In need of a dopamine hit? 5 things to know about creating a dopamine menu

Editor’s note: The podcast Chasing Life With Dr. Sanjay Gupta explores the medical science behind some of life’s mysteries big and small. You can listen to episodes here.

(CNN) — If you are like many people, you might feel zapped of energy and in need of some motivation to get going, especially in the Northern Hemisphere where the days now are short, overcast and sometimes packed with snow.

But even finding that inspiration can feel like a chore.

Enter the dopamine menu, or what we call a “dopamenu.” This personalized menu of activities is designed to deliver a hit of dopamine to your system.

Dopamine is a crucial neurotransmitter involved in our brain’s reward system. It plays a central role in motivation, as well as executive function (which includes attention, decision-making, multitasking and planning), movement and emotional regulation.

The dopamenu is “kind of a creative project meets … a list of strategies to use,” Eric Tivers, a licensed clinical social worker, recently told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on his podcast Chasing Life. “In some ways, it’s like a portion of a self-care plan.”

Tivers, who co-coined the term dopamenu, is an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, coach and host of the podcast “ADHD reWired.” ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is associated with an imbalance of certain neurotransmitters — including dopamine — leading to issues such as inattention, impulsivity and poor executive function. ADHD can have wide-ranging impacts on all aspects of life, including academics, personal relationships, professional success and even daily functioning.

Tivers, who counsels people with ADHD and autism spectrum disorder, knows of what he speaks — he also has a diagnosis of ADHD.

Speaking about people with ADHD, Tivers explained, “Part of what happens … is our brain does not inhibit stimuli very well, and a lot of that stimuli can be internal. Like random thoughts seem to come at the most inopportune time. And because we have a hard time prioritizing, our brain doesn’t turn down its focus on … other stimuli, whether it’s internal or external.”

You can listen to the full episode here.

These kinds of brain processing differences between people with and without ADHD also extend to motivation, he said. “Often when people think about motivation, they think about it in the realm of a character trait,” he said. “And motivation is dopamine, right? It is neurological.

“People with ADHD have an interest-based nervous system where most people have an importance-based nervous system — the thing is important, so prioritize that and get that thing done. For people with ADHD and other neurodivergent people, because we have this interest-based nervous system, it is super hard to actually do the boring thing.”

To help break through the boredom and initiate an action, Tivers developed the idea of a dopamine menu, a custom menu of small, satisfying activities designed to boost focus, motivation and well-being that people can turn to, in the moment, to find relief.

A dopamenu is useful not only for people with ADHD, Tivers added, but also a host of other conditions, such as depression or seasonal affective disorder (SAD), in which low dopamine is a factor. It is even helpful if you are a normie, or neurotypical.

“The people with ADHD, we need to use these strategies, but these are often really great strategies for everybody,” Tivers said.

What do you need to know about creating and using your own dopamenu? Tivers has these five tips.

Make your dopamenu before you need it

It’s the same principle behind making a list before you go to the grocery store and not going when you are hungry, Tivers said.

“When we are bored, when we are understimulated, when we are feeling kind of down, that’s not the time we want to be thinking of, ‘What can I do to sort of lift my spirits or my mood?’” he said.

People can prepare in advance to have ideas “we can kind of just fall back on, so we’re not having to come up with those ideas in the moment when we really need (them).”

If unprepared, many of us will default to grabbing our phones when we aren’t stimulated, Tivers said, which is like grabbing a candy bar instead of a solid meal when we are hungry. “You’re probably going to actually feel worse than you did beforehand,” he added.

Pro tip: Put the list where you can easily see it, like on the fridge or on the bathroom mirror.

Choose activities for your dopamenu that resonate with you

Your dopamenu is unique to your interests and your lifestyle. Consider items such as mindful movement (like a walk around the block, a one-song dance party, a bike ride), creative outlets, social connections, novel experiences and rest & recovery (a short nap or soothing bath, for example).

If you are coming up short on ideas, Tivers recommends a quick Google search for dopamenu to spark your creativity. “I think the thing that surprised me the most is how many people across the Internet have created their menus and posted them online,” he said.

While you can organize your dopamenu any way you’d like, the idea is to lay it out like a restaurant menu. Think in terms of:

• appetizers — a quick bite “that won’t suck you in or make it hard to stop”

• main dishes — “things that might either take longer, require scheduling or something you can engage in for a longer period”

• specials — “something that is not always accessible” (like going to a concert or on a trip)

• and, in small amounts, desserts — “anything that’s sort of recreationally intoxicating, whether it’s alcohol or scrolling … or watching two episodes of a show on Netflix.” But, he warns, just like you might order a slice of cake as a dessert after dinner, you don’t want to eat the entire cake.

Some people even add a cost to each item, Tivers noted, based on real costs or opportunity costs; some also rate items (the five-star or five-chili system) based on how big a hit of dopamine it will deliver. Costs and ratings are completely customizable, based on what is important to you. Additional refinements include making different dopamenus based on location (work vs. home) or seasonality (winter vs. summer activities).

And remember: A dopamenu is a living document that can and maybe should get updated constantly as you and your life change.

Experiment with timing

When you choose to turn to your dopamenu will depend on … you!

“I would say that (when you turn to it) is very based on the individual,” said Tivers, who noted he likes to access his dopamenu first thing in the morning with a workout, because it sets him well for the day.

“But you’ve got to experiment,” he said, noting some people want a big dopamine hit in the morning, others will want a nice nightly hit before bed to wind down. “Or you sprinkle it throughout the day because, maybe after an hour or two of work, your brain’s kind of finding everything else to do other than the things you actually need to be doing, right? So then maybe you need more … regular inputs,” he said.

Look for patterns

You can turn to your dopamenu as often as needed but be aware of behavior patterns.

“I know for me, my seasonal affective disorder … around February, March, definitely affects me. So, I have on my calendar, actually starting in late fall, to start increasing my exercise intensity to help counterbalance the cycles of just living in the Chicago area, where you don’t get a lot of sunlight in the wintertime,” he said.

Can you overdo it?

“What’s that expression? Everything in moderation, including moderation,” Tivers said. “Because if you’re sitting all day trying to regulate, and that’s consuming (you) every day, I would say it’s probably a really good time to start talking to a therapist or psychiatrist if you’re really needing that much support for regulation.

Have fun: A dopamenu is low stakes

The first dopamenu you make might not be perfect (or it might not be for you at all), but that’s OK because creating one is a learning experience.

“I think anything that we do with the goal of making life better is an experiment,” Tivers said. “It’s just embracing the idea of living life in beta mode — just experiment and see what happens.”

He said the worst that could happen is you might waste some time making “a super duper, nice looking dopamenu” that you never look at again.

“But I think that any problem you’re trying to solve, if it doesn’t — quote unquote — work that first try, doesn’t mean it doesn’t work,” he said. “Tweak it, try different things, experiment with it, approach from different angles.”

Ultimately, the dopamenu is a tool to serve you.

We hope these five tips help you build your own dopamenu. Listen to the full episode here. And join us next week on the Chasing Life podcast when we talk about the green-eyed monster — just in time for Valentine’s Day.

CNN Audio’s Lori Galarreta contributed to this report.

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