After some poking around, it seems dopamine is highly elevated prior to ejaculation, and then comes crashing down afterwords. According to this website…
chronicfatigue.about.com/od/treatingfmscfs/a/dopamine.htm
The symptoms of low dopamine are nearly identical to what I am experiencing, they even mention “brain fog.” So, I would expect that I am suffering chronically low dopamine levels. So I guess I need to figure out why my dopamine is so low…
“In the frontal lobes, dopamine controls the flow of information from other areas of the brain. Dopamine disorders in this region of the brain can cause a decline in neurocognitive functions, especially memory, attention, and problem-solving. Reduced dopamine concentrations in the prefrontal cortex are thought to contribute to attention deficit disorder. It has been found that D1 receptors[19] as well as D4 receptors[20] are responsible for the cognitive-enhancing effects of dopamine, whereas D2 receptors are more specific for motor actions.” From wikipedia.
I ABSOLUTELY feel the effect in the front of my brain and behind my eyes.
I read a thread earlier where cocaine helped people’s symptoms, and I just found that cocaine acts to cause a major increase in dopamine. (Also on the wikipedia dopamine page).
After a bit of searching, it seems this topic is already been well covered on this website. There doesn’t seem to be any conclusions as to the cause of the low dopamine, or whether or not it is low dopamine receptors and not low dopamine.
Supposedly, green tea and exercise can increase dopamine receptors. I found a few studies linking dopamine receptors with endurance training, which would explain the evidence of people feeling better from exercise.