I Did a 7-Day Dopamine Detox
What is a Dopamine Detox?
Dopamine is what makes us addicted to various substances and activities. We have a dopamine machine right in our pockets. Music and entertainment give us hits of dopamine, and it doesn't take much effort to get it from our phones.
When we can get a hit of dopamine in five seconds by taking out our phone, we’re not as motivated to do harder things for those dopamine hits. We’re not as motivated to work out, finish projects, learn, etc.
That’s when dopamine detoxing comes into play. Doing a dopamine detox implies staying away from “easy dopamine”. “Easy dopamine” are things like browsing TikTok, watching movies and shows, eating snacks, and of course porn and masturbation.
Dopamine Detox: fasting from dopamine-producing activities, or “pleasures,” for a certain amount of time with the hope of decreasing reward sensitivity
The goal of doing a dopamine detox is to make you want to do harder things. So that you wouldn’t always need to go for your phone when you need a hit of dopamine.
Why I Decided to Do a Dopamine Detox
Have you ever been completely stuck in a rut? Watching Netflix, playing games, or browsing your phone all day?
That’s where I was. I was stuck to my phone, either browsing social media or listening to music or some random video. I decided I needed to do something about it. To be honest, I didn’t have very high expectations for the dopamine detox. I never expected it to have such a transformative effect on my mood and productivity.
Enjoying Hard Things
Within the first days, I noticed myself being more and more drawn towards doing hard things. I effortlessly started watching educational content, cleaning, doing video editing, studying, and more. What’s best is that now I actually enjoyed doing those things.
I even noticed myself being more confident and being more drawn towards social activities. I had more calls that week than I’ve had in two months before. I even started doing small talk with strangers, which I had NEVER done before.
I feel like I’ve gotten 10x more stuff done under this one week than I do usually. If you haven’t done a dopamine detox yet, I urge you to try it. Do it for just one day and I promise you, you’ll be surprised by how productive you’ll be!
PS. Here’s a video where I describe my experience more in detail.
