Addiction is a tough subject to teach—at least, it has been for me. I’ve seen people I love and care about become completely different human beings due to addiction, and I know many of our students have likely experienced the same with someone in their lives. That's why I believe it's important to teach addiction by exploring both the scientific WHY and the emotional WHY.
I wanted to make the science behind addiction fun and interactive so students could SEE addiction in action while also reinforcing the emotional impact—how it affects our lives and how experiences like trauma and unhealthy coping mechanisms can lead people down a dangerous path. What is The Dopamine Race: Addiction Simulation?
I love a good simulation—especially when students get to step into different roles. Normally, I have them act as other people, but in this simulation, they take on roles inside the body, acting out healthy brain functions vs. a brain in the grip of addiction.
How to Set Up the Dopamine Race Addiction
Simulation
Watch this video for instructions, or just keep reading!
Roles:
1 Brain
10 Neural Pathways
1 Mover (Body)
10 Dopamine
1 Counter
Feel free to adjust based on your class size, but try to keep a similar dopamine-to-neural-pathway ratio.
Setup:
Arrange students in this formation—a hallway is a perfect place for this activity, as long as nearby classes don’t mind a little noise!
Instructions:
Assign Roles: Designate one student as the Brain. Ten students will act as Neural Pathways, forming a line. One student will be the Mover, representing the Body. Ten students will be Dopamine molecules standing behind the brain. One student will serve as the Counter, keeping track of the amount of dopamine high 5s collected.
Run the Simulation:
Phase 1: Normal Functioning
Set a timer (e.g., 4 minutes).
The Brain writes out a one-word message (e.g., "jump" or "clap") on strips of paper one at a time and hands them to the Neural Pathways.
The Neural Pathways deliver the messages to the Mover
When the Mover receives a message, they perform the action written on it.
The Dopamine molecules observe the action and reward the Brain with high-fives. (Only 7 out of 10 Dopamine molecules give high-fives during this phase.)
The Counter records the number of high-fives received.
Continue this till the timer goes off.
When the timer goes off, record the total number of high-fives achieved.
Phase 2: Addiction Scenario
Repeat Phase 1 with one key difference:
All 10 Dopamine molecules start by giving high-fives.
Each round, one less Dopamine gives a high-five until, by the end, only 1 Dopamine is left doing all the work.
The Brain’s goal is to achieve the same or more high-fives as in Phase 1.
This phase will become chaotic because:
The Neural Pathways will need to work faster.
They may skip steps, rush the Brain, or become disorganized trying to keep up.
How This Game Connects to Real-Life Addiction:
As students will notice in Phase 2, it gets harder to collect dopamine high-fives. At first, there's plenty of dopamine, but over time, less and less is available.
This mimics addiction:
An addictive substance or behavior floods the brain with dopamine.
The brain gets used to the high dopamine levels.
Over time, the same amount of dopamine doesn’t have the same effect (tolerance).
The person keeps chasing that first high, needing more and more to feel the same.
Eventually, their brain produces less natural dopamine, making everyday pleasure harder to feel (desensitization).
During addiction, Neural Pathways also become stronger and faster, making behaviors automatic—this is why addictive habits are so hard to break.
This simulation helps students understand that the constant chase for dopamine actually has the opposite effect, making their baseline mood lower over time instead of higher.
Why This Simulation is SO Powerful
This activity is memorable and thought-provoking for teens because:
It shows addiction in action instead of just explaining it.
It connects the science of addiction to real-life choices.
I pair this with slides that break down addiction even deeper, covering: The science of addiction, environmental factors, trauma, and genetics that contribute to addiction.
A great resource to include is Stuart McMillen’s comic, "Rat Park", which dives deeper into how environment plays a major role in addiction. I hope this works well with your students and it brings about some meaningful conversations! Teach On Katie
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