Dr.K says if, you can see yourself in one of these upcoming 3 places, a dopamine detox could be useful for you.
Its important to note that you ain't trying to remove dopamine from your brain, you are just trying to rebalance it in a healthy way. You are down regulating your dopamine receptors to more normal levels.
Dopamine Detox
You are compelled towards a behavior you don't enjoy.
- E.g continue to play video games even though you are more frustrated than entertained.
There is a war in your brain between what you know you should be doing vs what you could be doing. But what you should do always loses to this impulsive behavior thing.
Activities which seems pleasurable to others don't seem as pleasurable for you.
Dr.k say that you need to do at least 2 weeks of dopamine detox for it to have a lasting effort, 24-36 dopatmine detoxes doesn't work, since you are trying to rebalance your receptors and that takes time.
He is also saying that
The main problem is boredom. 2 weeks of boredom, thats the final raid boss. Be mental prepared"
(Dr.k is a gamer himself or was, so he uses gaming references)
Dopamine Detox, Planning is key.
Dr. K says that you have to plan your days, you don't want to have time off and nothing to do, you should always have some sort of backup to do, so you just relapse.
He mentions these things:
- Books
- Audiobooks
- Be in Nature (Walks)
- Cleaning
- Cooking
- Workouts
- Learning a new Skill
- Podcasts
- Board games night
- Cleaning
- Social gatherings.
Unstructured time is the primary failure in a dopamine detox.
Short limited timespan activities such as watching a movie is okay, but you will have to cut out fast paced things such as games.
I am still in the planning phase of my dopamine detox, but have been more mindful of what I spent my time on. I don't might watching some youtube, but I also need my attention at the youtube video and isn't allow to change tabs or play with my phone. I would have to stop the youtube video before doing anything else. I feel like thats a good way to start as long as I can still do cleaning and such :D
Dr. K's videos on Dopamine Detox can be seen here.
This knowledge is now gathered through Dr.K aka The HealthyGamer and not Alex Backer.
