Neuroscientist Explains: WORST vs BEST Dopamine Habits

Last night you might have reached for something. Your phone, a drink, maybe something even worse. You didn't necessarily decide to. Your hand was likely moving way before you consciously even noticed. That's dopamine. Most people think it's the good feeling you get at the end of an action. It isn't. It's actually the chemical that makes

you reach for something in the first place. So, in this video we're going to be ranking the worst dopamine all the way to the best dopamine so that you don't lose another evening without noticing. And if you're new here, I'm TJ. I'm a neuroscientist running a research lab, and all we talk about on

this channel is building healthier, happier brains for the modern age. And we're actually going to be doing this immediately today by giving you a simple brain experiment that you'll love. Let's start with the worst. I also want to quickly preface here. What I'm about to share comes from both thousands of hours of neuroscientific research, but also

from a deep personal experience with addiction myself. Nothing I'm about to share is about judgment in any way. Everything is simply about honesty and the neuroscience. If pleasure is earned through effort, it's healthy dopamine. If pleasure is given easily with no effort, it's unhealthy dopamine. Healthy dopamine is effectively slow dopamine, and unhealthy dopamine is effectively

fast dopamine. So, of the 14 that I'm ranking here, number one, the worst dopamine on the list, is cocaine. The normalization of cocaine over the last 10 years has been massive, and the destruction to your dopamine production, your sleep, and your life is huge. You see, studies show that cocaine can 2.5 times your dopamine levels, and achieve