Health horizons
Is the dopamine economy impacting your workplace?
The desire for the reward hormone dopamine, which gave our ancestors the motivation to hunt and survive, is now making us vulnerable to dependency and addiction.
The drive for instant gratification, often fueled by the dopamine economy, refers to the increasing tendency to seek immediate rewards and pleasures due to the brain's dopamine system. This reward system is the brain’s mechanism for experiencing pleasure, it seeks out instant gratification, increasing the risk of dependency problems.
Modern society and fast evolving technology make instant gratification easily accessible, encouraging behaviours that prioritise short-term satisfaction over long-term goals. The common phrase of ‘gamification’ often refers to a product or experience that has been designed to tap into this effect, and is common in everything from mobile apps, social media to shopping and addictive substances like alcohol.
Alcohol and recreational drugs release a large surge of dopamine upon consumption, but the brain adapts and dials back the amount of feel-good dopamine it releases each time – creating a negative spiral where more and more stimulation is needed to recreate the same rush of dopamine.1
This is why alcohol and recreational drugs can be so habit forming and why today’s dopamine economy can set the scene for dependency or addiction.
Age of indulgence
Professor Anne Lembke, an expert in addiction based at Stanford University in the United States, and author of Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance In The Age Of Indulgence says, “The problem is that we no longer live in a world of scarcity. 2
“We now live in a world of overwhelming abundance, and these ancient neural pathways that have been so helpful for so long have now become difficult to handle.”
These neural pathways are also being altered by social media systems which use digital footprints and machine-learning algorithms to drive engagement via rewards of dopamine.3
Vulnerable employees
Working age adults who have grown up with this dopamine economy may be at increased risk as researchers warn that adolescents are particularly vulnerable to this increasingly personalised content, warning that it creates a ‘loop of desire’ which over-stimulates the dopamine system and increases the risk of addictive behaviours.
Dr Robin Clark, Medical Director of Bupa Global and UK Insurance explains, “When we are constantly exposed to an array of pleasure-producing stimuli, our brain adjusts to elevated dopamine levels and dials back our response, so that more and more stimulation is needed to maintain a status quo."
“We are all chasing dopamine. Sometimes this rush comes from sugar, social media, online games, smart phones, caffeine or TV. And sometimes this desire for dopamine drives unhealthy relationships with alcohol, recreational drugs, gambling and other reward-seeking behaviours.”
Susceptible teams
“This appetite for dopamine, or dopamine culture as it is known, makes us all susceptible to addiction. As a result, addictive behaviour now often hides in plain sight.”
“However, this improved understanding of the role of dopamine is also altering the way addiction is perceived.”
As a paper published last year explains, “Reward-associated mechanisms explain why individuals search for initially positive stimuli again and again and why this can ultimately lead to compulsive behaviours and addictions that pose a threat to mental health.”
Dr Clark says, “As a result, we are seeing a shift away from dependency being seen as a weakness of some kind, to a realisation that it is closely connected to mental health.”
How addiction and mental health are entwined
There is also a strong correlation between dependency and poor mental health.
According to Public Health England, 86% of people accessing community support for alcohol issues and 70% seeking help for drug problems are also experiencing mental health problems.4
Research suggests there are three drivers for this:5
1. Common risk factors such as genetic vulnerability — estimated to be a factor in 40% to 60% of cases 6 — or environmental challenges such as stress or trauma.
2. Mental disorders contributing to substance misuse because people who are struggling can get temporary relief by self-medicating with alcohol or drugs.
3. Substance misuse can contribute to the development of other mental disorders via neurological changes which increase the risk of psychological problems.
However, he adds, “While genetics and life experiences can put an individual at increased risk of mental substance misuse, it does not mean that problems are inevitable”.
Self-medicating
“In fact, it underlines the importance of providing effective mental health support in order to head off unhealthy coping strategies such as self-medicating with alcohol and other substances."
“Our increased understanding of genetics and the way dopamine works on the brain, not only shows the value of early intervention, it also opens the door to better prevention programmes and treatment.”
Commenting on a landmark American study published last year — which identified 19 genes associated with addiction generally and another 47 linked to specific substances — Dr Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the US, pointed out, “Genetics play a key role in determining health throughout our lives, but they are not destiny”.7
Future hope
Dr Volkow says, “Our hope with genomic studies is to further illuminate factors that may protect or predispose a person to substance use disorders – knowledge that can be used to expand preventative services and empower individuals to make informed decisions about drug use."
“A better understanding of genetics also brings us one step closer to developing personalised interventions that are tailored to an individual’s unique biology, environment, and lived experience.”
Dr Clark says, “This personalised approach is central to the support Bupa can provide for your teams.
“We provide a suite of resources and information designed to foster good mental health, help line managers recognise the signs that a colleague is struggling, and provide targeted and individual support for team members dealing with dependency issues."
“Eliminating the stigma around dependency and embedding support and resources which support early intervention are key to achieving better outcomes — for individual employees, your teams, and your business.”
1 https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction/drugs-brain
2 https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1090009509
3 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11804976/
5 https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/substance-use-and-mental-health
