Caught In A "Dopamine Trap" – What Does That Mean?

Binge-watching TV shows, doom-scrolling on social media, excessive gaming. All these behaviors have been associated with being caught in a “dopamine trap”. But what does this mean and what is dopamine’s role in our compulsive behaviors?

What is dopamine?

Dopamine is one of the main signaling molecules in the brain. It is often sensationalized as a rewarding “feel good” molecule, but it is actually involved in a whole host of things: movement, learning, and even breast milk production .

Dopamine is also linked to addiction , tying it to compulsive behaviors that give us instant gratification. Is the irresistible scrolling, swiping, or gaming a form of addiction?

This is where the “dopamine trap” theory comes in.

What is a “dopamine trap”?

Every time you scroll or watch an episode, you get a tiny hit of rewarding dopamine. And then another. And another. But that is quickly followed by a comedown or dopamine dip. “Our brain compensates by bringing us lower and lower and lower,” said Dr Anna Lembke to The Guardian . She is a psychiatrist studying addiction and the opioid epidemic, and the author of Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence .

So you keep scrolling, compelled to seek that rewarding experience.

Dopamine and addiction

Dopamine was first linked to addiction in the 1970s when researchers found that rats would compulsively self-stimulate dopamine-related brain areas with electricity.

Addiction was initially only thought of in the context of substance abuse. The level of dopamine in the brain increases in response to many addictive drugs, even those that don’t directly act on the dopaminergic system.

This release in dopamine allows you to unconsciously learn an association between the behaviors and contexts that led to that pleasurable experience. Over repeated consumption, dopamine becomes associated with those behaviors, reinforcing the drug-seeking behavior, which becomes habitual.

It wasn’t until the 2010s that addiction was extended to include what is now known as behavioral addiction . In these disorders, dopamine increases also reinforce certain behaviors (like gambling, gaming, and shopping), making them habitual, even compulsive.

Social stimuli, like smiling faces, messages, and possibly even likes and notifications, can activate our dopaminergic system . The link between dopamine and the passive consumption of social media content and compulsive scrolling has not been established. However, in mice, dopamine has been found to spontaneously increase during certain behavioral patterns – and those behaviors were then more likely to occur again and again. This shows that dopamine can reinforce any small behavior and make it habitual.

Addictions are also defined by their detrimental effects on mental and physical health – and on our perseverance in the behaviors despite the negative effects. Endless scrolling has been associated with worsening mental health ( especially in teenagers ), likening it to other addictive behaviors.

Maybe it’s time to find our way out of the “trap”.

All “explainer” articles are confirmed by fact checkers to be correct at time of publishing. Text, images, and links may be edited, removed, or added to at a later date to keep information current.