The Case For A Dopamine Adjustment
Mitigating dopamine triggers through methods that work.
One of the habits that I’ve been working on for myself is to reduce the amount of time I’m playing video games when there is work to be done. For several months I’ve been getting into this habit that before writing I have to first play some video games, talk with my online friends, or check social media before I can allow myself to jump into writing.
It started with video games, but it’s branched off to those other habits that I’ve picked up and I’ve given myself some compelling reasons to do so.
They provide me topics to think about that I can write about. Or my ramblings to an online friend can help me have a better grasp on the topic and how I want to structure the article.
But ultimately these serve more as centers of dopamine and an opportunity for me to procrastinate.
The thing is, I’m not the only one who deals with this. We all have examples like this that we can point to or not realize that we have.
Do you need music to be playing in the background to get to work? Do you need to listen to the radio as you drive to work? How about working out or going for walk? Do you need to listen to podcast while doing that?
How about with cooking? Do you need to hum or sing or watch a TV show while doing that?
From social media, to music, video games, and so many other stimulations, we are all tempted by those things. They’re not inherently bad things on the surface (for example, music can be linked to our movements when we exercise). But where they become a detriment is when we get too addicted to them and it impedes our progress.
Dopamine and self-help go hand in hand in so many ways. It is one of the many fuels that our brain produces that motivates us to do things. Achieving those goals, pursuing goals, and so on are more compelling and inspiring for us when we incorporate dopamine into the mix.
But a lot of those problems — namely the addictive nature — is exploited by the industry hard and allowing people to make all kinds of claims about using it, leveraging it, and taking a break from it.
In the case of leveraging it, I talked about how we can have a meaningful relationship with dopamine before. But one element that I omitted from that article is the idea of detoxing dopamine.
Similar to meaningful relationships with dopamine there is a practical way that we can use this. One of the most common forms that people encouraged is a digital detox. We hear that far more than a dopamine detox, but these work side by side.
In the end, both of them advocate for a simple thing: take a break from the stimulation.
But like with everything in self-improvement, a lot of methods are “scaled up” and over-hyped.
To start, why I’ll be sticking to “dopamine recalibration” from here on out is that dopamine detox is a brain chemical. One does not simply purge it from the body. It’s there and there is no escape from it.
But the second part is that overhype of this method. Even though some research has shown taking a break does help, these studies focused on clinical addictions.
Still, that doesn’t stop people from using the concept of a simple break as this “life hack” that will blow everyone’s mind and change your life. There is no shortage of social media posts and articles explaining that a digital or “dopamine detox” is the source of incredible happiness, academic success, and making insane levels of cash.
Bruh, it’s just taking a break. It’s not going to change your life all that much.
A Dopamine Recalibration Will Help You Identify Triggers
But what it will do, when used meaningfully, is to help us identify our own triggers. Habits are formed based on those triggers and through them we can begin to realize what our thought process is that leads us to that particular pathway.
When it comes to a dopamine recalibration, it’s loosening up that particular pathway for us to realize the sequence. It helps us to observe it better and alter our relationship with it if we determine it is impacting our lives negatively.
The thing with dopamine is that it’s a chemical that our brain produces and that we build a tolerance for over time. It’s easy to mistake dopamine as an addiction because in order for us to get that burst of dopamine every time, we have to work harder to earn it.
A prime example is social media. It all starts with getting that rush of dopamine and knowing what people are up to. But once you build that tolerance, you have this compulsion to know more and see more. Social media sites have been strategically designed to extend people few minutes of scrolling into habits where they spend hours of their day scrolling through trying to get that high and satisfaction.
An adjustment can help people realize what urges them to check and to reconsider what these relationships are doing to their lives.
It Can Help Us Regulate Our Emotions
The other aspect of dopamine is that dopamine essentially creates a baseline for our moods to some extent. While we do feel that high when achieving that baseline, it also comes with a pinch of normality.
It’s similar to the idea of having a cup of coffee in the morning. Until you have it, you instil in yourself this idea that you’re not functional at all. And until that coffee hits your lips and you get that rush of caffeine, you can’t start your day at all.
Dopamine works in the same way in that you need to keep engaging in these behaviours not to feel good or happy, but functional as a human being.
It’s bizarre to think that when it comes to social media, video games, or other such stimulations, but for a lot of people, not being able to play video games at certain moments, not being able to scroll through social media for an hour and so on can trigger dopamine deficit. In other words a withdrawal.
And while these aren’t as severe as drug withdrawals, people not getting their fix can face feelings of depression or anxiety.
It’s here where I argue that dopamine adjustment can help in this area. Forcing yourself to go through that will lead to you having to face those emotions on some level. Sure it’s not going to make you millions of dollars, but similar to what I said above, it can help you reshape how you engage with certain dopamine triggers.
All the while, learning to find more satisfaction on much lower and healthier levels for yourself.
It Breaks Bad Habits Long-Term
A dopamine adjustment for a week can make a difference, but it can be very effective if used for a month or two or more. Another way to look at it is that this is more of a “fast” than anything else. You’re effectively starving that reward pathway after giving it constant activation.
At the end of the day, a dopamine adjustment instills the idea that you’re not reliant on those feelings or having to do that action all the time. You can open yourself up to other things you can do during that time. But also if you do go back to using that reward center you recognize boundaries and you can be more strategic about your use.
Obviously things like reading, exercising, and so many other habits are not bad things on the surface. However a dopamine adjustment can help you realize how good habits can hijack your reward system and have been a hinderance in your life and have been bad habits.
But at the same time, that bit of self-reflection can help you realize what the source is and why you crave to do those things. You can then start to take steps to make a change and break that habit on a more systematic level rather than the usual cold turkey method or replace the habit with something else.
As mentioned before, a dopamine “fast” isn’t something that’s thoroughly researched beyond drug addictions. Whether it’s social media, reading a genre of book, listening to music, playing video games, or anything else, the only thing people have to go on is other people’s accounts of going cold turkey or doing a digital detox. And subsequently them talking about what they’re going through and what the end result looks like.
But doing these kinds of things can make a huge difference in your life. While the idea of sitting at a table and eating food without watching a video or TV show sounds scary, it may help you to slow down your eating after a few weeks. Not to mention it could be an opportunity to speak to your partner or parents more and form a deeper bond.
These minor adjustments in our lives aren’t the key to eternal happiness or insane levels of wealth, but they don’t have to be. It’s an opportunity to rewire ourselves and get a different perspective.
There is no right or wrong way to go about a dopamine adjustment either. It doesn’t have to be methodological. It’s more about paying attention to what you’re doing and how you feel. This can help you recognize automatic behaviours that you might not have realized and you can make adjustments.
For example that eating at the table example is something I can relate to since I always watch Youtube while I eat. I’m not overeating, but the speed in which I eat food could be slower.
All that I’m getting at is that a temporary step backwards on something in our lives can contain some valuable information. We might not think our current habits are all that bad or detrimental, but there is always a case to be made for doing something like this. It adds perspective and a slight adjustment in our lives can open ourselves up to something new.
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