With dopamine on the menu we will be exploring the neurotransmitter, it’s impacts, and a neat tool called The Dopamine Menu.
Dopamine is commonly known as the “reward” chemical of the brain.
Dopamine is involved in human behaviour related to approaching, wanting, or seeking. Scientific researchers are still trying to understand dopamine, but we know that differences in dopamine functioning are part of many conditions including Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Parkinson’s Disease, schizophrenia, and in dependence disorders involving addiction. There is robust evidence that the ADHD brain responds to and transmits dopamine differently compared to those without ADHD. Most medications treating ADHD work to regulate dopamine receptivity in the brain.
We also know that dopamine can be related to endocrine conditions (conditions related to hormones) because of dopamine’s role in the production and release of noradrenaline and adrenaline. Dopamine, adrenaline, and noradrenaline are in the family of catecholamines and are also involved in the body’s Fight-Flight-Freeze-Fawn response.
So how does dopamine affect us? And how can understanding it help us to understand ourselves?
When we strongly crave or want something, dopamine is involved. Dopamine is also by extension involved in directing our attention and motivating us, as well as in the formation of habits. This is one reason dopamine is often spoken about in the context of addiction and dependence, as it is one of the key neurochemicals involved in the process or reward and motivation. But we can apply to principles of reward and motivation beyond dependence and addiction.
We know from almost a century of behavioural research that we can make behaviours more likely to happen through positive reinforcement. In other words, we are more likely to avoid unpleasant things, and approach or seek pleasant things, and using this principle we can change our habits. For example, if I exercise with a friend who I enjoy spending time with, I am more likely to do the exercise activity in the future, even if that friend is not always with me, because the pleasant experience of seeing my friend has been associated with the exercise activity.
There are many aspects of cognitive functioning needing to be managed and considered in ADHD, including memory and attention, but increasing the anticipated or expected dopamine attached to some activities may help ADHDers build motivation and attention for a task. The expectation of reward is supposed by researchers to lead to an increase in dopamine and an improvement in task performance, according to studies of “dopamine ramping” in mice when
learning.
Examples of how to increase the expectation of dopamine are:
Starting and completing tasks in the presence of a friend or other person, sometimes called body doubling. Although research demonstrating the efficacy of body doubling is not yet strong, this strategy is frequently recommended for its anecdotal usefulness.
Use of verbal encouragement and positive reinforcement or praise from others before, during and after a task. You can praise yourself, but your dopamine hit might be greater if someone you respect or care about knows to say a kind word or two
recognising your hard work or effort.
Rewarding completion of a task with a more tangible reward for example –
gamification, star-charts/reward-charts, performance bonuses. Once again, you can
set this up yourself.
Making the environment and processes involved in completing a task enjoyable – for example using a favourite pen, working in a pleasant room or with music on.
On the flipside, becoming aware of what experiences increase our expectation of dopamine in an undesirable way can also help us to manage habits we would like to avoid. For example, if we want to reduce how much time we are spending scrolling through social media, or gaming, we can look at what rewards our brain is experiencing and when, and design strategies to limit or target this reward. Is it the social element, the sense of competence or achievement at completing a level, the visual stimulation, or the new information? Once we are clearer, we can substitute another activity that helps us to gain a similar sense of reward. For example if my mind loves chatting with mates while playing multiplayer games, and also gets a boost from completing a level, then potentially transitioning to other enjoyable social events, and activities that I can complete with satisfaction that involve teamwork and problem-solving might be a good goal to work towards.
ADHD advocate Jessica McCabe popularised the Dopamine Menu approach to mapping and managing dopamine in this way. She proposed identifying a “menu” of activities that have varying dopamine effects, for example an “appetiser” or “dessert” may be experiences that trigger short bursts of dopamine quickly, but a “main” may be an activity of longer duration that releases more sustained consistent dopamine. Knowing how to manage dopamine by feeding it a menu of activities can assist motivation and attention. A more detailed description can be found in The Conversation. Try ‘The Dopamine Menu’ activity below:
Another strategy is to try to increase or decrease our receptivity to dopamine, or increase dopamine levels by physical means. Stimulant medications tend to do this, but mild doses of caffeine can help to increase dopamine receptivity as long as they don’t interfere with sleep.
And sleep itself is important to regulation of dopamine. There is growing evidence of the relationship between our sleep-wake cycle, circadian rhythms and dopamine. Exposing your body to natural light when you wake in the morning helps to set the “body clock” and circadian rhythms, likewise, having a regular sleep schedule with similar waking and sleeping times day-to-day. It is supposed that regulation of these cycles affects the central nervous system and the body’s regulation of dopamine.
Related to sunlight, is the body’s supply of Vitamin D (naturally absorbed through safe sun exposure to the skin), and there is some limited evidence from a small study in 2019 that Vitamin D supplements may help increase dopamine levels in children with ADHD.
For adult men, there is also limited evidence that bathing in cold water (14 degrees celcius) can be shown to temporarily increase dopamine levels. For women or people with uteruses, dopamine levels may fluctuate with estrogen levels. This means that noting times when estrogen levels might be likely to peak or fall will help to track dopamine. Peaks and falls in estrogen are typically noticeable at different stages of the menstrual cycle such as ovulation and menstruation or during puberty/menarche, and perimenopause/menopause. The connection between dopamine and estrogen means that ensuring regulation of estrogen is important to regulation of dopamine, through for example nutrition, hormone replacement therapy, or hormonal contraceptives.
Research also indicates that magnesium plays a role in dopamine regulation, particularly in limiting receptivity to dopamine where dopamine is implicated in dependence or addition.
Stress affects dopamine also, and so regulating dopamine through movement and exercise, and relaxation practices that calm the autonomic nervous system such as yoga, tai chi or meditation, are also important in the broader lifestyle changes that can assist in managing dopamine challenges.
For the ADHDers among us, understanding how our own brains respond to dopamine can help us to understand and manage our own ADHD differences. Many ADHD medications aim to improve an ADHDer’s functioning by regulating how dopamine is transmitted in the brain. But there are changes we can make in our behaviour and routines to help facilitate effective dopamine transmission too.
Working with a psychologist, occupational therapist, or ADHD coach trained in ADHD can help you to identify how dopamine might be involved in some of your challenges, and find ways to target and manage motivation and attention using this understanding.
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Last reviewed 4 July 2025