Dopamine Detox
Introduction
You probably don’t have a problem binge-watching TV series or browsing social media on your phone. I have no doubt you could sit in front of a screen and do both of those activities for 2 hours, or even longer without breaking your concentration. But what about half an hour of studying or exercising? That might be too hard. How about working on your skill for another hour? It doesn’t sound too appealing, right?
Even though you logically know that studying, exercising, learning a skill or something equally productive, will bring you more benefits in the long run, you still prefer watching TV and scrolling through social media. One might argue that it’s obvious why. One activity is easy and doesn’t require much effort, while the other activity is difficult and it requires you to apply yourself. But some people seem to have no problem studying, exercising, or working on their side projects, regularly. Which begs the question: Why are some people more motivated to tackle difficult things? And is there a way to make doing difficult things, easy? To answer this, we may need to understand the neurotransmitter Dopamine.
What is Dopamine (Detox)?
Dopamine functions as a neurotransmitter — a chemical released by neurons (nerve cells) to send signals to other nerve cells. One of the major roles of Dopamine is the motivational component in reward-motivated behaviour. Detoxification (Detox in short) is a process of removal of any toxic thing/habit from the body/routine. Dopamine Detox is detoxification of excess of dopamine produced in the brain.
Dopamine is often considered as the happy hormone or a pleasure molecule, which is transmitted in the brain whenever we are happy. But this is not the whole part. Dopamine is also what makes us desire things. Our brain prioritises things based on the amount of dopamine it can get. When you do something which releases a lot of dopamine, you tend to get motivated to do it more. Any activity where you anticipate a reward, dopamine is released. More early or greater the reward is, more dopamine is released. But when you do any activity where the reward is not instant, a negligible amount of dopamine is released and you are less motivated to do the same activity. Examples of high dopamine behaviours include watching movies, tv-series, scrolling social media, expecting a text message from someone, eating junk food or chocolates etc. We anticipate instant high rewards from these activities hence high dopamine is released. Low dopamine behaviours include studying, working out, learning a new skill, reading books, doing daily chores and tasks, etc.
You may argue that it is not causing any harm. But this is not true. It impacts the brain’s natural balance (homeostasis). When you are habitual of high dopamine activity, your brain gets used to the same amount of dopamine every day. So, low dopamine activities won’t be that motivating to drive yourself to do that task because your brain is now tolerant of high dopamine. So what you can do to prevent this or say being motivated to do the tasks which have long term rewards.
When you undergo dopamine detox, you restrict the excess of dopamine being produced in your brain and you went into dopamine deficit. That time only, even low dopamine activity seems exciting.
How and why this (dopamine detox) work?
Below are the some do’s and dont’s* when you want to go for dopamine detox.
Dont’s
- Random internet browsing
- Social Media/Mobile Phone/Laptop
- Music
- Junk Food
Do’s
- Journal Writing/Book reading
- Walking
- Meditation
*beware of withdrawal symptoms. [If you experience withdrawal symptoms (feeling overwhelmed due to absence of these activities), you can try partial dopamine detox (detoxification of one activity rather than avoiding whole set of high dopamine activities)]
To understand this, suppose you are in the habit of having good food all the time. So, if someone will offer you a bowl of plain rice, you might deny that. But if you’re in a deserted area where no food is there, that rice bowl feels tempting. The same happens when you explicitly starve yourself of high dopamine, you will enjoy low dopamine activities.
You can trick your mind with this habit to get the motivation of being productive during the rest of the day. Try doing low dopamine activity for one hour (say studying/daily work) and reward yourself with high dopamine activity (say songs) for the next 10 minutes. This way, you can do 5–6 hours of productive work at the cost of 1 hour of the non-productive hour.
Conclusion
So, if you are having a motivation problem, try dopamine detox as soon as possible. Be it for as low as for 12 hours or a full day. Avoid starting your day with the tasks which are responsible for an unnaturally high amount of dopamine release in the brain. This may include taking your phone, listening to songs, checking messages, scrolling social media as soon as you wake up. Because this will overwhelm your brain with high dopamine already and then you won’t feel any motivation to do the tasks which you’re meant to do daily, like office work or studying. Instead, start your day with low dopamine and healthy activities like meditation, reading a book, working out, having a good breakfast before looking at your phone. You may feel it difficult but in long term, will be helpful for you.
Separate yourself from the unnaturally high amount of dopamine activities and try doing the activities which have long term rewards and are productive. You will surely notice a positive change in your daily life and routine. We all are dopamine addicts and it’s good as well since it motivates us to achieve our dreams and feel happier. But it’s in your hands where you want to get that dopamine from.
