This is the second of three vlogs I want to share with you about the science behind dopamine. We often think of dopamine as the brain’s pleasure chemical, but science tells us a different story. Dopamine isn’t really about liking something — it’s about wanting it.

When Wanting and Liking Part Ways

I spent so much of my life (though thankfully not recently!) sitting in my car, shoveling in food I wasn’t even enjoying. Sometimes I had tears streaming down my face. Sometimes I was numb. I remember thinking, This doesn’t even taste good. Why am I still eating it?

I had a similar experience when I smoked crack cocaine for the first time at 19. Riding my bike home afterward, I remember thinking I’d never become addicted because I hadn’t even liked it that much.

What I didn’t understand then was that addiction isn’t about liking something. It’s about wanting it. And as addiction progresses, those two experiences can move further and further apart.

How Scientists Discovered the Difference Between Liking and Wanting

For decades, scientists believed dopamine was the brain’s pleasure chemical. That understanding began with a famous mistake that happened in a rat lab in 1954 by James Olds and Peter Milner at McGill University. After accidentally stimulating the reward-related area of a rat’s brain, they found that it repeatedly sought more stimulation. When given a lever to activate that area, the rat pressed it thousands of times, sometimes ignoring food, sleep, and sex. They believed they’d discovered the brain’s pleasure center.

In the 1970s, Roy Wise’s research seemed to reinforce that idea. When dopamine was blocked, rats stopped making an effort to obtain food. Researchers assumed they no longer found eating pleasurable.

In the late 1980s, Kent Berridge at the University of Michigan challenged that interpretation. His taste-reactivity experiments showed that even when dopamine was blocked, animals still displayed signs of enjoying sweet tastes. They simply wouldn’t work to get them.

When dopamine was increased, the animals worked hard to obtain the reward without showing greater enjoyment when they received it.

That’s how we learned that wanting and liking are not the same thing.

Dopamine drives wanting, while pleasure and liking depend on other brain systems, including endogenous opioids. These are opioid-like chemicals that our own brains produce.

When Wanting Grows and Liking Fades

In food addiction, repeated exposure to highly rewarding combinations of sugar, flour, and other ingredients changes dopamine signaling. Cravings intensify, and the brain demands more.

I think of the wanting system as a massive bonfire, and the liking system as a little candle. As addiction progresses, the bonfire grows while the candle gets smaller. Eventually, we can desperately want foods we barely enjoy.

That was my experience during food relapses. I’d sneak into convenience stores and buy whatever I could eat without being seen, even when it wasn’t something I particularly liked. The goal wasn’t enjoyment anymore. It was getting the hit.

How Bright Line Eating Changes the Equation

Here’s the beautiful part: recovery can begin to reverse that pattern.

Research from Bright Line Eating shows that cravings can drop dramatically during the first eight weeks of the program. As wanting diminishes, the liking system can become more responsive again.

Bright meals that once seemed unappealing become surprisingly satisfying. And as we discussed in last week’s vlog on reward prediction error, that unexpected satisfaction can reinforce your desire for the next Bright meal.

One caution, though: wanting is highly sensitive to cues. Familiar packaging, certain locations, or even the time of day can trigger cravings. Especially early in recovery, it’s a good idea to clear tempting foods out of your kitchen and avoid places that trigger old habits. Protecting your environment helps those wanting pathways quiet down.

And remember this essential distinction: dopamine isn’t the pleasure chemical we once thought it was. It’s the wanting chemical. Understanding that difference helps explain addiction and offers real hope for recovery.