how to get it. You function on your energy reserve, which just never runs out. You are super confident and very fast on your feet getting things done more quickly than most people.
You take pride in achievement, always self-analyzing and self-criticizing. You perform well under pressure and stress, problem solving is your thing. This skill set is essential in almost all top-performing fields including doctors, scientists, researchers, engineers, architects, and military personnel.
You love to engage in activities of knowledge and intellect, you may be into playing chess, doing crossword puzzles, and reading books. You’re often hyperalert, love playing sports and engaging in physical activity, and can probably function on less sleep than most of your friends.
You desire pleasure in absolutely anything you do in life, you think rationally, take charge in relationships, and entertaining friends and family is your best pursuit.
Too much Dopamine
Having an excess of anything comes with its consequences, too much dopamine production makes you intense, often overreacting in usual situations, and making harsh decisions impulsively.
Violence of all kinds falls under that category where you lose control of your emotions and assault people out of spite. Extreme case scenarios include shoplifting out of impulse, reckless driving, and even rape where the sex offenders are often running at very high dopamine.
Dopamine Deficiency
It is important to note that dopamine deficiency or even excess doesn’t have to happen in dopamine dominant personality only however the dopamine personality type usually suffers the most because their entire life is based on the perks of dopamine and when you don’t feel your best there’s a high chance of failure. The chart below will provide a brief overview of the symptoms associated with dopamine deficiency.
Table 1 Is taken from the Book the Edge Effect By Dr. Eric Braverman
One thing worth mentioning here is that not all people experiencing any of these symptoms are dopamine deficient nor do all people with dopamine deficiency actually show all these symptoms but if you tick multiple symptoms in the table above it is most likely that you are probably dopamine deficient.
Treatment Options
When you’ve figured out the deficiency the next step is to treat the problem. Dr. Eric Shares seven treatment options for treating dopamine deficiency including, medication, hormones, supplements, diet, lifestyle, environmental and electrical treatment. It depends on the symptoms you are experiencing, but usually, the main concern is solving weight gain issues through diet and lifestyle.
The Dopamine Builder diet consists of High protein usually animal meat sources with lots of green vegetables, eggs, dairy, and caffeine in controlled amounts. The goal is to skip Fatty and sugary food as much as possible until your dopamine levels come back to normal. You will then feel like your usual energetic self and eating pizza pasta won’t be an issue since you will be always motivated to move your body and exercise.
Dopamine like other substances tends to deplete when used overly, therefore it is highly recommended to incorporate small sessions of relaxation to recharge your energy levels. It could be Slow Deep Breathing as Dr. Andrew Huberman talks about all the time in his podcast or engaging in some sort of leisure activity like reading, watching light heated TV shows, or playing chess.
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Other lifestyle and environmental changes include weightlifting thrice a week with 8- 12 reps into 3 sets and progressively increasing the weight. Avoiding exposure to paint smell, leaking batteries, and cigarette smoke as it is likely to deplete your dopamine. Remember balance is key, and with the right sleep, diet, and exercise pattern almost everything can be corrected.
References
This is a summarized version of the 2004 book The Edge Effect by Dr. Eric Braverman
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