To wish I could stop dopamine seeking

[CurdinHenry]

I am almost always desperate for it and it has caused me to make some poor life choices (and I always regret taking the sensible option when something stupid and thrilling was on the table).

I am sick of constantly feeling down if I'm not feeling stressed.

I do take ADHD meds on prescription which help a lot but I can't be reliant on them completely.

Will this improve with age (ever) or is this it until I die (probably prematurely)?

I hope it changes. I’ve just been diagnosed with adhd and waiting for meds. I’m constantly always seeking something to up my dopamine. I used to take drugs (clean now), have lots of ONS (have a partner now) but I’m always thinking “what’s the next thing”. Currently got into fitness and hiking and I’m constantly thinking about it. I’m always either sad or stressed and I spend a lotttt of money into hobbies that I’ll never finish. It’s hard. I think this is just how we are. It’s intense and for me, makes me hard to be around. I’m “too much” for some people because of my dopamine seeking. I wish I could offer some advice but only can offer sympathy.

It can change but requires a lot of effort.

The big thing is to accept that 100% compliance is near impossible, and that striving for it is more likely to make you give up at the first failure as it feels too hard. Build in some "cheats" where you get to do something a bit silly like stay up too late or binge something fun but in a controlled way where it won't affect things (e.g stay up on a night nothing is happening tomorrow, or pick a day with no big responsibilities to "waste").

What you do exactly depends on how you personally dopamine seek.

The other big thing that helped was to overhaul my media diet and stop looking at short form content. No more tiktok or scrolling through endless memes or news feeds. Turn off auto play on sites like YouTube and consciously choose to watch longer form content. I rarely watch anything shorter than 20 mins now and it helped a lot with my ability to concentrate and get dopamine from less "exciting" places.

I used to read a lot but stopped due to concentration issues. I started back up by reading short stories, then novellas, then back to reading full novels working my way up.

Quick and easy media made it way too easy to have a constant string of feel good, and nothing else from normal life could compare. Cutting it out is the best thing I ever did.

Absolute solidarity. A thing I find deeply frustrating is the contemptuous "EVERYONE has ADHD!" attitude among a lot of people including doctors. Oh yes does everyone do all the things on this list of things I do? Oh sorry am I making you uncomfortable? What's that you say I might have a mental health condition? NEVER

Paper books are medicine I totally agree with that approach (and need to do it more).

I actually thought things were improving as my hormone levels dropped a bit with age but here is another wave taking me along with it.

The thought of a boring life from here until the end feels claustrophobic and awful right now.

I completely get what you're saying. I had the same though starting ADHD meds (and I also agree with your point of the annoyance of 'ohhhh everyone has ADHD').

Ive been trying to cut down on short form entertainment as another OP said above. And also trying to replace binge eating with healthy or not too damaging dopamine. Shopping has worked tbh, but I dont need more stuff. Im trying to get into working out (walking, swimming, running) but it's intimidating to start. I think all we can do is try :)

How do you seek dopamine?