Dopamine Detox

01-09-23 00 / episode: 228

Script

Dopamine detox.

Have you heard this expression before? It's becoming more and more popular these days? I first encountered it about two or three years ago.

What it's saying is our modern uh let's say things like the screens, the social media, the games, all those types of electronic uh media that we consume, they make uh dopamine in our brain.

When we do something, we get a little bit of pleasure from it or some excitement from it and that releases dopamine and the dopamine makes us feel a little bit of pleasure.

Now, that's actually not the big thing about dopamine.

OK.

The big thing as it turns out is that the dopamine makes us desire that activity.

The funny thing is after we do it, once the dopamine makes us desire the activity more, we do it some more more dopamine, then we desire it even more and we do it some more and it becomes a vicious cycle and we have to break that cycle.

One of the ironies of this dopamine cycle is if you let go and follow the dopamine too much and keep on doing that activity.

After a while, the activity itself loses pleasure, it becomes un pleasurable.

But the wanting, the desire doesn't go away, it gets stronger.

And so we end up wanting to do this thing that we're not even enjoying and we're hooked, we're addicted to it.

So a lot of people are doing dopamine detox and dopamine detox is where you just don't use that activity, whether it be social media or the game or watching youtube videos, you get away from it for a fixed period of time.

Typically people do one day a week but some people say no every day after 8 p.m.

or some other rule, they, they apply some rule where they cannot do that, dopamine fixing activity and that gets us a little bit used to not getting the dopamine and it gives us a little bit more control in our lives.

Do you need a dopamine detox or does someone you know, need a dopamine detox?