How To Do A Dopamine Detox

(The right way)

Nowadays we are constantly bombarded with stimuli—social media notifications, instant messaging, endless entertainment options—all of which provide quick hits of dopamine, the brain's "feel-good" neurotransmitter. This constant access to dopamine can lead to a cycle of overstimulation, making it increasingly difficult for us to focus, experience satisfaction in the moment, or think about the long term.

A dopamine detox is simply a period where you’ll refrain from engaging in high-dopamine activities like social media, video games, music, and even certain types of food. Dopamine detoxing has gained popularity lately as a way to reset the brain's reward system so that you can find more enjoyment in the simpler things in life. As more people are recognizing the negative impacts of digital overconsumption —especially in our sphere of the internet—, it’s become popular to practice regular dopamine detoxes.

It’s a healthy practice regardless of your standing in life, so here’s a step-by-step process to successfully do a dopamine detox.

Decide Why You Are Doing It
As with any worthwhile project, it’s important to start by asking yourself why you are doing it. Your “why” needs to be clear and meaningful, because that’ll be the only way to stay disciplined and consistent throughout the inevitable challenges you’ll face.

Take some time before you start to consider the broader implications of not resetting your reward system: you’ll find it more and more difficult to feel joy, you’ll find it hard to leave your phone away, you won’t be able to focus, and you will suffer from anxiety and stress. Long term, all these things can be incredibly harmful to your goals and dreams. A man needs to be able to focus for long periods of time, delay gratification, and think long term, or he’ll be forever enslaved by his addictions to quick, cheap dopamine.

State The Consequences of Failing Clearly
One thing that I’ve found to be very useful when doing similar challenges to a dopamine detox is to increase my own accountability by stating clearly the consequences of failure: the easiest way of doing this is by telling a friend who you trust that you’ll pay them a certain amount if you fail the challenge. Nobody likes having to pay, so this will further motivate you to stay strong throughout the challenge. Of course, this strategy requires a certain degree of honesty, because your friend will only know you’ve failed if you tell him.

Also, merely the act of sharing what you’ll be doing with people close to you will help you stay accountable, as you won’t want to disappoint them or think less of you if you fail.

Decide What You Will Quit — Keep It Manageable but Meaningful
A critical mistake that many make is that they try to remove every single source of dopamine from their lives. They get super excited at the beginning, underestimate how attached they are to the things they are trying to quit, and fail to realize that trying to quit too much too quickly is simply unrealistic and unsustainable.

You need to be smart about the things you’ll quit, and find the balance between doing a dopamine detox that is challenging but achievable. Pick a few disciplines from the following list —as many as you think you can ACTUALLY quit for a few weeks. Those that say mandatory are absolutely necessary for a good dopamine detox.

• No social media (mandatory) — If you work on social media then limit the time you spend on it and deactivate your personal accounts, and use it exclusively for work.

• No TV or movies (mandatory)

• No sports (mandatory)

• No alcohol or drugs (mandatory)

• No junk food (mandatory)

• No YouTube, IG reels, TikTok, etc. (mandatory)

• No videogames (mandatory)

• No eating between meals (mandatory)

• No porn and masturbation (obviously mandatory, and not just for the dopamine detox but for life)

• No music

• No reading books

• No sugary foods

• No sweet drinks

• Cold showers

• No unnecessary purchases

• No coffee

Some of these might be easier and some more difficult for you. Aside from the mandatory ones, make sure you choose a few extra ones that will make this challenging but still accomplishable.

Set the Time Limit
4 weeks is the bare minimum in my opinion. Anything less than that is too easy. More than 8 weeks becomes too difficult if it’s your first time doing a challenge like this.

Prepare the Field
Help yourself by making it easy to avoid the things you are trying to quit. If you are trying to refrain from using social media, delete the apps altogether so that it’s actually hard for you to fail. Similarly, disconnect the TV, remove alcohol from your house, etc. You need to build an environment in which it will take a couple of steps for you to fail, so that it’s not possible for you to just make one mistake, but instead it becomes necessary to do a few mistakes, intentionally, one after the other in order to fail.

And Go
That’s pretty much it, really. After that it’s all about having the mental toughness and discipline to stand by your word and stick to it until you finish. Once you do, you’ll find it easier to focus and you’ll find more joy and enjoyment in daily life.

---

Thank you for reading!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider supporting this project by leaving a like, comment or upgrading to a premium subscription.

A premium subscription gives you access to all the exclusive posts and to the subscriber group chat, as well as priority replies in Q&A’s and direct messages.

God bless you,

Simple Man

---

If you liked this article, you’ll love my books.

Get them here.