Increasing your Dopamine Baseline with Cold Water Exposure

Dopamine, often called the “feel good”  hormone, is a neurotransmitter that acts as your brain’s reward system. Do something that’s fun, get a dopamine boost. Take a cold plunge? Get a huge dopamine boost.

But let’s face it. There are easier ways to boost your dopamine levels than immersing yourself in cold water. Get some likes on social media. Play a video game or watch some Reels or TikToks. There are all sorts of illicit drugs that will boost your dopamine, and even plain old coffee or a candy bar can do the trick.

But what happens after those things spike your dopamine and make you feel good? You crash. Your dopamine levels drop faster and farther than the price of a meme stock once the meme gets stale. In fact, your dopamine drops below the baseline where you started. That means, you need more of whatever you used to raise your dopamine, sending you on a never-ending quest to get that “high” again. 

And that’s why so many of us are “addicted” to our phones or video games or coffee. We’re constantly digging ourselves out of the dopamine pit but every time we do, somehow the pit just gets deeper.

So, how is cold water immersion different? Won’t we just need to follow our plunge up with more dopamine-spiking activities just to feel OK? Am I going to be tethered to my cold plunge tub for the rest of my life just to feel normal?

Relax, there, friend. We Doodippers wouldn’t doo you like that. The Doodip ethos is to spread mental and physical health, not hook you on something that will leave you worse off. Cold plunge is different  because it doesn’t cause intense spikes or peaks and valleys. The dopamine boost you get from cold water immersion is similar in strength to what you’d get from cocaine, but without the crash afterward or the potential arrest record.

In fact, cold exposure is the only dopamine boost that keeps your baseline levels raised for hours. Because the dopamine boost doesn’t crash it actually raises your dopamine baseline over time, leaving you less susceptible to those “quick hit” rewards that actually deplete your dopamine levels.

That said, a lot of Doodippers say they are “addicted” to cold water immersion. But that’s just because it makes their whole day better. Doodippers don’t need to take constant “hits” of cold water or experience dopamine crash. We are addicted to it like we’re addicted to a good night’s sleep, something else that helps you be your best self.

And, full disclosure, we still enjoy coffee and the occasional sweets. But we don’t “need” them to get through the day. Just a quick cold dip in the morning and we’re set!