E274: High Dopamine, Low Effort Behaviors and Making Sobriety Feel Less Hard

Sober Powered: The Neuroscience of Being Sober

Gillian Tietz, MS, CPRC

Science, Self-improvement, Education, Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Your brain is wired for quick hits of dopamine, or high-reward, low-effort habits that feel good in the moment but sabotage your long-term goals. Over time, this conditions your brain to expect rewards without effort, making real change feel harder than it actually is. In this episode, I’ll explain how these patterns destroy motivation, fuel inconsistent effort, and keep you stuck in the cycle of short bursts of change followed by slinking back to your old ways. You’ll learn how high dopamine, low effort behaviors impact the brain, how this makes us resistant to putting in effort, and 3 ways you may be making being sober feel more difficult for yourself than it needs to be- and how to shift that. What to listen to next: E265: Rewiring Your Reward System After Getting Sober E263: Sugar Cravings After Quitting Drinking E145: ADHD and Alcohol Work with me: Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life https://www.soberpowered.com/membership Sober coaching https://www.soberpowered.com/sober-coaching Weekly email: You’ll hear from me on Fridays https://www.soberpowered.com/email Courses: The non-negotiable mindset https://www.soberpowered.com/mindset-course Anger Management https://www.soberpowered.com/anger Support the show: If you enjoyed this episode please consider buying me a coffee to support all the research and effort that goes into this podcast https://www.buymeacoffee.com/soberpowered Thank you for supporting this show by supporting my sponsors https://www.soberpowered.com/sponsors Sources are posted on my website Disclaimer: all of the information described in this podcast is my interpretation of the research combined with my opinion. This is not medical advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Your brain is wired for quick hits of dopamine or high reward, low effort habits that feel good in the moment but sabotage your long-term goals and vision for your life.
0:13.7	Over time, this conditions your brain to expect rewards without effort, and that makes real change feel harder than it actually is.
0:22.4	In this episode, I'll explain how these patterns destroy motivation, fuel inconsistent effort,
0:28.9	and keep you stuck in cycles of short bursts of change followed by slinking back to your old ways.
0:36.5	You'll learn how high-dopamine, low-effort behaviors impact the brain,
0:41.8	how this makes us resistant to putting an effort
0:44.5	in three ways you may be making being sober,
0:48.1	feel more difficult for yourself than it needs to be,
0:51.3	and how you can shift that.
0:53.1	And before we dig in, I'd like to thank my sponsors
0:55.9	who made this episode possible. You've heard sober sleep is the best sleep, but we have to get
1:01.8	through night sweats, insomnia, and frequent wake-ups to get there. Even after that part ends,
1:06.9	I know I didn't take care of my bedroom environment at all. We had this older, firm mattress that felt like it was breaking my back in half every night.
1:16.9	I hated it, but it always felt like too much trouble to replace it.
1:21.3	Then I heard about Bear mattress.
1:23.5	It showed up in a tall skinny box and unrolled in just a few minutes.
1:28.2	Their sleep quiz matched me with the Bear Elite hybrid.
1:31.7	And it's cool because it's firm for my lower back and hips and plush everywhere else.
1:36.9	It cushions my hips without sinking, aligns my spine, and stays cool all night.
1:42.2	And sleep on it for up to 120 nights to make sure you love it
1:45.6	and if you're not getting the best sleep of your life they will pick it up and refund you no
1:50.0	problem go to bear mattress dot com and use the promo code power at checkout to get 40% off
	...

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