Dopamine isn't the 'pleasure chemical' — it's the wanting chemical. And tech companies have hijacked it. Learn how dopamine actually works, why you can't stop scrolling, and how to take back control of your reward system.
Dopamine doesn't make you feel good. It makes you want. There's a massive difference. It's the anticipation of the reward — not the reward itself — that drives the dopamine spike.
Neuroscientist Wolfram Schultz's groundbreaking research in the 1990s showed that dopamine neurons fire most strongly in anticipation of a reward, not during the reward itself.