Dopamine and Discomfort
Dopamine and Discomfort
One of the most interesting aspects of the reality television show Survivor is how it transforms everyday, mundane items like a slice of pizza, a pillow, or even a shower into priceless treasures. In everyday life, these are things we take for granted. But on Survivor, after days of starvation, exhaustion, and discomfort, they become highly sought-after rewards of comfort, luxury, and even emotional salvation.
This show taps into a powerful psychological principle: deprivation enhances value. When contestants are stripped of their basic needs, their appreciation for simple things increases significantly. A chocolate bar becomes a feast. A letter from home becomes life-affirming. Watching a contestant cry over a burger briefly reminds us how relative happiness and pleasure can be.
It also reveals human nature, how much we are driven not just by strategy and competition, but by connection, comfort, and reward.
The best food I’ve ever eaten wasn’t from a high-end restaurant. It was a wrap made from canned tuna, sliced cucumber, and mountain bread, eaten while hiking over several days with some of my closest friends. After hours of climbing steep trails, sweating under the sun, and feeling every bit of weight in my pack, that humble wrap tasted like a gourmet meal.
It is moments like these that remind me that our physical experience shapes perception. When stripped down to the essentials, even the simplest food can become unforgettable.
Dopamine, the brain’s “anticipation” chemical, plays a central role in shaping how we experience pleasure, motivation, and reward. It's not about the getting, but the wanting. This helps explain why the best wrap I ever ate wasn’t gourmet and why Survivor contestants cry over a burger.
Similarly, Survivor taps into dopamine-driven motivation by turning everyday comforts into desired prizes. The lack of stimulation and resources heightens contestants' dopamine responses to things like chocolate, blankets, or letters from home. It's not the object itself, it’s the anticipation, the context, the contrast to deprivation.
Unfortunately, social media platforms are also designed to provide quick, intense bursts of stimulation, often triggering the release of dopamine. Over time, this constant stream of rapid gratification can change how your brain responds to more subtle or slower pleasures in everyday life, such as a chocolate bar or a sunset.
Just like with any source of high reward and dopamine, overuse of scrolling on social media can create a tolerance. You need more to feel the same effect. As a result, simple pleasures may no longer register as enjoyable because your brain has adjusted to needing high-intensity stimulation to feel good.
Similarly, I am sure you have noticed that Christmas and birthdays no longer have the same excitement as an adult. As children, these calendar milestones were thrilling, partly because of the anticipation. You didn’t know what you were going to get, and you had to wait for it. That waiting period builds dopamine in the brain because of the expectation of something special.
When you have the means to buy things for yourself anytime, there's no anticipation, and that removes the buildup of excitement. As adults, we know what's coming. We may even plan our gifts and remove uncertainty, which is a key driver of emotional highs.
In all these cases, dopamine shows us that something fundamental to joy isn’t just in having, it’s in wanting, waiting, and working for it. When everything is instantly available via a smartphone’s screen, dopamine has less room to rise, and life’s little moments can feel strangely flat.
Below are five practical recommendations to help you embrace discomfort and delayed gratification, supporting healthier dopamine regulation and deeper enjoyment:
1. Introduce “Dopamine Fasting” (Reduce Instant Rewards)
Temporarily step away from hyper-stimulating activities like social media, processed snacks, or binge-watching, to reset your dopamine baseline.
Try: One day a week with no screens, sugar, or buying anything non-essential.
2. Build in Waiting Periods Before Rewards
Train your brain to associate pleasure with effort by setting a delay between desire and reward. This reintroduces anticipation, which is where much of dopamine's power lies.
Try: Creating a “wish list” and waiting 30 days before buying anything on it.
3. Embrace Physical Discomfort Regularly
Expose yourself to mild, voluntary discomfort, such as cold showers, fasting, or strenuous exercise.
Try: A cold shower in the morning or a challenging physical exercise, you must get your heart rate elevated!
4. Create Rituals Around Pleasure
Ritualising enjoyable experiences like a weekly “treat night” or designated rest day (e.g. the weekend) makes them more meaningful. Predictability and anticipation both prime dopamine release and deepen satisfaction.
Try: Planning a weekly meal or activity you look forward to, and not allowing it on any other day.
5. Review your phone's Photo Albums to Reinforce Gratitude
Noticing and reflecting on small pleasures of past weeks or years increases your brain’s sensitivity to dopamine.
Try: Instead of scrolling on social media, scroll through your photo gallery and jot down three simple things from your past that you are grateful for.
