190: Dopamine Detox

“We get addicted to scrolling, to checking Facebook, to checking our text messages, to the point where we are actually doing nothing.”

Have you ever grabbed your phone to open an app for no reason at all? 

In this digital age, our brains are addicted to dopamine more than ever. We scroll through posts, check Facebook incessantly, and scan text messages to the point where we are actually doing nothing at all. If you're anything like me, you struggle to focus at work ever since social media burst into our lives. My mind is always searching for that hit of dopamine, and when I give in, I'm way less productive and focused. 

Today, I want to dive into something that I'm calling "The Dopamine Experiment." I had never done a dopamine detox before, but now I've done it a few times over the past couple of weeks, and I'm hooked. This experiment goes way beyond a digital detox, too! We can be addicted to dopamine through screens, sex, food, and even music! Having some extra time at home during quarantine, I knew that this could be the perfect time to try out this reset plan. 

In this episode, I share my experience with the dopamine detox and outline the three levels of the experiment. There are a few options to choose from, with varying levels of detox strictness, so you can spend some time deciding which option is best for you. I also share how the dopamine experiment has helped me regain my focus and hone my creativity. 

Now is the perfect time to curb your addiction to social media. I hope this post gives you some insight into the process and inspires you to try it out yourself! Without further ado, let's get into it.
What Is a Dopamine Detox? 
First, what exactly is a dopamine detox? Dopamine is the "feel-good" chemical that is released in your brain all the time. We usually get dopamine hits when we scroll through social media and see that someone liked our picture. The same thing happens when we get a text notification or someone retweets us. While dopamine isn't "bad," and we actually can harness it to improve our creativity, it's easy to get addicted to that rush, especially through social media. 

When we're addicted to dopamine, we struggle to focus. If you're anything like me, you have had so much trouble trying to focus while you work in the office. I'm like a little rabbit running around to each thing that stimulates my intention. I'll see something interesting on social media, and then I go to research it on Google, but before I know it, I've completely forgotten what it was that I was going to search for. My mind is constantly searching for that hit of dopamine. 

The more we get immersed in things like social media and scrolling, the more we become addicted. The dopamine hits create a loop in your brain that becomes shorter and shorter with each hit — basically, we get so accustomed to dopamine that we'll unconsciously seek it out to feed the loop. It's the same concept as being addicted to cocaine. I've found that a dopamine addiction can be very detrimental to my productivity. I still get a lot done, but I know I could get even more done if I wasn't addicted to dopamine.

Part of our dopamine addiction is due to the hundreds of ads we see every day. We live in an "attention economy," and corporations everywhere are trying to get our attention through ads. There have been millions of dollars put into research on how to keep people to keep scrolling through ads — this is the same with every social media platform. People are making money off your addiction. 

So you have a choice. You can either play into it, get addicted, and lose yourself in the "scroll hole," or you can purposefully step away. The dopamine detox is a big part of that. It's about intentionally putting space between yourself and instant gratification. It's hard at first, but the results are incredible. 
My Dopamine Detox Experience
Now, I want to share with you my experience of going through the dopamine detox.