The year is 2021, the technological progress in the last 30 years is unprecedented,
but for your mammalian brain, 30 years is such a short period of time. A period so short
that from an evolutionary perspective, it feels like not much could have changed… except it did.
The technological advancements are too fast and powerful that we started to manufacture
super-stimuli for our brains, with us being one of the first generations to be subjected to
them. The long-term consequences for productivity and well-being - still not fully known.
You have all experienced the following scenario in your life:
You wake up feeling motivated and your head is buzzing with ideas. You’re certain that
today will be a productive day and you are determined to cherish every minute of it.
But fast-forward nine hours later, and there you are: sitting on the couch, mindlessly staring at
YouTube videos, Twitch Streams, scrolling through Facebook, and checking Instagram notifications.
You realize the day is over and all you’ve done is waste your time.
You feel bad about yourself, unmotivated, and lethargic. And yet, instead of putting a stop
to your destructive behavior, you can’t help but do it all over again the very next day.
On days like these, it almost seems as if you’re inhabited by some lazy version of yourself
that has little to no control over its impulses.
But why? Why is it that one moment you are determined to be productive and make this the
best day of your life, only to be disappointed a few hours down the road... There is a reason,
and it has to do with your environment, the advancement of technology, and dopamine.
And Luckily, there IS a way to regain your power.
It’s called dopamine fasting and it may very well change your life.
Main
[Part 1: What is dopamine?]
Before we delve into what dopamine fasting exactly is, let’s first take a look at dopamine itself.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is associated with motivation.
It plays an important role in the creation of habits, be it good or bad ones,
and it even has its own little circuit, namely the dopamine reward pathway.
It is triggered by new rewards. And when you want or crave something,
you have dopamine to thank for it. Or to blame, of course.
This brain chemical plays a number of roles in cognition. It affects our ability to think,
concentrate, and initiate bodily movements. But as it also drives our curiosity and
interest in the world around us, it is most famous for its role in motivation.
Whether we are getting up early to go for a run, working late to finish a project,
or even meeting up with friends for dinner, dopamine underlies the reinforcement of our
habits that help us achieve our personal and professional goals.
[Part 2:] So what is dopamine fasting?
Dopamine fasting is sometimes also called dopamine detoxing.
It was created by an American psychiatrist called Dr. Cameron Sepah.
And it is an effective evidence-based technique to manage addictive and compulsive behaviors.
Remember how I said that dopamine is triggered by new rewards?
Well, while it may serve as a source of motivation and inspiration,
it also carries some disadvantages.
The world we live in today is meticulously engineered to stimulate our senses at all
times. From Monday to Sunday, day in, day out. We are slaves to our screens and crave constant
entertainment 24/7. And big businesses know exactly how to hijack our dopaminergic systems
to take advantage of that. There are whole sectors and teams dedicated to this task,
and without you knowing how dopamine works, you are just another helpless victim
of the marvelous engineering and algorithms the big companies use.
From social media and the news to video games and adult sites,
they are all set up in such a way that you’re constantly clicking on the next best thing,
even if that wasn’t your initial plan. To say that we are all somewhat addicted, wouldn’t be a lie.
This is why dopamine fasting comes in handy.
If you do a quick Google search you might walk away believing that it involves removing
or at least reducing dopamine from your body. But as dopamine is necessary to
function as a healthy human being, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Dopamine fasting is not at all about eliminating dopamine, but rather it’s
about reducing the impulsive behavior that is reinforced by it. Paying attention to the
things you are presenting to your brain, and which activities you are allowing it to enjoy.
6 of the most common impulsive behaviors are: 1: Emotional eating
2: Internet and gaming 3: Gambling and shopping
4: Thrill and novelty seeking 5: Recreational drugs
And 6: Porn and masturbation
If you are engaged in one or multiple of these behaviors, then dopamine fasting
might be a useful idea for you.
[Part 3: How do you dopamine fast?]
Dopamine fasting is based on cognitive behavioral therapy, also known as CBT.
CBT is an evidence-based practice that is prescribed by thousands of
mental health professionals for changing behavior.
It is considered the gold standard treatment for impulse control disorders.
And a couple of its techniques are particularly useful in trying to combat addiction and impulsive
behavior, namely ‘stimulus control’ and ‘exposure and response prevention’.
