Whether it seems obvious or not, willpower is heavily associated with happiness. Here’s how it works. Throughout our day, we look for sources of pleasure stimulation. This can be watching a show, eating candy, playing video games, gambling and so on. These examples are things that create a pleasurable stimulation in our brain. And as a result of that, dopamine is released. Dopamine is a feel good chemical. It’s released when we encounter any source of pleasure stimulation.
The downside of dopamine is, when creating too many moments in our day that releases this pleasurable feeling, we end up feeling miserable and sad. Think about the last day you really treated yourself. You had a gourmet breakfast in the morning, a party later in the day, shopping for new luxury clothing, playing some video games and on and on. This seems to be like the most magical experience. Where one would be on cloud 9. However, the opposite occurs. After a day or even moments like these we tend to feel miserable.
The question is why? How come when we do all these pleasurable simulations, we end up feeling down?
The answer also explains the truth behind Dopamine. When the body releases Dopamine, it makes us feel good. However, on the flip side, the body also goes along with the concept of homeostasis; balance. Meaning, when there’s a sense of pleasure (dopamine released), the body feels the need to balance it out by making you feel the opposite of this pleasure sensation; misery.
By having willpower and being able to control the amount of this so-called “pleasurable stimulation” from the outside world, it’ll make you a happier person. Why? Here’s a story that’ll explain it in more depth.
A mother of a teenager addicted to video games had cut down the video games of this child. He used to play video games day and night for an instant gratification feeling (dopamine) and then would follow to a state of misery and then antidepressants would come into his system as a coping mechanism. His mom brilliantly decreased his time for video games. She only allowed video games for one hour once a week. This decreased the amount of pleasure stimulation and Dopamine released, which made him less miserable and more content. He was off antidepressants within weeks of this method.
This goes to show that although all these pleasure seeking things seem so attractive and have such a big hype tied to them, they really make us miserable. We have to use willpower to control the intake of these outside sources like video games and over indulgence in order to live a happier and fulfilling life. Fun is good, but don’t overdo it. It can hurt you.
