What is a Dopamine Detox

There are several reasons why you might wish to go on dopamine fast:

• You are dissatisfied with how you spend your time.
• You can’t stop yourself from surfing the internet.
• You want to make mundane tasks more engaging and enjoyable
• There are several reasons for this, but the overall goal is the same:
• Have a better relationship with the Internet, phone, and the digital world in general.

Doing a dopamine detox entails stopping the compulsive cycle and acting to change an unhealthy desire. This allows you to take a breather, establish a better life, and, if you work hard enough, learn to better manage your emotions.

To live a more organized and controlled life, the following are some of the dopamine detox rules for undergoing dopamine cleanse:

1. Limit or eliminate activities that make you feel like a zombie.

Here’s a rule of thumb for you: take out things that make you go into Zombie Mode for the length of the challenge. (source: APA, 2019)

Remove any distracting factors.

When you’re in Zombie Mode, you’re watching, scrolling, or playing for hours on end, not actually enjoying it but unable to stop or do anything productive. It’s when you become trapped in cheap dopamine activities for hours on end. The following are the most common offenders:

• Use of social media
• Aggregators of content (YouTube, Hackernews, Reddit)
• Twitch
• Netflix binge-watching
• Computer and video games
• Porn
• Combination of all of the preceding, jumping from one to the next

You know what you’re good at. You may find yourself rationalizing that you don’t need to stop doing these things, that if you just control yourself a little better, everything would be OK. You may give it a shot. However, this is frequently used as a justification because:

You wouldn’t have the problem in the first place if you could control your actions. Also, because these activities are frequently linked, even if your primary concern is YouTube, opening social media frequently leads you to YouTube.

Furthermore, it is extremely difficult to manage your behavior when your dopamine receptors are depleted, which is one of the purposes of the dopamine detox – to reestablish the ability to do so.

How to Stop Doing Things That Make You Addictive

Distracting apps should be deleted from your phone, and distracting websites should be blocked in your browser.  Take a few harsh measures, and when your brain tells you that you need to watch Twitch in the night because <insert random excuse here>, tell it that you can return to it once your dopamine detox is complete. (source: NIDA, 2024)

What about tasks that are necessary but also contribute to compulsive behavior (such as email checking)?

Set up a set time during the day and how long you will allow yourself to do this. For instance, you can check email for 15 minutes at 10 a.m. and then again at 4 p.m.

You can also begin a dopamine detox counter to keep track of how far you’ve come. It might be as simple as counting down from 0 on a piece of paper how many days you have been after observing your new regimen.

2. Participate in real-world activities

The next problem is what to do on a dopamine detox once you’ve eliminated addictive distractions. You don’t want to do anything except sit around. It’s simpler to run towards anything than it is to run away from it.

You’ll most likely relapse if you don’t try to develop a more satisfying life without the Internet and if you don’t address the underlying causes that lead to obsessive technology use. In no time, you will be back to your old behaviors. What exactly do we mean when we say “a more satisfying life”? You can engage in things that will make you feel better afterward.

Detoxing dopamine in a healthy way: (source: MedlinePlus, 2024)

• Interacting with others
• Cooking and consuming
• Taking strolls
• Reading literature or books
• Journalling
• Exercising

You’ll note that all of these hobbies have one thing in common: they take you away from your computer or phone. They’re also all examples of what we refer to as “pursue high-quality leisure.”

Be explicit on how you can make better use of your time. Consider this: when you’re bored, what are some simple tasks you could do?

Drawing? Tidying? Reading? Journalling?

This is also an excellent time to try something new: enroll in a salsa dancing class, begin origami, and learn to play the flute. Make an interest that has previously been passive active.

It’s a good idea to develop a concrete list of these activities. When you peek at a physical list on your refrigerator or on your door throughout the day, it will remind you of good methods to fill your time.

Because the activities listed above may not occupy the bulk of your spare time, you may want to return to activities you abandoned or never began because of the Internet – music instruments, drawing, etc. (source: NIMH, 2024 (Depression))

• Learn new skills
• Find new interests
• It is preferable to be out and about.
• Look for a healthy talk group to join.

By adopting any of the above, you have the option of choosing your addiction.

The options are unlimited, so don’t overthink it and just try things out and see what might be enjoyable. Completing the statement “I’ve always wished to do but I never had the opportunity or time” is a fantastic method to find potentially intriguing interests. You will also have the time if you undergo a dopamine detox.

3. Only consume long-form content

This is where the discussion becomes contentious because traditional “dopamine fasters” would consider long-form content to be dopamine-dense. However, we’re here for the long haul, and to live like a monk will make it tough to stick to the schedule.

The majority of people are unable to work full-time (even though ‘work’ has a subjective meaning for each one of us).  People strive to fill their leisure time (which they waste foolishly) with constructive activities, but this is unrealistic.

We require rest periods and time when we are not required to think about work. Even if you begin to pursue more conscious leisure, you may become exhausted if you do it on a regular basis.

Because thoughtless activities are what got you into problems in the first place, you don’t want to perform them again. Rather, choose high-quality content that can be consumed slowly: long-form content. (source: Psychiatry.org, 2023)

Books and audiobooks are excellent options. It’s fantastic to play board games with pals in person. It’s good to watch one movie without any interruptions. It’s not binge-watching a Netflix show while looking through your phone.

It’s fine to listen to music as your sole source of entertainment. Having it running in the background all the time isn’t.

We discussed the differences between Netflix, TV, and going to the movies. Compulsivity is less likely with long-form content.

The issue with high-dopaminergic activities is as follows: Dopamine motivates you to do things that increase your dopamine levels.

A number of elements combine to make a behavior dopamine-rich:

• Stimulation time
• The dopamine rush you experience from engaging in the behavior
• Stimulation intensity
• Novelty

Of course, it’s difficult to quantify this on an individual basis; nonetheless, if you think about it for a second, you might be able to estimate it. (source: StatPearls, 2024)

Drugs cause a huge increase and have a ridiculously high stimulation strength. Video games have a lot of power and may provide practically nonstop pleasure for a long time. Pornography is both fascinating and new. When compared to longer-form content like a movie, the duration of stimulation is longer, but the intensity is not.