Low dopamine = coffee addiction?

[lissybeth74]

Just read some fascinating info about my coffee addiction and how it may be related to low dopamine? I used to be able to handle a cup of coffee; nowadays- one day of it makes me happy, and by the second and third day I am an irritable, nasty mess.

I'm not a biochemistry girl, so I am grateful if anybody could tell me...

Does coffee synthetically produce those good feelings that resemble dopamine?

How do I know if I have low dopamine?

How can I raise my dopamine levels so I won't even crave caffeine once I'm off? (One site suggested getting a bunch of protein w/each meal... for amino acids? Something about DLPA, too? Don't know anything about this yet. )

I know some of my drag in the morning is adrenal-related, but wasn't sure if nutrients could help me w/the neurotransmitter stuff to give more energy or at least "comfortable" feelings in the morning... the ones I think I sometimes get from the coffee.

TIA...

Edited by lissybeth74 - 12/9/10 at 12:44pm

[menomena]

I don't really have a lot of insight, but I had to click when I saw your thread title. 

DH used to be positively ADDICTED to coffee. An entire pot, of regular coffee, daily. He actually needed coffee (yes, full-caf) to fall asleep at night.  He switched to tea and was drinking a ton of that per day, until he thought he was impeding his iron absorption. He went back to coffee but stepped down to decaf. He now drinks about a liter of decaf coffee a day. 

Anyway, I bring all this up, because we've theorized before that he's low dopamine. The height of his coffee addiction was before we did any allergy elimination on any of us. He was the last in the family to try an elim diet, but once he did, he found out that he is gluten- and corn-intolerant and doesn't handle dairy well, though he gets the least symptoms from it so he'll "cheat" now and again. It wasn't until he cleared gluten from his system that he was able to go from full-caf to caffeine-free coffee. 

Just thought I'd share his experience.