There is a root cause of every problem, but we don’t always know something is a “problem,” and often think whatever “is” just “is.”  Like having 11 toes, that extra piggy isn’t a bother until shoes don’t fit right or somebody says “Hey, what’s THAT?”  In trying to find out the Why of things in Life, I highly recommend a little RCA, or “Root Cause Analysis.”  That’s the cause, not the symptom.  If your carpet is wet every morning and you dry it out every night, you don’t need a carpet that dries itself (symptom), you need to stop taking Ambien and urinating in the family room (root).

I found this article about what Dopamine is, what it does, and how to start harnessing it for your own good.  You don’t have to be ADD’ed to benefit from the news here, as Dopamine comes into play in many ways in our daily living and “GSD” (gettin’ shit done).

HOW TO HARNESS YOUR BRAIN’S DOPAMINE SUPPLY AND INCREASE MOTIVATION

A major issue with ADD (which I am writing to include ADHD) is the lack of dopamine or the ability to process it properly in the brain.  Dopamine is the “outcome predictive” chemical.  It is also the “pleasure bath” your brain is submersed into when you accomplish something.  So it’s feeding your brain a signal that “Something we like can be had if we do XYZ, even if it’s a moment of saving our own ass when the cops show up.”  (or whatever you do on Thursdays)  This also plays into our metabolism, sleep, and interpersonal relationships.  Take Dopamine down, or out, and you’re gonna be a crank.

“Increased dopamine in the nucleus accumbens signals feedback for predicting rewards. Your brain recognizes that something important—good or bad—is about to happen, thus triggering motivation to do something.”

I always research anything I think is going poorly, can be enhanced, or needs to be down-regulated, even if it’s my behavior, my kid’s behavior, or my friend’s use of the phrase “a whole ‘nother” because ” ‘nother” isn’t a word.  

I have supplemented with NOW Foods DOPA Mucuna and Tyrosine, 2 natural dopamine precursors.  The former provides a very easy focus and mental ecosystem of being motivated and process-oriented.  The latter is a little more “tightly focused” without the kind of chilled-out feeling DOPA gives you.

I’m not a doctor, but I do advocate for my own well-being at all times.  I’ll soon post a note about how I had to close a treatment-gap I had with an endocrinologist, one where the two options he gave me were so far apart you could almost fit his desire for a bigger boat in between them. 

Thanks for readin’, sorry this isn’t too funny…