‘Stimulus control’ can be done in a couple of ways:
One: You remove the stimulus or make it harder to access. For example,
if Instagram’s notifications are the stimulus that makes you open your phone and spend the
next 2 hours scrolling through random people’s pictures, silencing the app is a good idea.
And if you’ve got it really bad, website-blocking software can also work.
Two: You engage in an alternative activity that is incompatible with the stimulus. Ever
tried checking your Instagram while running? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
The next technique is called ‘Exposure and Response Prevention’, or ERP.
With this technique, you expose yourself to the internal stimuli that you’re feeling
without engaging in the conditioned response that usually follows it.
It involves being mindful, not only of what you’re experiencing but also of what triggers you
Just as with the previous technique, identifying the destructive behavior is the first step.
Remember those six common impulsive behaviors that I mentioned? Chances are, yours is on the list.
So, to get an idea of how ERP works, let’s play out the following scenario.
It may not be the case for you, but just imagine you’re deep in the habit of
excessive gaming whenever you feel bored or lonely.
First, notice when this impulse to start gaming
arises. And pay close attention to the thoughts and feelings you experience at that moment.
Next, watch the desire to engage in the conditioned response come and go without judging
it or giving into it. This technique is called ‘urge surfing’ and it is attributed to the late
psychologist Alan Marlatt, who was a pioneer in the field of addictions treatment. It is based on
the knowledge that urges usually peak between 20 to 30 minutes and then subsides. At least, if we
let them... Fighting the craving slows the process down. And simply giving in is even worse for two
reasons: it strengthens the urge, and you lose faith in your abilities to change your old habits.
Finally, without pushing the thought away forcefully,
try to return to whatever it was that you were doing before the craving came up.
Each time you manage to do this, you feel a sense of accomplishment.
And the link between the stimuli and the undesired behavior weakens. Over time,
your behavioral flexibility increases. And it becomes easier and easier to not give
in to the usual urges that make you feel so shitty and unmotivated in the first place.
Outro
But each time you give in to impulses to scroll through social media,
game excessively, eat unhealthy, or visit adult websites
you artificially increase the dopamine in your brain. In turn, other activities that
are productive and provide natural levels of dopamine become less and less appealing.
To make matters worse: the next time you are presented with the same choice you are more
likely to give in to the unhealthy option because your baseline of what is enjoyable has increased.
Productive activities don’t feel as satisfying, so you indulge in more stimulating ones,
and the baseline increases again. This is how a negative spiral of addiction
and destructive habits sustains itself.
To conclude the video, I will provide you with an actionable plan which you can combine with
the techniques we talked about, that will boost your productivity and well-being. It’s a simple
3-step plan that is guaranteed to bring you more happiness, energy, and motivation.
First, to reset your baseline, it is important to remove most (if not all) of the ARTIFICIAL
stimuli, for SOME period of time. You need to be self-aware and discover them for yourself.
What external stimuli are you providing to your brain?
Is it TV shows, adult websites, or excessive drinking? It’s your job to
discover what they are because you cannot aim at something if you cannot see it.
Second, change your environment so it reflects your new temporary way of life.
If you are trying to cut out watching mindless TV shows,
remove the bookmark from your browser, uninstall the app, or cancel your subscription for one
month. This is important because when the urges start to appear you are able to follow through,
and do the less enjoyable activities instead. You should also use the CBT techniques along the way.
Third, after a set period of time, you will start to feel motivated to do the seemingly
boring and tedious tasks. Depending on how serious your condition was,
this transition period can last a month, three months, or even more. But sooner or later,
the normal tasks that you avoided will actually begin to feel rewarding and fun.
That is because during the extended period of dopamine fasting your brain’s baseline for whats
enjoyable started to decrease, and for your brain to feel the same levels of reward and motivation,
it actually increased the levels of dopamine receptors, so less satisfying tasks begin to
feel rewarding (which by the way is how your brain should normally work)
After this period, you don’t need to avoid every single dopamine
stimulating activity out there, but hopefully, by now you will be
a lot smarter about them and actually see the difference they make in your brain.
We cannot fully remove the artificial stimuli that the environment presents to us,
but with enough knowledge, careful planning, and determination, hopefully,
we can all become more motivated, productive, and happy humans.