I’ve recently been seeing a lot more stuff around the concept of dopamine fasting.
Now, I’m going to start by saying that I’m entering this conversation with a bit of trepidation because it comes from a side of the internet that… well, they tend to have good intentions, but this basically amounts to bro science despite the backing it does have.
The idea behind dopamine fasting is to reduce or eliminate activities that provide instant gratification and a quick release of dopamine. So, someone going through a dopamine fast might give up using their phone, watching TV, video games, junk food, and alcohol, plus anything else they see as their go-to dopamine activities for, say a 24-hour period. I know, sounds like torture.
The idea here is that because we’ve glutted our brains on all these easy dopamine activities, we want to try to “reset” the process to regain a more sensitive system that isn’t seeking that quick hit all the time.
In today’s episode, we’ll break down this concept and examine whether it works (hint: I already called it bro science) and what, if anything, we can still gain from the ideas.
To get started let’s first talk a little bit about dopamine.
Dopamine is a neuromodulator that plays a critical role in the brain and plays a key role in a number of ways, including motivation, pleasure, and reinforcement learning. It is often referred to as the "feel-good" chemical, although many scientists argue that is far too simplistic of a view of the molecule.
This is because dopamine plays such a ubiquitous role in our lives. Part of the problem with the idea of dopamine fasting is just the wording itself because you aren’t actually limiting your intake of dopamine. Dopamine is a molecule that we get through nearly everything that we do throughout the day. While doing a little bit of additional research for this piece, I was having more trouble finding things that didn’t provide dopamine than things that did. Typically, the things we expect not to produce dopamine are the things that we find the least stimulating. Think about repetitive tasks, tasks where you’re not doing anything, like just standing in line, or maybe something like filling out a form. But even in that realm of non-stimulating activities, research shows that we do get boosts of dopamine from things like meditation, which classically is a very non-stimulating activity.
The point being, that the road to reducing your dopamine intake is a complicated one. With that said, there are certainly a lot of things that are heavy hitters. Exercise and physical activity are one of the most potent ways to boost dopamine. We also see similar boosts through things like music, games, positive social interactions, food, and novel experiences. And these boosts can spike even more strongly if we combine these activities. Sports are a great example where we see physical activity, hopefully playing something fun and often with social interaction.
Similarly, I often mention how we can pair something stimulating with something we don’t enjoy doing to help us get through the task, like listening to music while doing the dishes.
This is because dopamine is believed to play a large role in ADHD, with some research pointing to low levels of dopamine contributing to the disorder. The best example I’ve heard involves imagining that your available dopamine is like a bucket—when you do some action that gives you dopamine, you fill the bucket. Over time, dopamine slowly leaks out of the bucket so you’ll have to do more things to refill your dopamine. But when you have ADHD, there are a bunch of holes in your bucket, so your dopamine drains out far more quickly.
However, there is still a lot of research that needs to be done regarding ADHD and dopamine. While it does appear that there is some kind of link between dopamine levels and ADHD, what exactly that link is still needs to be worked out. So, while the bucket metaphor is a useful tool for thinking about how we operate with our dopamine, make sure you’re also taking it with a grain of salt.
I think that’s important to keep in mind while we’re talking about dopamine fasting because it’s also something that isn’t scientifically validated either. The point is that using an unproven technique to solve an ill-defined problem is… well, you might get results, but who knows why?
The hypothesis behind dopamine fasting is that we have so many sources of dopamine hitting our system constantly that we are constantly spiking our dopamine levels. When we try to do something that would just give us a normal level of dopamine, we’re no longer able to enjoy it because it’s so much less stimulating than what we’ve conditioned ourselves to normally get.
Basically, we’re desensitizing our brain’s reward systems, and we find that we can’t enjoy the everyday pleasures of life anymore. A dopamine fast, where we “detox” our system by temporarily cutting out all the super-high-dopamine activities, is supposed to help us reset our reward system and enjoy those everyday activities again.
For many people, it can feel like they can’t enjoy everyday activities anymore, and so the idea of a reset seems like just what we need. But we have to look at what the science actually says here rather than what internet bros are claiming.
There is some evidence that chronic overstimulation can lead to some levels of desensitization. This makes sense when we think about something like drug use, where users need to increase their dose to reach the same level of high. But of course, it’s important to remember that dopamine isn’t a drug, and the studies that have looked at this desensitization have mostly looked at extreme cases.
