Have you ever found yourself constantly seeking pleasure and gratification, only to be left feeling unsatisfied and empty?
Let me describe what it looks like at its most extreme.
You've just had a dopamine binge: watched all the porn and Netflix, eaten a load of garbage, played video games for hours, and you feel like a shell of yourself.
The initial high from indulging in your vices has well and truly worn off, and you're left with that feeling of emptiness and shame.
Despite this, the constant craving for the next hit won't go away, more porn, more Netflix, more gaming, more junk food. You need more dopamine and you can't focus on anything else.
Your relationships and responsibilities may suffer as a result of your lack of motivation to do anything outside of your vices.
You feel like a prisoner to your own impulses and powerless to change your ways. The instant gratification loop of bingeing and crashing continues, leaving you feeling drained and defeated. It can be a vicious cycle, and breaking free from it is no easy feat.
If this is you, it could be that your brain is stuck in a cycle of seeking and releasing the chemical dopamine.
This is a more extreme example but everyone starts somewhere and will pass through this example on their way to addiction, compulsive behaviours, and a crushing feeling of unhappiness.
If you're in this place, it's not all doom and gloom. I come bearing good news.
With the right tools and techniques, you can break free from this cycle and reclaim control over your life. This guide will introduce you to the concept of a dopamine detox and show you how to incorporate it into your life.
What is Dopamine?
Dopamine is a chemical in the brain responsible for feelings of pleasure, satisfaction, and most importantly motivation.
It's released in response to pleasurable stimuli, such as eating, sex, drugs, social media or other addictive substances. This release of feel-good dopamine reinforces the behaviour, leading to a cycle of seeking and release.
Every time you indulge in something pleasurable, like your favourite meal or a scroll through social media, dopamine is your brain's way of saying, "Yes, this is good, do it again!"
Over time, the brain can become dependent on dopamine to feel happy and satisfied, leading to addictive behaviours and negative consequences.
It's like your brain getting hooked on a happiness drug, making you crave more of the same.
Low dopamine levels can mess with your motivation, mood, and even your overall will to live.
Why Detox?
A dopamine detox is a process of breaking the cycle of seeking and releasing dopamine.
By reducing exposure to dopamine triggers, the brain can readjust and find other sources of pleasure and satisfaction. This can help to reduce cravings, reduce stress and anxiety and most importantly, increase motivation.
Do you wake up and only want to lay in bed and watch TV all day? No desire to do any work, no drive to see your friends, and no ambition to try new things.
Depressing, right? That's what happens when motivation is low. It's like your internal spark plug is missing and everything feels dull and uninteresting.
Not All Dopamine is Created Equal
Now, we all love that feel-good rush that comes from dopamine - it's what makes us feel alive, motivated, and inspired.
But here's the thing - not all dopamine is created equal. There's cheap dopamine, and there's valuable dopamine, and the difference between the two can make all the difference in your life.
Cheap low quality dopamine is easy to come by - it's the quick-fix pleasure that comes from things like junk food, video games, and mindless scrolling on social media.
It feels good in the moment, but it doesn't really fulfil you or help you grow as a person. In fact, it can even hold you back from achieving your goals and living your best life.
Expensive high quality dopamine, on the other hand, is the kind of pleasure that comes from hard work, dedication, and pursuing your passions.
It's the satisfaction of achieving your goals, making meaningful connections with others, and living a life that's true to your values and purpose.
It's the kind of pleasure that accompanies delayed gratification, feels more satisfying, and leaves you feeling fulfilled and inspired long term.
This is the only kind of dopamine nature intended for us to have access to then humans went and ruined it with by creating technology, porn and delicious garbage food.
So, my challenge to you is this - Start investing in valuable dopamine.
Set goals for yourself, pursue your passions and work hard to achieve them.
Connect with others in meaningful ways, and find joy in the journey, not just the destination.
I've just said a bunch of wishy-washy stuff, but I do actually break down how to do this in The Plan.
When you invest in expensive dopamine, you invest in yourself, and that's the best investment you can make.
30 days of investing in expensive dopamine and detoxing from cheap dopamine, this is my challenge to you. Are you willing to accept?
The reward is the power to create the life you want, but it all starts with the choices you make.
Take it 1 day at a time. If you mess up, reset.
The more you develop this skill of delaying gratification, the more your life will transform in unique ways.
