#25: Hijacked by Happy, The Science of Dopamine Burnout

Why Fun feels Meh now - Lets talk Dopamine!

Jul 13, 2025

My Dearest,

It’s been a while! I hope you’re doing amazing, I’ve missed writing to you. There’s lots of exciting news I’ve been meaning to share, and one big update is this: Masala Puff Moments is getting a glow-up.

I’ve been quietly working on reimagining the newsletter, new name, new energy, but the same heart. I’ll tell you all about it in the next issue, but in the meantime… I’d love to hear your thoughts. What do you love about Masala Puff Moments? What do you think could be better? And if a new name pops into your head I’d be thrilled to hear it!

What is Dopamine?

Dopamine, also known as the ‘molecule of more’, is a chemical in the brain that plays a crucial role in how we experience pleasure, motivation, and reward. It is what motivates us to do things, to chase our goals or even to get a tub of ice cream.

The Basics

Here is how Dopamine behaves in your system:

The Body has a baseline level of dopamine. This is an amount of dopamine that is circulating in your body all the time.
Any activity, watching a sunset, eating chocolate, scrolling Instagram, causes a dopamine spike above the baseline.
These spikes make us feel good: pleasure, reward, satisfaction.
But every spike is followed by a drop back to baseline.
Overexposure to high-dopamine activities? Your baseline drops.
A lower baseline means: the same activity gives you less pleasure than before.
A Quick example:
- Imagine eating ice cream gives you 5 dopamine points.
- If your baseline is 0, it takes you to 5 → joy!
- If your baseline has dropped to -2, it only takes you to 3 → not the same joy.
- Now, instead of being content with a scoop of ice cream, your brain starts demanding more: for example ice cream + phone scrolling + Netflix, All at once.

That’s how our baseline dopamine decides if we enjoy a simple walk or need fireworks just to feel “normal.”

The Pain-Pleasure see-saw

There’s a seesaw in your brain. One side is pleasure, the other is pain. Your brain is constantly trying to keep it balanced—this is called homeostasis.

When we do something that spikes pleasure quickly (e.g. binge eating, scrolling), the brain tips the seesaw. To restore balance, it pushes back with pain; the crash, guilt, fatigue.

Natural vs Artificial Dopamine Spikes

So if everything gives you dopamine, what makes some habits feel healthy and others harmful?

Natural stimulation (The “Good” Kind):

Activities like: cold plunges, exercise, meditation, fasting, deep work
These feel hard initially, but dopamine comes as a reward for effort
Result: Higher baseline dopamine, Higher motivation, Increased mental resilience
Your brain learns: Effort = Reward
Dopamine spike is slow and steady, and the drop is gentle

Artificial Stimulation (The “Hijack” Kind):

Activities like: TikTok, junk food, doom scrolling, bingeing
These give instant dopamine hits, with no effort required (what we call instant gratification)
Result: Baseline drops, Motivation Drops, Cravings Increase
Your brain learns: Only intense stimulation = reward
Dopamine spike is fast and high, and the drop is a steep crash

How to Spot the “Good” vs “Bad” Activities

Just ask yourself:

How fast does it make me feel good? (Faster = more likely artificial)
Will this benefit me or someone else in the future? (Yes = natural dopamine)

Let’s Return to the Seesaw

Imagine binge-eating cake or watching TikTok for 45 minutes:

The pleasure side of the seesaw goes up
Your brain compensates with pain: sluggishness, guilt, boredom

When this is done too often, your seesaw gets stuck. You feel low or numb, even while doing things that should feel good. That’s dopamine burnout.

So… How Do You Reset Dopamine?

What are some changes that you can implement that can actually fir into daily life.

1) Take Boring Breaks

After 45 minutes of focused work, take a 10-minute break, but don’t scroll, or binge eat or reach for any kind of stimulation.

Instead Take a walk. Sit in silence. Breathe.

Why? Because high dopamine breaks cause a crash, making it harder to get back into flow. But boring breaks? They make your brain crave the task again.

How I do this: I sit quietly with my eyes closed and focus on my breath. Sometimes I walk around outside without my phone. Or I literally just stare out the window.

2) Inhabit the In-Between

Moments like:

Waiting in line
Waiting for your friend while he/she is in the restroom
Waiting for a file to download

Don’t fill these space. Just exist. These in-between pauses are opportunities for you to reset your dopamine.

How I do this:

I use them to count three things I’m grateful for, like what I enjoyed for breakfast today, good weather, or even just a full night’s sleep.
If I do want to scroll, then I use curated social accounts. I have created for myself multiple social media accounts, one for entertainment, one for business/learning, one for writing etc. It keeps content and my scrolling intentional and also helps me manage my dopamine .

3) Do One Thing at a Time

Multitasking = dopamine confusion.

Eating while texting
Gymming while swapping music every few minutes
Talking while scrolling

The trick is to Stop trying to muti-tasking. Embrace life as a series of single activities rather than scattered efforts.

4) Earn Your Pleasure

This one’s big.

It’s not about banning pleasure. It’s about earning it.

Understand the rule of pain before pleasure. Develop the discipline of “earning” the pleasure. So I’m not suggesting that you stopping scrolling or stop eating foods that you enjoy, but rather what works for me is thinking of it as “I need to earn these pleasures.”

How I do this:

Before watching Netflix, I ask: How can I pay for this upfront?

Finish 10,000 steps = Yes to Netflix
Write 600 words = Yes to Netflix

This way, I train my brain for effort first, reward after.

That’s everything for this week my wonderful people. Can’t wait to write to you again with all the exciting news I have to share!

Before you go, if you found what you read today useful, write to me in the comments below I would love to hear from you! Plus it would help me shape the upcoming newsletters.

Wait… Drop by and say hi?

I’m Vaishnavi Radhakrishnan, a third generation entrepreneur, a poet, a writer and a 23 year old figuring out her space in this world. I love buttery masala puffs, admiring bougainvilleas, being by the ocean, and buying jibbitz for my purple crocs.