It seems like more and more people these days are feeling anxious and are looking for ways to relieve their anxiety. A lot of people are stressed out and suffering from depression as well. Thankfully these issues no longer carry the stigma that they once did. There is a trend currently going around called a “Dopamine Detox”, which could help many people find relief. We know that our brain needs dopamine, but like serotonin and other endorphins, it's good when it is released as well.
 |
| Image Credit Found on pexels |
A hard reset for a brain that’s been living on nonstop stimulation sounds like a good idea. But you need to do it the right way. Many people just immediately try to stop doing anything that would give them a hit of dopamine. They stop everything: no phone, no music, no snacks, no anything. And then they’re shocked that it doesn't help. If anything, it leaves them feeling more miserable than they did before they started the detox.
Convenience Culture Makes it Worse
People are drawn to the convenient lifestyle most of us enjoy. We get instant gratification in everything these days. Entertainment is instant, food is instant, shopping is instant, attention is instant. This convenience culture has basically trained our brains to expect a little reward hit for existing, and then being online makes it louder. It’s not just content, it’s constant content. It's always available right at your fingertips. You get whatever you want, whenever you want it. So naturally it's hard to just stop.
Instead of stopping everything cold turkey, you should just try to lower the noise a little. Adapt a lifestyle that doesn't rely on instant gratification.
Convenience Culture Trains the Brain to Expect Constant Hits
We've already mentioned that convenience culture trains your brain to expect everything instantly and constantly. This is very important. It isn’t just about delivery apps and same day shipping from Amazon, (that’s definitely part of it). It’s also about how your brain has been trained to expect relief immediately. Everywhere you go, people have their phones out instead of interacting with the world around them. Any time you’re bored for ten seconds, you get your phone out and open an app.
If you’re slightly uncomfortable, you might search for something to buy. If you’re feeling low, you grab a snack. And when you're feeling stressed, you might start scrolling. When you feel tired, you give yourself a boost with caffeine. When you're feeling lonely, you check social media to see what everyone else is doing. But that somehow makes you feel worse. It's like this for nearly everyone, regardless of age.
The Brain Wants More and More
You’re probably all too familiar with the fact that the brain doesn’t stop at one hit, either. It wants the next one, it wants novelty too. So your regular life can start feeling weirdly flat. Your life is not necessarily boring, it's just that the baseline got cranked up. Over the months and years, it just got cranked up way too high. To the point where quiet hobbies feel slow.
Conversations can feel slow and boring too. Reading feels slow. Watching a show or movie can be boring as well, if it isn't delivering a new plot twist every eight seconds. So when people say they’re “doing a dopamine detox,” what they’re usually reacting to is that feeling that “nothing feels satisfying anymore unless it’s loud, fast or instant.”
How Can You Properly Do a Reset?
As we mentioned before, the problem is that people take it as a literal detox. They remove everything enjoyable and replace it with nothing. Then they sit there thinking about how bored they are, which turns into frustration, which turns into giving up, which turns into going straight back to the exact same overstimulation cycle. So that isn't going to give you the result you are after.
You can try this instead: swap high stimulation input for low stimulation comfort. For example, try listening to something calm when you go for a walk, instead of listening to rage bait. Listen to some slow and soft music while you sit peacefully on the couch and enjoy your shroom vape. Leave your TV and phone off for a change. Put your phone down when you cook. And when you clean, have soft music playing instead of something intense.
Other examples are reading, doing a jigsaw puzzle, take a dimly lit shower, do a little cleaning and organizing, write down your thoughts in a journal... anything to just slow everything down and relax. You don’t want novelty, you don’t want fast pace. You want things that feel good, that feel enjoyable, and most of all, they feel slow and relaxed.
Yes, “Boring” Should Become Safe Again
Maybe the things listed above sound a little boring, with no crazy thrill to them. But seriously, boredom is actually where the brain starts recovering. Not boredom as in staring at a wall for hours, but boredom as in giving yourself space.
There needs to be some space for a thought to finish. There needs to be space for a feeling to settle. And space for your nervous system to stop bracing itself. At first you’ll feel restless. That’s normal. But just be patient and you'll soon feel better.
How Can You Make this Stick?
How to make it stick is the question, because the cold turkey approach just won’t stick. But these slower pace options, when done the right way, will help you to make it stick. Pick one daily time window, even if it's only 45 minutes, with high stimulation content is off the table. Meaning no rapid fire scrolling, no doom content, no endless hopping.
Then pick one low stimulation activity that still feels good: shower, walk, stretch, tidy up, cook, read, journal, talk to someone... anything that’s not frantic input. It’s entirely up to you to stick to this, but try and work up to one day doing this, and then slowly add more time, an hour, two hours, and so on. You can do it!
This is a contributed post.
No comments:
Post a Comment