fatalerror
Member
- Jul 14, 2022
- 10
Before I start my article, I want to be clear about few topics:
- I don't believe in spiritualism, I think there is not any clear proof of spirit. But you may be free to believe in it.
- Dopamine Detox is not The Silicon Valley's Fad, I will explain how it works and you can refute me whenever you want. So I am open for opposite opinions.
- I am not a savior, but maybe I can help people to cope with their current life circumstances.
- I respect terminally ill, old or people who are suffering from irreversible issues want to leave. But, maybe I can help people that suffering from mental issues.
What is The Dopamine Detox?
Dopamine Detox is a behavior that the person avoids from high pleasure activities and instant gratifications. At the end of detox, person aims to strengthen mentally and improve his/her motivation.
How it works?
Scientifically, we are animals; our brains work in the same way with other animals.
Our ultimate purpose of living is survive and reproduce, during this time period our brain manages us in specific ways.
When we perform an activity that our brain wants us to do, our brain releases few chemicals(dopamine, endorphin, oxytocin, serotonin etc.).
All of them are important for us, we need them for various tasks. We are going to gather them together under one concept: Dopamine.
When we perform particular activities our brain releases the dopamine, for example:
- Working 10 hours releases 1 unit of dopamine.
- Masturbation releases 10 units of dopamine.
- Heroin releases 1000 units of dopamine.
Numbers are my own assumptions they may don't reflect the reality, but everybody can agree instant gratification feels much better quickly and immensely.
We haven't programmed to be happy and live a peaceful life, we programmed to fight, flee and survive. We can't expect high dopamine levels and high satisfaction for long time period.
What happens when we adopt a high-pleasure lifestyle?
Can a heroin junkie enjoy a simple task? No, they will be constantly seeking for drugs to feel happy.
If high-pleasure was the key, addicts would be the happiest person in this life because they experience really huge amounts of satisfaction.
But when drug effect passes, they go cold turkey and deal with terrible mental issues.
It is same with other things in our life, instant gratification turns us into junkies and we constantly seek for them. Regular activities doesn't satisfy us anymore, we constantly seek for more.
The Logic Behind Dopamine Detox:
When we stop following instant gratification on our lives, we will get satisfied with simpler activities and we will be motivated enough to do boring tasks and even enjoy them.
Dopamine Detox will not decrease the amount of the hormone in your brain that you have. The problem is not dopamine itself, the problem is our tolerance to that dopamine, when we have lower tolerance levels; the less amount of dopamine will sufficient for us and vice versa.
You can check this link for further information: http://www.addictionscience.unige.ch/files/8214/6037/1136/NeuronVP2015.pdf
When we have high-pleasure lifestyle, we will get greedy and we will want more; when we don't have our pleasure it will make us depressed and depressed mood makes us suicidal.
High-pleasure oriented and overly stimulating activities:
- Sexual activities such as sex, porn, masturbation etc.
- Junk food or Fast Food addictions. -- Bad for your both physical and mental health.
- Sugar!! -- Sugar and sweet foods have quite similar effects with other drugs and sugar is much more dangerous than you think.
- Drugs, weed, alcohol, nicotine etc. -- No comment needed.
- Social Media and doom scrolling -- Social media itself is enough to make you insecure and constantly check other people's fake lifestyles.
- Caffeine -- Caffeine works similar to other stimulants, you can see a lot of caffeine addicts outside and they will refuse that they are addicts.
- Videogames -- I spent my years playing videogames, I have ended up with nothing and it took me so hard to get rid of this addiction.
- Gambling and shopping
- other thrill and novelty seeking actions..
I am not asking you to be a monk, you can take it slowly; when you get rid of all of the pleasure in your life you will feel worse. Cold Turkey is not a joke!
Symptoms of Dopamine balance problems:
- lack of motivation
- feeling empty
- constantly fidgeting and seeking for stimulation
- other ADHD symptoms
Better activities with long-term satisfaction:
- being successful at your job
- academical success
- financial success
- sports
- art
- having healthy friendships
- learning new things
These are my suggestions, you can decide what you are going to do; if you want to follow this detox I encourage you to consider long-term pleasure activities instead of sudden one.
I know it might look like quite boring lifestyle, but the common fallacy start from there. When you adopt a boring lifestyle, it feels normal not boring.
If you are looking for a stable lifestyle rather than up and down mentality, I recommend you to give it a try.
