Dopamine Detox Is DEAD

this is bob

bob is a cat

bob the cat is not very happy with his life hes deeply depressed gets no attention from the other cats on the block male or female

but worst of all bob has so many big dreams but is always so unmotivated to work on them

so instead he lounges inside all day playing video games

scrolling social media and watching pussy cats play with there pussy cats

one day while scrolling through youtube he comes across a dopamine detox video

bob thinks hes found the solution to his constantly depressed and unmotivated state

so bob tries it and he actually succeeds he goes a whole day doing nothing

he sleeps incredibly that night and wakes up the next morning so motivated

he goes on a morning run, comes back scripts films and edits a youtube video

eats clean the entire day and doesnt even think about the pussy cats for a second

bob has found the solution for all his problems.

but a week goes by bobs motivations is fleeting again

his ps4 has tempted him in and once he starts getting easy dopamine again everything slips

within two weeks of his dopamine detox hes back to his old bob self

this happens to bob because he doesnt understand how dopamine actually works

bob hears this buzz word dopamine and thinks anything that increases his dopamine is bad

but dopamine is simply a molecule that drives us towards specific behaviours increases in dopamine associated with an activity make us want to do that activity more in the future

to understand this better lets take a look at bob’s ancient ancestors

they roamed the planes of Africa searching for packs of wild buffalo, zebras and antelopes to hunt and female lions to mate with.

a pack of zebras has been spotted the hungry lions dopamine spikes like it has so many times before and the hunt is on

meanwhile bob is so used to much higher dopamine spikes from no effort that even when a tasty rat comes into his sight he receives little to no dopamine and therefore has no motivation to hunt the rat.

instead he becomes slightly bored and pulls out his phone to scroll social media.

bob is not alone he faces the same challenge i believe a lot of us face i know this because bob is me

the challenge we all face is the comfort and easy access to dopamine and the quick fix quick result mentality bred into us

even in the self improvement and workout industry the two places left that are meant to be against the aforementioned we still see reset your brain with a 1 day dopamine detox videos are the most popular

instead of trying to reset your dopamine system with a one day fast understand how to redirect your dopamine to enjoy the hard thing

we just need one simple rule you need to apply as much as you can “dopamine rises should be proceeded by something hard”

if your watching this chances are you have some big goal something your working on that you actually enjoy doing but the resistance you feel to doing the work is stopping you

this is because your brain is so used to the easy dopamine remember dopamine just drives us towards whatever task gave us dopamine previously

so first apply some discipline and motivation to just starting doing the hard thing and when you enter flow the enjoyable state you feel working on your goal remember how it feels

when you have finished your task or are pulled from your flow state sit and think about how much you just enjoyed doing that

resist the urge to get some instant dopamine and meditate on how good it felt to do that work

your brain has just been releasing dopamine associated with the hard activity

you are now more likely to do the hard rewarding thing next time give yourself a pat on the back

and dont beat yourself up when inevitably you return to your easy dopamine this is a slow process of coming to enjoy hard things theres a reason there called hard things

on the flip side when you fall into the easy dopamine for example scrolling instagram i find often i dont actually enjoy it its just habitual numb mindless scrolling

so when you inevitably pulled away from the mindless scroll become aware of how uncomfortable and numb you are meditate on how little happiness it actually brings you

get mad at the software developers that design these things to be addictive while also not being enjoyable all to profit from your precious time

and apply the simple rule dopamine rises should be proceeded by something hard and then making a conscious though of how enjoyable the hard thing was and how much happier you are to have spent time on it

this alone will generate more dopamine and make it easier to do the hard work next time.