Dopamine fasting: after all, how can it help you cleanse yourself from the many stimuli we receive and make you more productive?
I put together a comprehensive guide that will teach you all the steps to do an efficient dopamine fast. Come with me!
DISCLAIMER: This was a text I wrote years ago for my professional blog. I was going to delete it, but I thought the content was good and relocated it to my personal blog. Keep in mind that this text has a little less literary value and is more focused on “content.”
What is Dopamine Fasting?
This term is very common, especially in productivity channels on YouTube. But do you know what it is? See below:
Dopamine fasting is a variable period in which a person decides to distance themselves from as many stimuli as possible, such as cell phones, video games, TV, and others. Thus, their dopamine production, a substance produced by our brain that gives us the feeling of pleasure, will normalize, and they will return to enjoying ordinary things in life more appropriately.
The argument behind this type of fasting is that we are too accustomed to dopamine in an uncontrolled manner, and we need many stimuli to feel pleasure. With this fasting, the production of the substance would return to a normal level.
In fact, dopamine fasting has become a trend, and many people have reaped benefits from this practice.
What is Dopamine Fasting For?
Many people think it’s a waste of time, but I’m sure you’ll reap many benefits if you try dopamine fasting.
Dopamine fasting serves to establish dopamine levels in the brain to a natural level. In other words: by returning to feeling pleasure in the simplest activities of daily life, without becoming addicted to constant screen and technology stimuli.
Many people feel drained of energy throughout the day, except when they’re up late at night on the computer. That’s a strong indication for you.
So, it’s worth a try, even if just to find out if you’re addicted or not.
How to Do Dopamine Fasting?
Some may think that dopamine fasting is super complex to do, but it’s one of the simplest, actually.
First, you need to set the time for your dopamine fast. It’s common to be for a few days, but you’ll define what’s ideal for your reality. Then, you need to choose what to eliminate. Ideally, you would remove all technologies, but many people use them because of work, so you also need to consider your lifestyle. Then, just stay consistent, and in the end, you will have cleared your brain a bit.
For example, I myself work online. Because of that, I can’t eliminate everything. But there are times when I stop using my social media and only go back after a while.
In fact, it helps me a lot, and I see how much of a waste of time they are. I’m sure you’ll notice the same thing if you put this into practice.
And I know you’ll feel like checking notifications and giving likes in the meantime, but I suggest you persevere. You’ll see the results!
What Are the Advantages of Dopamine Fasting?
There are many advantages to spending less time on your phone and television.
The advantages are numerous: you start to take more pleasure in everyday activities, stop feeling irritable and sad for no reason, start to have more motivation to do difficult things at work and in studies, and, in general, have a better relationship with the people you interact with, whether at work, with family, or in romantic relationships.
In other words, many areas of your life improve after implementing this type of fasting. It’s a practice that helps a lot!
Try it for a weekend, and you’ll see that you’ll reap great rewards!
What Are the Disadvantages of Dopamine Fasting?
There are also disadvantages, but they’re common in any kind of challenge. It’s no different here.
During the days of dopamine fasting, you’ll feel bored and idle. You may find the day monotonous and it will take a while to pass. This can be tiring, but certainly, the benefits that come afterward will be much greater than the difficulties you face at the moment.
So, it’s a practice that is painful but very rewarding! Several people who have tried it feel the same way.
Some people say they feel a void during this period, and that’s when they’re very addicted! But after a few days, you’ll see that everything normalizes.
How Many Days Does Dopamine Fasting Take?
Dopamine fasting is adaptable, and you can make your own rules. But there are some trends that are followed.
Generally, dopamine fasts last from 24 to 48 hours without any technological stimuli. However, you can increase this number of days (if you have the availability) or even decrease it to a few hours a day, if you work with the internet.
What matters is reducing the time of exposure to these addictive technologies in a way that is possible and realistic for you.
I’ve seen people sad because they couldn’t apply this technique the way they saw it on channel X or Y, but what matters is that you take the lessons and adapt!
Can Dopamine Fasting Be Adapted?
In fact, in dopamine fasting, you would completely stop using addictive technologies such as cell phones, computers, and others.
It’s possible to adapt dopamine fasting since each person has their reality. Some have online classes and can’t stop using the computer. Others work with social media and can’t deactivate them. The important thing here is to put as much as possible into practice to reap the results, even if it’s not 100%.
Some people may tell you that you must necessarily do a complete fast. But I’m more in favor of you adapting it to your reality and doing a fast realistically. For example: limit the use of social media or other apps.
Remember: done is better than perfect not done. So, adapt whenever you can. I know you’ll reap many benefits.
What is Dopamine?
Dopamine is a very important substance for our body, but few people understand in detail how it works.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter produced by the brain that gives us the sensation of pleasure. For example: when we eat something tasty, see something nice, or have any other kind of pleasurable sensation, the brain produces dopamine.
