New Release: 'Dopamine IOU'
- Dec 1, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 23
New Release: 'Dopamine IOU' – What It Means to Keep Promising the High
This song came from a place of running on empty promises.
I used to chase the next rush. The next notification. The next text. The next anything that might make the inside feel full for five minutes. I wrote checks on future feelings. Told myself. Told someone else. "Tomorrow I'll feel better. I'll show up better. I'll give you the version of me that's not tired." But tomorrow came and the account was still overdrawn. The IOU kept stacking.
'Dopamine IOU' is about that cycle. The quiet shame of owing joy you cannot pay. The way you keep signing the note anyway because admitting the debt feels worse than carrying it. It is not about blaming the chase. It is about seeing how exhausting it gets to live on credit from a brain that never delivers on time.
Why the IOU Keeps Getting Written
We tell ourselves one more hit will fix it. One more scroll. One more drink. One more person. One more win. And when it does not. We write another IOU. "Next time." But the brain learns. The hits get smaller. The debt gets bigger. The promise starts to feel like a lie you tell to stay alive.
I wrote 'Dopamine IOU' because I was tired of the ledger. Tired of owing myself a feeling I could not force. Tired of owing someone else a version of me that was always "coming soon." It is humbling to realize the high is not owed. It is earned in small deposits. Not big loans.
The "Still Here" Perspective
I can only control what I deposit today. I cannot pay off yesterday's IOUs. Or force the rush to arrive on schedule. But I can stop writing new ones. Stop promising what I cannot deliver. Start making small payments: a walk. A breath. A moment without reaching. That is the gentle way out of the cycle. Not erasing the debt. Just refusing to add to it.
I have never stopped believing the feeling is possible. It takes more than borrowing to feel full. It takes showing up for the small deposits.
If you have ever felt like you are living on borrowed dopamine. Writing IOUs to yourself or someone else. Wondering when the bill will finally come due. This song is for you.
Give it a listen wherever you stream music.