Dopamine Fasting 2.0 - Overcome Addiction & Restore Motivation
hi After Skoolers, i'm Brandon from the YouTube channel, One Percent Better better and you're
watching this because you want to overcome your addictions and restore
your motivation. Let's get to it. We live in a world that is designed to stimulate
our emotions. Every advertisement food product and social media post is geared
to give us a short rush of pleasure, which is followed by an emptiness and a
craving for more. Big companies are able to leverage our cravings and make
trillions of dollars off of keeping us addicted. If you don't have a plan for
yourself you will be at the mercy of companies
who will play on your impulses to control you like a puppet. You will
sacrifice your free will searching for happiness in a maze that's designed to
keep you lost. Studies show that on average people use
their smartphones for about 3 hours per day. That's 1095 hours every single year.
Thankfully there is a way to regain control over your impulses and take your
power back through a practice called dopamine fasting. What's that you say?
Well first we need an understanding of dopamine. Dopamine is a brain chemical
associated with wanting. according to Loretta Breuning author of 'Habits of a
Happy Brain', dopamine is triggered by new rewards. That's why the first lick of an
ice cream cone is heaven. 10 licks later your attention wanders you start
thinking about the next thing on your agenda and the next you still love the
ice cream but you don't feel it as much because your brain doesn't see it as new
information. Your brain is already looking for the next great way to meet
your needs. However, with video games and porn sites
and social media your brain always has the next thing to be excited about
because they are engineered to trigger constant dopamine release I'm sure you
are familiar with the feeling of wanting to make the day productive only to look
up at the end of the day and realize you spent four hours mindlessly scrolling
through Instagram and checking notifications. You waste time, feel bad
about yourself and things that used to excite you no longer excite you like
they used to. That's where dopamine fasting comes in
dopamine fasting is the idea that if you avoid a dopamine stimulating activities
for extended periods of time you'll be able to reset your brain and let go of
addictive behaviors that negatively impact your life it's commonly
misunderstood as reducing dopamine but that's not true dopamine is necessary to
function as a healthy human being. Dopamine fasting exploded in interest in
October 2018 and gained even more interest a year later after Dr. Cameron
Sepah published an article on medium titled the definitive guide to dopamine
fasting 2.0 the hot Silicon Valley trend. Dopamine fasting 2.0 is better defined.
it's based on cognitive behavioral therapy it's about reducing impulsive
behavior not reducing dopamine itself and it doesn't encourage you to act like
a full-blown monk who abstains from all forms of pleasure so what is the science
behind dopamine fasting 2.0 well as mentioned before it's based on cognitive
behavioral therapy or CBT CBT is an evidence-based practice and prescribed
by thousands of professionals worldwide for changing behavior
CBT solutions based on stimulus control can help you reduce a probability of
engaging in addictive behaviors for example when your phone plays your SMS
ringtone you pick up your phone and tap to open the message the ringtone is a
stimulus and opening the message is the behavior here are two solutions
number one remove the stimulus by putting your phone in another room or
disable notifications or to engage in an activity that is not compatible with
reading your phone like swimming another solution is exposure and response
prevention or ERP for example you see an attractive girl on Instagram you fill
your heart rate increase and your body tingle so you run to your bedroom hop
under the sheets and masturbate into a deep sense of regret and worthlessness
sinks in by applying ERP you would frequently look at attractive girls on
Instagram but refrain from masturbating I know it's difficult but you can use a
technique called urge surfing which is essentially being mindful for a few
minutes bring your attention to where you feel
the urge in your body and simply be with it describe what the sensations feel
like when you are done thank yourself and set your intention for what you will
do next in your day this will become easier over time and you'll likely feel
a sense of accomplishment now at this point you might be wondering does
dopamine fasting really work to manage your addictions
if by dopamine fasting you mean reducing a dopamine levels the answer is no but
if you mean dopamine fasting 2.0 based on CBT like we just learned then yes an
analysis of a hundred and six studies concluded that in general the evidence
base of CBT is very strong but how does dopamine fasting help restore your
motivation well sharp or prolonged increases in dopamine levels can reduce
the amount of dopamine receptors in your brain
dopamine fasting may help increase the amount of receptors you have through a
process called up regulation the more dopamine receptors you have the less
stimuli it will take to achieve the same amount of pleasure if you don't eat
processed sugar for a month a single blueberry could give you the same amount
of pleasure as your favorite ice cream so how do you dopamine fast there's two
steps in step 1 identify the behaviors that are causing you distress impairment
or addictiveness 6 common impulsive behaviors are emotional eating internet
and gaming gambling and shopping thrill and novelty seeking recreational drugs
and porn and masturbation in step 2 follow a dopamine fasting schedule for
example let's say you want to reduce the amount of time you waste on your phone
you would refrain from using your phone for 1 to 4 hours every day 1 day per
week one weekend per quarter and one full week per year start small and
gradually increase the amounts of time you spend away from your phone these are
guidelines not concrete rules follow a fasting schedule that works for you so
now you know how to dopamine fast but you may find it difficult to do keep
watching because I'll share some tips that might make it easier for you to
overcome your addictions and that have so let's talk about routine and reward
replacement imagine that you have a bad habit of going to the cafeteria to buy a
coke every day every time you drink the coke you feel
bad afterwards and end up gaining weight so you decide to do a dopamine fast
instead of drinking a coke every day you try to only drink a coke every two days
but you find this difficult according to charles jigs book of the power of habit
here's what you can try instead number one identify the behavior the behavior
is the activity in this example it's getting up walking to the cafeteria
buying a coke and drinking it next identify the reward you're craving a
craving drives our behavior and rewards are what satisfied a craving so ask
yourself why you turned to coke at the cafeteria
are you thirsty do you want a sugar high a moment to step away from your work you
desire social interaction at the cafeteria then experiment with four to
five different rewards on one day you might drink a bottle of water if after
15 minutes you're craving has subsided then it could be you've just been
thirsty but got into the bad habit of drinking a coke instead another day you
might go for a walk and call a friend if after 15 minutes the craving has
subsided then it could be that you've just been craving social interaction
after each different activity you try write down how you feel after a number
of days or weeks look for patterns to see which reward is the one you are
truly craving let's say you discover that the reward is the sugar higher you
get from drinking the coke the next step then is to identify the trigger what
triggers your craving for a sugar high is at the time of day is it seeing
someone else drinking a coke is it seeing a youtube video advertisement is
it because you ate something it can be difficult to identify the trigger but
thankfully science tells us that triggers usually fall into five
categories they are location time and emotional state other people or the
immediately preceding action let's say you discover that your trigger is time
based because it always seems to happen around 3 p.m. every day regardless of
how you feel where you are or any other this once you've identified the behavior
reward and trigger you will likely feel a sense of empowerment that you can
change your habits so the final step is to make a plan when 3 p.m. comes around
consciously choose a healthy behavior that delivers a reward you are craving
in our example it's the sugar high make the conscious decision to go to a nearby
juice bar to grab your favorite organic juice instead of a coke I work from home
so one of my favorite things to do is to stock my fridge with cans of flavored
fizzy water with natural lemon flavors I get the same reward of having a Coke but
without the bad stuff if you liked this video then consider checking out my
channel 1% better where I create animated summaries of life-changing
books thank you after school for having me and thank you for watching