At the end of the day, the only thing that stands in the way of success is the ability to delay gratification long enough to get what you want.
The Detox Process
Identify triggers: The first step in a dopamine detox is to identify the things that trigger the release of cheap dopamine in your life. I've listed the common ones below; decide which ones apply to you:
- Spending excessive time on screens, including smartphones, computers, and televisions. (Work or productive use is fine)
- Overindulging in junk food, sugary snacks, and processed foods
- Using drugs, including caffeine, nicotine, and recreational drugs
- Porn
- Gambling and excessive risk-taking behaviours
- Compulsive shopping or overspending
- Social Media
- Video games
- Engaging in toxic or unhealthy relationships
Reduce exposure: Once you have identified your triggers, it's time to reduce your exposure to them. This can mean limiting or cutting out certain activities or substances completely.
It's essential to approach this step with a bit of self-awareness as reducing exposure will be challenging and uncomfortable at first for most people.
Dopamine is like crack, and we all live like crackheads compared to our ancestors. The amount of stimuli we're exposed to in 1 week is more than the stimuli our ancestors were exposed to in their whole lifetime.
When I first quit porn I had ridiculous withdrawal symptoms. Porn is no joke. That is some serious crack.
I went cold turkey on the above activities, but it's not for the faint-hearted. I'm 10% psychopath.
What's your pain tolerance?
When those cravings come calling, are you going to be able to resist them?
How you answer those questions will determine whether you can cut these activities out entirely or just limit them at first.
Replace triggers: After reducing exposure to cheap dopamine triggers, it's important to replace them with healthier habits and activities. The goal is to find new sources of pleasure and satisfaction that give you high quality dopamine. I've listed suggestions below:
- Practice mindfulness: Mindfulness is a powerful tool for breaking the cycle of seeking and releasing dopamine. By becoming more aware of your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, you can gain control over your response to triggers and reduce their impact on your life. Activities like meditation, yoga, journaling and breathework can help you cultivate self-awareness and control/detach from cravings. You're not your cravings; you're just the one who is aware of them. You can check out our blog about meditating HERE if you fancy more enlightened wisdom like this.
- Exercise: Physical activity helps release endorphins, which can help regulate dopamine levels in a healthy way, and if you practice lifting weights for a couple of years consistently whilst eating an appropriate diet, you'll end up looking like a superhero. Maybe. You can check out our blog about exercising HERE for a free workout plan; I used this same workout plan to build my body.
- Socialise in real life: Building and maintaining meaningful relationships happens in reality, not online. This will not just increase dopamine levels in a healthy way but also oxytocin and make the detox process suck less. This is assuming your friends aren't total degenerates who will get you back on the sauce of cheap dopamine and misery you're trying to avoid. You can check out google for more on this as we don't have a blog about this... yet.
- Get enough sleep: Sleep is so important for overall mental and emotional health and helps regulate dopamine levels. If your sleep is garbage, you will feel like garbage. There's no escaping this fact. I've had insomnia and struggled with sleeping for years. Those years weren't fun. You can check out our sleep guide HERE for more on sleep.
- Novelty: Engage in new and challenging experiences. Doing new things increase dopamine levels and add novelty to your mundane routine. Learn a new language, make your own language up, learn how to throw an axe, try and make your own axe, the opportunities are endless.
- Eat real food: Eating nutritious, well-balanced meals can help regulate dopamine levels and provide sustained energy throughout the day. Real food is where it's at. If you can get into the habit of eating foods which actually have nutrients in them, say goodbye to those crazy sugar or caffeine crashes during the day. Guess what, we have a bunch of blogs on nutrition, link is HERE if you need more info.
- Self-care Sundays: I only wrote that for the alliteration, self-care is actually an everyday activity not limited to Sunday. Self-care can look like journaling, the deep kind or the gratitude kind, taking walks, or laying on the floor. Floor time is one of my favourite things to do at the time of writing this. Think about it, you're always on the go, running around, working, and being productive. But when was the last time you just stopped and took a moment for yourself? When was the last time you let your body completely relax and unwind? That's where the floor comes in. Laying on the floor allows you to completely disconnect from the world and be in the moment. Plus, it's a great excuse to take a nap and who doesn't love napping? And the best part, it's completely free and requires no special equipment or skills. All you need is a comfortable spot on the floor and you're good to go.