Of course, the explanation is much more complex than that, but the focus is not to delve into the scientific details.
It’s worth noting, also, that there are several other neurotransmitters that our body produces that are important, such as oxytocin, endorphin, GABA, and more.
What is Dopamine Release?
Okay, but how does dopamine work in our body? What is its importance?
Dopamine release is the production of this neurotransmitter when our body feels some pleasurable stimulus, such as food, something visual, or any other type of pleasure. This neurotransmitter gives us the feeling of pleasure and satisfaction.
Therefore, having a body with appropriate dopamine release will greatly help to increase your well-being and feel pleasure in everyday things.
That’s why the lack of dopamine can cause many health problems, including even Parkinson’s disease.
What Causes Excess Dopamine?
Dopamine is essential in the body, as we have seen, but what causes this increase in an unbalanced way?
What causes excess dopamine are the constant stimuli we have in our daily lives: social media, videos, TV, chat, movies, series, games, and other technologies. They are designed to addict us and give us a constant feeling of pleasure in our bodies. Therefore, the dopamine produced ends up being higher than acceptable levels.
But then why would this be bad, since a higher amount of dopamine would make us happier?
The truth is that this production ends up becoming deregulated: to feel the same level of pleasure, we need more and more stimuli.
In other words, it works like an addiction, where you want more and more pleasure to feel good. This causes many problems in our well-being.
What Are the Consequences of Excess Dopamine?
Too much dopamine, like other substances, can cause problems. Here are the main ones.
The consequences of excess dopamine are that the more addicted you are to stimuli that generate this neurotransmitter, the more you will want to consume cell phones, social media, games, etc. You will become addicted to these pleasurable technologies and will feel apathetic in everyday life, with no energy to do anything.
In other words, you may find life dull and not be able to work properly, study, or even enjoy spending time with friends and family.
That’s why dopamine fasting is good: with it, you return to normal levels.
How to Use Dopamine to Your Advantage?
Some people think that dopamine can only bring problems, but it’s essential for the body! Moreover, you can use some tricks to help with your productivity.
You can use gamification in your work or study tasks. For example: “if I read 5 pages, I can have a chocolate” or “if I finish all my work today, I’ll have a soda”. But be careful not to get addicted and depend on these tricks forever! This should be used more with challenging tasks or in times of low motivation.
This is because your body can become addicted to these small rewards and deepen the addiction to the stimuli we need.
Dopamine can be a powerful weapon in your favor, but you also can’t let it dominate you!
How to Decrease Dopamine Naturally?
Indeed, there are people who don’t want to spend a few days without any kind of technology to reap the benefits of stabilizing dopamine in the body.
It’s possible to decrease dopamine naturally and gradually. For example, by deactivating social media for a while but keeping the phone to watch videos. Or by stopping watching series for a few days until you become less addicted. Another possibility is deleting the apps that consume the most time. Additionally, you can set times to use your phone, for example, and reduce your exposure.
There are several ways to decrease dopamine, and the three I mentioned above are just a few examples.
See what’s most difficult for you and try to eliminate it. Or at least reduce it a little. You’ll see that your results will be very positive.
Personally, I find that I become much more productive when I stop using social media on my phone. It helps a lot!
See how much time you spend on social media per day, and you’ll be surprised. You can see this in the social media apps themselves.
Dopamine Fasting – True Story
I’m going to tell you a true story that happened to me and that reaped many benefits for me. It was during Lent two years ago.
Basically, I decided to stay off social media for 40 days. It wasn’t a complete fast because I work on the internet, but I stopped using a large part of the daily technologies. I started reading more books instead of playing video games. The result was that I started to enjoy every pleasure that came into my life better.
In other words, I was able to improve my interactions with people, and work demands were much less burdensome than they were before.
Of course, I couldn’t get the full benefits since I work with the internet and couldn’t be 100% offline. But even so, it was very good!
And if it worked for me, who didn’t fully implement it, imagine how it would be if I stopped using the internet completely for a while?
Is Dopamine Fasting Worth It?
Finally, you may still be wondering if dopamine fasting is worth it or not. After all, it seems a bit difficult…
Dopamine fasting is very worth it! You’ll come out of this period knowing how to enjoy life more, less addicted to your cell phone and other technologies, and feeling more productive in all areas of your life. By doing it correctly, you’ll reap many long-term benefits.
But of course, it’s no use leaving the fast and returning to the same old routine. You need to understand that more than just a period of days, it’s necessary to change your mindset.
In other words, know how to use your cell phone, your series, and everything else more consciously. That way, the benefits of dopamine fasting will stay with you, and the bad habits will go away.
I hope you reap as many benefits from this practice as I did!