System #8: Dopamine Detox

In our current cultural moment, we're inundated with so much instant gratification that we find it hard to be bored. We find it hard to have a moment where we don't pick up our phones and waste hours of our lives watching other people live their lives. If you compare our lives today to the type of life you would get camping, not glamping, you can get an idea of how dependent our lives have gotten on our technology. We can currently get food anytime we want, delicious, unique, state of the art food delivered straight to our door. We can see or get sexual "satisfaction" more easily than ever before. We can be entertained more easily than ever before. We are also surrounded by more drugs than many other times in history. We're constantly bombarded with things that seek to get our attention and we've weakened our ability to say no. All of these novelties release a chemical in your brain called "dopamine."

What is Dopamine?

Dopamine, also called the reward molecule, is a chemical that our brain (and liver) releases to train us. This is the molecule that you'd get once you've made it to the top of the mountain, or finally caught or found a trove of food, or accomplished something that you weren't able to do before. This is the molecule that said "yes" to those things, and "no" to things that didn't release it. It was an action molecule, the thing that catalized action. These molecule would send you in the direction it incentivized and would build the neuronal pathways of your brain to become better at those things. Our brains, as we've learned, are highly adaptable. If, for instance, you started brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand, you would get better at it. This ability to get better at things that we've never done before, or to adapt to changing environments is called "neuroplasticity."

Dopamine was an action molecule

But what does it mean to get better at things? It used to mean that to get better at getting food, we'd have to practice our bow and arrow skills, to train our bodies, learn to find ways to hide our scent and our skin. These actions were communal and had spill-over effects to getting the initial goal of our dopamine. Moreover, all these other actions themselves also released dopamine. Currently, however, to get better at getting food you just have to learn how to order from DoorDash faster. Your thumb and brain get better at knowing what the next screen will hold so that you don't delay one moment (which is also another reason why changing the layout of an app or website can be sooo hard on people). You can see how we've lost the spill-over effects that we used to have built intrinsically within our daily lives. The parts that bonded us together, and made us move. Not only that, we get more dopamine from NOT doing physical actions now than we used to in the past. No wonder we find it so hard to do hard things.

What's the solution?

The solution, from a theoretical point of view, is actually quite easy. But from a practical point of view can be quite hard. As you've might have guessed up till now, it requires removing these dopaminergic stimuli from you daily lives and replacing them with actions that have more spill-over effects. There's many different "protocols" you can go for, and it really depends on what you're actually trying to do. For me, when I find myself habitually picking up my phone when I'm bored, I do one of these detoxes. My criteria includes:

Abstain from:

• Phone use - Social Media, YouTube, Dating Apps, Porn, Internet. Switch to Do Not Disturb
• Television use - Movies, Series, Games
• Speaker use - Music, podcasts
• Socializing - Talking, not doing
• Fiction Books - Gotta read the hard stuff...which is actually quite fascinating.
• Sweets, Sugar, and Pre-made Food - I take the time to cook my own food
• Stimulants - Coffee, Caffeinated Teas, Drugs

Rewire to:

• Sitting quietly
• Exercise/Stretching
• Cooking
• Reading non-fiction
• Making music
• Creating - Build/clean/fix things around the house, paint, draw, etc.
• Naps

You'll see, that the main division in these two, is abstaining from other's creations with the exception of non-fiction books. I believe we all are meant to be creators and when we innundate our senses with other people's creations, it dims our own need to create. You'll also notice that exercise is on there, which is HIGHLY dopaminurgic, so that could be removed based on your current exercise habits. For most people, however, getting your body addicted to exercise wouldn't be a bad thing.

My favorite practice when I do my detox is to sit in my chair in the living room quietly letting my thoughts pass me by. As soon as I have a thought about something I need to do that crosses one of those categories, like cleaning the kitchen, I get up and do it. Once done, I return to that chair to wait for another prompting.

We all are meant to be creators and when we innundate our senses with other people's creations, it dims our own need to create.

Boredom, actually prompts you to be more creative. Boredom prompts you to seek that dopamine. But be warned, your mind gets clever, it'll drum up fantastic thoughts or ideas, it'll make you think about a friendship, or past relationship. You can choose to entertain those thoughts (if you haven't done so in a while) or practice on being present...and even more bored. The beauty though, is that through that boredom, and that presence (being in the moment) your cunning brain will actually end up producing more dopamine. Riddle me that?

How long?

The length of the fast is completely dependent on the person. When I'm able to pick up my phone, and only use it as it's meant to be used, no longer addicted to my notifications, I allow myself to go back to life. This usually takes me about 3 days, but before I do, I do a culling of my phone life. I remove any apps that are causing me grief with no benefits and silence any notifications that aren't meant to make me better or more productive.

More advanced versions

Dopamine really is present in every part of our lives. The point of this type of detox is to rewire your brain to enjoy things that are good for you, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Believe it or not, dopamine detoxes aren't a new thing, even though the name might be. Monks all over the world have had their own versions. It used to just be called an ascetic lifestyle. It would involve prayer or meditation throughout the day, bland food to keep yourself focused on your internal world which avoided onions and garlic and sometimes even salt. Or maybe even fasting to take that to the next level. It required modest dress to curtail sexual thoughts and desires. And it even included days or even weeks of silence. I'd actually recommend that you attempt a day of silence the next time you go on a hike with a group of friends. It's one thing to be quiet on your own, but much harder to be the butt of a joke and not be able to defend yourself or redirect it. All of it was thought, however, to bring you closer to God (this is something we'll explore in a later article).

Conclusion

I hope that you can see the potential benefits of taking a moment to detox your mind from our current crazy pace. It feels and sounds daunting at first, but the satisfaction that comes with enjoyment from the minutia of life is quite extraordinary. It might help to set a reminder to detox once every quarter or maybe just wait till you feel like you need it. Hopefully, now that you understand the concept, you'll be able to navigate the burdens of our current fast paced lives with more compassion for a simpler style of living, and maybe, just maybe, that prompting brings you back to this deep contentment that you felt while doing this detox.