Do not forget that, take it easy or you will get overwhelmed.
- I don't believe in spiritualism, I think there is not any clear proof of spirit. But you may be free to believe in it.
- Dopamine Detox is not The Silicon Valley's Fad, I will explain how it works and you can refute me whenever you want. So I am open for opposite opinions.
- I am not a savior, but maybe I can help people to cope with their current life circumstances.
- I respect terminally ill, old or people who are suffering from irreversible issues want to leave. But, maybe I can help people that suffering from mental issues.
What is The Dopamine Detox?
Dopamine Detox is a behavior that the person avoids from high pleasure activities and instant gratifications. At the end of detox, person aims to strengthen mentally and improve his/her motivation.
How it works?
Scientifically, we are animals; our brains work in the same way with other animals.
Our ultimate purpose of living is survive and reproduce, during this time period our brain manages us in specific ways.
When we perform an activity that our brain wants us to do, our brain releases few chemicals(dopamine, endorphin, oxytocin, serotonin etc.).
All of them are important for us, we need them for various tasks. We are going to gather them together under one concept: Dopamine.
When we perform particular activities our brain releases the dopamine, for example:
- Working 10 hours releases 1 unit of dopamine.
- Masturbation releases 10 units of dopamine.
- Heroin releases 1000 units of dopamine.
Numbers are my own assumptions they may don't reflect the reality, but everybody can agree instant gratification feels much better quickly and immensely.
We haven't programmed to be happy and live a peaceful life, we programmed to fight, flee and survive. We can't expect high dopamine levels and high satisfaction for long time period.
What happens when we adopt a high-pleasure lifestyle?
Can a heroin junkie enjoy a simple task? No, they will be constantly seeking for drugs to feel happy.
If high-pleasure was the key, addicts would be the happiest person in this life because they experience really huge amounts of satisfaction.
But when drug effect passes, they go cold turkey and deal with terrible mental issues.
It is same with other things in our life, instant gratification turns us into junkies and we constantly seek for them. Regular activities doesn't satisfy us anymore, we constantly seek for more.
The Logic Behind Dopamine Detox:
When we stop following instant gratification on our lives, we will get satisfied with simpler activities and we will be motivated enough to do boring tasks and even enjoy them.
Dopamine Detox will not decrease the amount of the hormone in your brain that you have. The problem is not dopamine itself, the problem is our tolerance to that dopamine, when we have lower tolerance levels; the less amount of dopamine will sufficient for us and vice versa.
You can check this link for further information: http://www.addictionscience.unige.ch/files/8214/6037/1136/NeuronVP2015.pdf
When we have high-pleasure lifestyle, we will get greedy and we will want more; when we don't have our pleasure it will make us depressed and depressed mood makes us suicidal.
High-pleasure oriented and overly stimulating activities:
- Sexual activities such as sex, porn, masturbation etc.
- Junk food or Fast Food addictions. -- Bad for your both physical and mental health.
- Sugar!! -- Sugar and sweet foods have quite similar effects with other drugs and sugar is much more dangerous than you think.
- Drugs, weed, alcohol, nicotine etc. -- No comment needed.
- Social Media and doom scrolling -- Social media itself is enough to make you insecure and constantly check other people's fake lifestyles.
- Caffeine -- Caffeine works similar to other stimulants, you can see a lot of caffeine addicts outside and they will refuse that they are addicts.
- Videogames -- I spent my years playing videogames, I have ended up with nothing and it took me so hard to get rid of this addiction.
- Gambling and shopping
- other thrill and novelty seeking actions..
I am not asking you to be a monk, you can take it slowly; when you get rid of all of the pleasure in your life you will feel worse. Cold Turkey is not a joke!
Symptoms of Dopamine balance problems:
- lack of motivation
- feeling empty
- constantly fidgeting and seeking for stimulation
- other ADHD symptoms
Better activities with long-term satisfaction:
- being successful at your job
- academical success
- financial success
- sports
- art
- having healthy friendships
- learning new things
These are my suggestions, you can decide what you are going to do; if you want to follow this detox I encourage you to consider long-term pleasure activities instead of sudden one.
I know it might look like quite boring lifestyle, but the common fallacy start from there. When you adopt a boring lifestyle, it feels normal not boring.
If you are looking for a stable lifestyle rather than up and down mentality, I recommend you to give it a try.
Do not forget that, take it easy or you will get overwhelmed.
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