Although, I feel like I absolutely see this with some of the ways we’re interacting with things like social media. One of the reasons that I haven’t done much with this podcast and social media is that these platforms typically focus heavily on what keeps a user on the platform. They don’t want to push content that encourages the user to go elsewhere, so this means that it wants its creators to create content with their platform in mind. This doesn’t exactly mesh with what I’m trying to do so I haven’t ever been working particularly hard at pushing my stuff on social.
But the point here is that because of this push for on platform engagement we get these bite-sized pieces of highly palatable content. Of course every platform has it’s own aims on how it wants capture your attention, but in the end its all about pushing our dopamine levers in ways that make us want to stick around.
It can be hard for real life to compete with that.
But I also want to be clear that just because these systems exist it doesn’t mean that we can’t do anything about them. I mean I think in some ways our ADHD can help here because we also have this drive for novelty and while things like social media can mimic some of that novelty with “hey what’s this next post going to be” I also find that it can be incredibly easy for me to get bored of scrolling and what to seek out something that is more stimulating.
The real threat we get from scrolling is how easy it is—with any amount of boredom I can whip out my phone and open which ever app I think will best entertain me at the time. And I think this is where my issue with the ideas of dopamine fasting really come from, it’s that it feels a lot like we’re looking at the symptoms of what’s happening and addressing those rather than trying to fix any of the things that lead to the symptoms.
It’s like taking a vacation to solve burnout. Sure, it will probably help, but when you get back from vacation and jump right back in with all the bad work habits that lead to burnout, you’re going to find yourself needing a vacation again real soon.
And I see the same thing with the dopamine fast. While it may feel like it’s addressing what’s going on, it’s not actually solving for any of the bad habits that lead to us feeling like we need the fast. Perhaps you could look at it as just a regular maintenance you need to perform, but I think we’d have more luck working on modulating our behavior. Looking at things, we might be giving up in a dopamine fast and trying to figure ways that they can exist in our lives in a healthier manner.
While there are plenty of ways to get our dopamine through healthy activities like exercise, listening to music, social interactions, spending time in nature, and getting good sleep, there are also a ton of ways that we can get dopamine that we don’t want to encourage. Junk food, gambling, pornography, and drug use are just a few examples. And then you have a number that are more on the fence. Retail therapy can be fine in moderation (and if and when you have the money for it, of course), but in excess or when you're spending your rent to buy some new shoes, it’s definitely a problem. Thrill-seeking can be great if you're riding a roller coaster, but it can also come out as reckless behavior that will have serious consequences.
I think part of our disconnect can come from the fact that we often are underestimated, and so we seek that extra stimulation. As I mentioned before, most of us have this dopamine roulette machine in our pocket that we can pull at any moment of boredom. This is a problem because these devices take up way more of our attention than we think they do. We can see this in the effects from distracted driving and phones at the dinner table to missing the funny part of your favorite TV because you were also scrolling Instagram at the same time.
Now I don’t want this episode to turn into me demonizing phones, I mean I imagine mostly you listening are doing so through an app on your phone (actually I have data analytics that tell me that so I don’t even need to imagine). But I think it is worth thinking about how and when we’re interacting with our phones. But… and this is a big but, this is also not something where we want to just be relying on willpower and going, “well I’ll just not look at my phone as much and we’ll call it good”.
This is about setting limits and maybe not keeping your phone on your person at all times. It’s about giving yourself other options for increasing stimulation when you need it. Fidget toys are a great option here, I personally love infinity cubes and… uh… rocks. Yeah, just straight up rolling a rock around in my hands.
Or maybe you can doodle while watching TV or maybe fold some laundry. Do some knitting or some stretching. Adult coloring books. Jigsaw puzzles.
The point being that we have a ton of options available to us that if set up ahead of time can make it so that we don’t fall into our habit of pulling out ours phones at the first piece of boredom.
Overall, the idea of dopamine fasting is an oversimplification of the complex reward system in our brains. And I do want to say I think there is value that we can get from abstaining from something for a period of time. Maybe you do want to take a break from all of these dopamine-laden activities to get a better sense of what they are bringing to your life—but I think the dopamine part of something like a technology fast is wildly overrated, and the real value comes from how you are reclaiming your time.
This Episode's Top Tips
When dopamine fasting, you are trying to reduce or eliminate activities like watching TV, playing video games, eating junk food, and drinking alcohol that would give you a quick release of dopamine. While there may be some benefits in abstaining from these activities, the idea of doing a dopamine fast to reset your system doesn’t hold much water.
Instead of trying to use a dopamine fast to create a quick fix, it’s better to examine your habits and daily activities that lead to feeling like you need one and see how you can modulate those.
With ADHD, we often are understimulated, and by doing something slightly stimulating, like playing with a fidget toy, can help improve our focus and concentration.