Do you consider yourself a person who's motivated and driven?
Dopamine is intrinsically built for this. So let's dive into the extent that makes dopamine drive behavior and how this in turn relates to c-o-indifification.
Dopamine isn't just about reward, let alone pleasure, even though it is involved in it. Dopamine, in terms of reward is also: Reward Prediction, Reward Anticipation, Reward Reinforcement, Reward Valuing. This alone set us up for a completely different perspective. You don't even have to touch the thing you're craving for dopamine to be released.
Furthermore, dopamine puts you in a state of seeking and pursuit, and thus drives motivation to explore the outside world. This is because dopamine is largely, but not exclusively, correlated (and aimed) toward external focus and exteroception. Which makes it geared towards exploring, seeing/looking for/exploring possibilities, seeking newness and novelty.
It also has an interdependent relation with movement, that is the drive/motivation to move and to shuttle dopamine from muscle into the brain.
Before we explore the implications of what I wrote above, it's important to acknowledge that neurotransmitters have tight relationships that are interdependent.
Your dopamine levels would be largely nullified if, for instance, adrenaline was low or non-existent. All the neurotransmitters are interlinked in many different ways and levels.
The simplified view of dopamine as a reward, and an even more reduced view of it being about pleasure has much more to do with a lot of the research around addiction. Dopamine in and of itself is not the problem, meaning the actual neurotransmitter. The issue with addiction and the pleasure/hedonism of dopamine reputation is due to other neurological circuits.
We come out of the womb expecting to be loved, our attachment circuits form in conjunction with our value circuits and reward circuits. If we in childhood lacked unconditional love, validation, acceptance, and attention, these circuits are altered. Typically this alteration takes the form of a disfunction.
Seeing they formed under a type of lack, the person is typically put in a baseline state of seeking and needing to make up for this lack. There's not enough endogenous production, perhaps even low sensitivity, low receptor count, and a distorted value system.
There are also genetic and epigenetic components to your dopamine production levels, dopamine sensitivity, dopamine receptor quantity, and dopamine tolerance. This means you could already be predisposed to dopamine issues when a parent has come from an invalidating, neglecting, or traumatic environment.
Essentially this translates to: not valuing certain sources of dopamine (for instance internally generated like goal based, or social connections), so they'll seek it in drugs, alcohol, porn, media, shopping, food, etc. Low receptors would mean you'd need more dopamine production to feel that high, sensitivity and tolerance go hand in hand as constantly artificially raising dopamine would change both of these, thus always needing a higher or bigger dose.
This explains why people with addiction, and personality disorders born from childhood trauma, tend to seek “fulfillment”, “pleasure”, and “happiness” outside of themselves in the form of whatever makes up that feel they've missed in childhood. It's like their dopamine fuel gauge is always signaling low fuel.
The dopamine cascade starts with the prediction of the possibility of the reward, then the anticipation of the reward, which already reinforces the brain to want it, and further reinforces the value of the thing it is seeking. This is a complex knot to untangle, precisely because all of them prediction, anticipation, reinforcement, and value attribution feed into each other.
The identification implications beyond addiction already start becoming apparent.
Drive is generated in what we value and find relevant (also connected to Acetylcholine and Adrenaline). This is made evident on a spectrum of behavior of what people are willing to get their needs and fix met.
This leads to a very interesting carry-over into identifying with being driven. Dopamine drives movement, and movement drives and reinforces dopamine. A lot of people who might identify as being lazy most likely have a low dopamine issue (coupled with perhaps an adrenaline issue).
Internally generated dopamine is disrupted, reduced and even destroyed by inflammation, stress, and a lack of the precurses in nutrition out of which dopamine is built.
Despite some of the perceptions, dopamine is not created out of thin air. To this we also need to add genetic predispositions, epigenetic factors present in the environment, receptor sensitivity (genetic, and behavioral). When you artificually flood the brain with dopamine, it gets a signal to reduce the receptors and production, as it no longer needs to do this itself (that is produce it internally9.
The power of internally generated dopamine has largely fallen by the wayside because of this addiction paradigm model. Partially because so many people have childhood wounding that has damaged their circuits (attachment, reward, and value) which cascaded into behaviors that further messed up these circuits.
The major dopamine pathway is called the mesocorticolimbic pathway. We all are capable of getting dopamine from this pathway through “positive” thoughts during a task, and/or in the pursuit of fulfillment of a goal and/or vision.
Positive thinking is an extension of various elements: identity, beliefs, narratives, values, and perspectives. It's not necessarily that you think positive thoughts or even need to force them.
It is that the task at hand is coupled to a value attribution that creates a positive thought around it. Like being able to endure grueling workouts to then get a huge reward. Or finish a big project. Dopamine also projects into the future, hence the connection to a vision, task, goal, and the pursuit to complete it being rewarding.
The very fact that the process or pursuit can be and is rewarding speaks of neurological circuits and behavior aligned with dopamine release and reward. This is the element a lot of people tend to miss.
This is why I keep coming back to identity, co-identification, and how you perceive yourself. Because identity and what we value are tied together, which ultimately determine the type of things we pursue, and whether we become process oriented or goal orientated.