Reward & Dopamine
Understanding motivation at the brain level. Why knowing something is important doesn't make it feel urgent, and why people with ADHD can hyperfocus on games but can't start homework.
Dopamine is a brain chemical involved in motivation, reward anticipation, and learning. It's less about pleasure and more about wanting - the drive to pursue something.
Key roles:
- Motivation: Creating the "push" to start and sustain action
- Reward prediction: Learning what leads to good outcomes
- Attention: Helping focus on relevant information
- Working memory: Supporting the brain\'s planning centre
Dopamine myths vs reality
Reality: Dopamine is more about motivation and anticipation than pleasure itself. It drives you toward rewards, not the enjoyment of them.
Reality: It's more complex - dopamine signaling may be less efficient, particularly in the brain's planning and control centre. It's about how dopamine is used, not just how much there is.
Reality: Stimulants increase dopamine availability, allowing the ADHD brain to function more like a typical brain. They don't sedate or change personality.
Reality: While exercise, sleep, and nutrition support brain function generally, they don't specifically "boost dopamine" enough to replace treatment for significant ADHD.
The "interest-based nervous system"
Dr William Dodson describes ADHD as having an "interest-based nervous system". Attention and motivation aren't controlled by importance or consequences - they're driven by interest, novelty, challenge, and urgency.
| When the task is... | The ADHD brain... | Why (dopamine) |
|---|---|---|
| Interested in the task | Can focus intensely, even hyperfocus. Time flies. | The interesting task provides dopamine naturally. |
| Task is novel or challenging | Attention comes easily. May seek increasingly complex challenges. | Novelty and challenge trigger dopamine release. |
| Task is urgent or has immediate consequences | Works well under pressure. Procrastinates then performs. | Urgency creates artificial deadline-driven dopamine. |
| Task is routine or boring | Struggles enormously. Knows it's important but can't engage. | No natural dopamine drive. Willpower alone isn't enough. |
For most people, knowing something is important creates motivation. For people with ADHD, this connection is weak. They might:
- Know the assignment is due tomorrow
- Know failing will have consequences
- Genuinely want to do well
- And still not be able to start
This isn't laziness or not caring. The brain simply isn't generating the dopamine needed to initiate and sustain the task. No amount of knowing it's important can overcome this.
Practical strategies
Since willpower can't generate dopamine, the solution is to engineer situations that create it naturally.
- ✓Add challenge or competition
- ✓Gamify with points or rewards
- ✓Add novelty (new location, music, tools)
- ✓Body double (work alongside someone)
- ✓Set shorter deadlines
- ✓Use timers for focused sprints
- ✓Schedule accountability check-ins
- ✓Create immediate consequences
- ✓Break tasks into tiny steps
- ✓Reward completion of each step
- ✓Make progress visible
- ✓Celebrate small wins
- ✓"Just do 2 minutes"
- ✓Prepare everything in advance
- ✓Start with the easiest part
- ✓Remove barriers to beginning
Stimulant medications (methylphenidate, amphetamines) work primarily by increasing dopamine availability in the brain\'s planning and control centre.
This helps close the gap between importance and action - making it easier to start and sustain tasks even when they're not intrinsically interesting.
Non-stimulants work on related brain chemicals (noradrenaline, which helps with alertness and focus) with different approaches.
ADHD is fundamentally a problem of motivation regulation, not attention deficit. The attention is there - it's just controlled by interest rather than importance.
This reframe helps because the solution isn't "try harder" - it's "make it easier for the brain to engage" through environmental design, artificial urgency, and sometimes medication.