up:: [[Dopamine]] Tags:: #🌱 # Dopamine acts on a positive negative feedback loop **If you have high levels of dopamine for a period, you will have a corresponding drop. This drop is proportional to the previous spike in dopamine but below baseline.** Dopamine levels are measured tonicaly and phasically. Your tonic levels are your baseline levels of dopamine. Your phasic levels are your spikes. The level of pleasure a given activity makes you feel depends on the disparity between your tonic and phasic levels. The more super high dopamine releasing activities you do, the lower your baseline tonic levels are pulled making it harder to get the same pleasure from those activities as the disparity grows smaller and you run out of the readily releasable pool of dopamine. (see: [[Addiction MOC]]). How you feel at any given time depends a lot on your baseline level of dopamine relative to your peaks. In other words, your dopamine levels in the last few days and even weeks will influence how you feel in the present. This is why postpartum depression is a thing and why after having a 10/10 day your next couple of days are usually worse than normal (see: [[The cyclical nature of life]]). Related: Created: [[27-09-2022]] ___ # Resources [[Controlling Your Dopamine for Motivation, Focus & Satisfaction Episode 39]]