Dealing with pain: There is going to be pain involved in this process. For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction.
When you seek pleasure and indulge in instant gratification and cheap dopamine the pleasure is on the front end and the pain is on the back end.
To access valuable dopamine you need to flip the script and seek pain, the pleasure will come on the back end in the form of delayed gratification.
Whenever it hurts mentally know that you’re on the right path. This is the pain of growth. This pain is the only way you know you’re on the right path but the pain won't last forever.
The main thing that determines whether we like something is how many times we’ve been exposed to something. People would rather do what’s familiar even if it isn’t best for them because the brain likes familiarity as there’s comfort in that.
You can use this to your advantage, the more familiar you become with the pain of progress the more comfortable you’ll get with it which will lead to positive associations once you start getting results. As illustrated below.
If you expose yourself to a situation for long enough you’ll always default back to it. It’s like Stockholm syndrome. I find comfort in being uncomfortable, training everyday, fasting, learning Portuguese, because that’s my default state now.
My mind is the puppet master and my body is the puppet. Everyone’s body, urges and impulses are running the show instead of their mind. Your mind should set the action and your body should get it done.
How long to detox: The length of a dopamine detox can vary depending on individual circumstances and goals, but I'm saying 30 days is a good aim to start with. As Gandhi would always say, it's not a challenge if it's not 30 days. I don't know if Gandhi said that, but it sounds like something he'd say.
It's important to note that while the goal of a dopamine detox is to break the cycle of seeking pleasure through external stimuli, a detox is not a one-time solution. The negative habits will always be there waiting for you to fall back into their arms.
Conquering the victim mindset is a constant battle. The only way to win is to keep showing up to overcome those feelings of hopelessness, fear of change and lack of motivation. Seek pain. Do this, and you'll see how easy it becomes to take control of your life and find solutions to your problems.
Incorporating healthy habits and lifestyle changes that promote emotional and physical well-being are the only way to maintain the long-term benefits of this detox. Talking from experience, it does get easier when those dopamine levels reset and find homeostasis again. You'll get a surge of motivation, drive, and energy you haven't felt in a very long time.
Detox results: After a dopamine detox, you will feel renewed and liberated. The constant barrage of stimuli that triggers dopamine release leaves us feeling scattered and overwhelmed. But by stepping back and resetting our relationship with dopamine, we can find a new sense of peace and clarity. Who doesn't like a bit of peace of mind?
You'll notice a greater sense of control over your thoughts and emotions, as well as an increased capacity to use your brain to think about deep stuff and get all introspective if that's your thing.
The detox will also bring to light patterns in your behaviour and thought processes that may have been fuelling unproductive or unhealthy habits. When I decided to cut out snacking during the day, I noticed I would do it whenever I wanted to distract myself from work I was trying to avoid. Now I force myself to complete the task first and the urge to snack disappears by the time I finish doing it.
Ultimately, a dopamine detox can be a powerful tool for self-discovery and growth. By breaking free from dopamine's hold over our lives, we can find a new level of freedom and fulfilment.
By reducing exposure to dopamine triggers, replacing them with healthier habits, practising mindfulness, and seeking support, you can reclaim control over your life. Whether it's through increased creativity, deeper relationships, or simply a greater sense of calm, the benefits of a dopamine detox can be truly transformative.
Anyway, life's short. Why waste time worshipping things that don't serve you?
When you're on your death bed, you probably won't be laying there thinking you wish you watched more porn and beat your meat more or sunk more time into mindless scrolling.
You should never trust someone that says trust me but trust me; future you will thank present you for making a more conscious effort to devote yourself to things that actually bring value to your life.
ACTIONS
Decide how long your detox will last.
Decide which triggers you will avoid.
Limit screen time - Only use tech for productive tasks that move you towards your goals, avoid mindless scrolling, binge watching shows etc.
Avoid porn.
Avoid caffeine, fizzy drinks, alcohol etc. - drink water and tea instead.
Avoid garbage foods & ultra processed junk, eat fruit instead of snacks, focus of natural foods - vegetables, meats, nuts, seeds, grains etc.
Avoid gambling & video games.
Avoid nicotine & other drugs.
Find healthy activities to replace them with.
Gym, sports, hobbies, meditation, journaling, yoga, reading, learning...anything etc.
You've got this.
Always remember, you were born to be the anti-hero of your story.
Free your outlaw.