Dopamine Detox - Retake control of your life.

All of us set some goals in our lives. Personal, school, work, whatever those may be. We all have some goals and respective deadlines set. But, for some reason, we don't accomplish them. "I lack the energy", "I lack the knowledge", "I lack the talent", and "I'm not made for this", are some of those reasons. But, nobody ever realizes that the most important thing you lack is FOCUS. Once you are able to sit down and focus, you can get any job done. You'll get the tangible knowledge required, the effort, the energy, the confidence, and everything you need to accomplish your goals. (For funny reasons, you can keep a count of how many times I write Dopamine in this blog. It's crazy.)

Whenever you complete an activity or finish a long-procrastinated task, your brain releases a chemical known as Dopamine. It is responsible for the feelings of pleasure, satisfaction, and motivation. Similarly, whenever you scroll social media, get a text message from a person you like, or just play a random game, you'll receive a surge of dopamine in your brain. You feel good, pleased, and satisfied. Your brain notes that down. It now tells itself to repeat that task. The brain knows that this particular task releases dopamine, and being a dopamine addict, it is quite obvious that it will re-do the task whenever possible. So, you go back to that task, scroll more social media, crave more texts, and try everything to get more notifications. Just for the surge of Dopamine. Now, whenever you sit down to try and complete your tasks, and tick things off your to-do list, your brain does not receive the same feeling. There is no dopamine. So, it does not focus. It just gives up halfway through and starts doing something else that makes you feel good, satisfied, and happy. This is the reason behind the "unable to focus" mindset. Don't get me wrong. Your brain also releases dopamine when you finish an important task, perform better than you did last time, and just complete a small project that has been around for months, thanks to procrastination. But, in order to get that Dopamine, the brain has to do some work. It has to put in the effort. And that is the exact opposite of what the other apps and videos do. You just lie in bed or on your couch and your brain gets that surge of dopamine. The subconscious mind is dangerous, it does not know the difference between right and wrong. Your conscious mind tells the subconscious mind what's wrong or what's right. But when it comes to addictions, everybody knows that the worst parts of your mind take over. In this scenario, a Dopamine Addiction. So, what do we do?

What's Dopamine Detox?

Dopamine Detox is keeping yourself away from the activities that release dopamine. This simply means, for some days, we stop ourselves from doing things that make us feel good but don't help us accomplish our goals. This includes staying off your phone for a long time, limiting screen time, and doing something that is productive and also helps you achieve your goals. Basically, you sedate your senses. You lower the bar set by these applications and smartphones so that your brain will be just fine without them. Just stay away from your phones and other makes-me-feel-happy-but-isn't-productive stuff for some time. It's that simple. Dopamine detox can take as short as 5 to 7 days to get yourself back in control.

How can you do that?

1. Get your usage under control.

Know your screen time. Place a screen time widget on your Home Screen so that you can monitor how much you use your phone every time you open your phone. You can use chrome extensions that block recommendations on websites like YouTube. The extension will only show you your subscriptions thereby stopping you from going down a rabbit hole.

2. Make the task difficult to do.

If your problem is that you cannot stop watching social media, just log out every time you close the app. In this way, you make the task difficult to perform and your brain has to perform some work to get that release of dopamine the next time you open the app. If you struggle with stopping yourself from going down a rabbit hole of videos about How deep is the Sea? or How big is the universe actually?, get that chrome extension I mentioned previously. I use it myself and it is very effective. Just make everything that effortlessly releases the deadly chemical difficult. It would be much much much better if you just keep your phone on Do Not Disturb mode or outside of your room while focusing. You'll be surprised by the difference it makes.

3. Create a list of goals for a week regarding dopamine detox.

Create a list of the things you do that release dopamine. For example, your list may look like this.

1. Don't use your phone for an hour after you wake up. Limit screen time to 1 hour.

2. Stay away from your phone, or any other gadgets during lunch, dinner, and breakfast.

3. Prepare for focus sessions like you prepare for movies. Get your snacks, water, and everything you will need before you start focusing.

4. Stop watching any new TV Series or movies.

5. Listen to only 5 songs a day.

Now, keep in mind that you don't take these tasks too far. Keep them simple. Keep them achievable. Make sure that whatever tasks you set, you believe you can do them. Don't set tasks like not seeing your phone for 7 days. You won't be able to achieve it and in addition to that, it will not make you feel good either. So, make these carefully and stick to them.

When you do all of these things or even some of these things, your brain will reset and temporarily forget about the tasks that give you dopamine in an instant. It will re-program itself, and now you will start doing tasks that make you feel good and also get you where you want to be. On an obvious note, we are not machines. It's not like you can restart your brain and it will work completely normally. There is no guarantee that you will stop scrolling social media and other stuff but there's also no guarantee that you will stop doing it anyways. So, just try it. Try pushing the reset button of your brain. Try to take control of your mind. Do the things your conscious mind tells you to do. Do the things that need to be done. Ultimately, it all comes down to your will to do things. If you want to do it, you will find a way. Dopamine Detox is just another tool that you can use to make your brain work effectively and bring it back to its senses. It worked for me, so I don't see much reason why it won't work for you. You've got this.