The Right Way to "Dopamine Detox"

Trash everywhere.

Dark room, occasionally lit with flashes and flickers from the computer screen.

Unsure where the smell is coming from, they come in waves.

No more clean clothes left in the closet, haven’t done laundry in 2 weeks.

When’s the last time I ate something clean? Not sure, but chicken wings sound very nice right now, I will order some with my phone.

Maybe I should sleep, it’s already 3:24 AM, I’ve got to wake up early tomorrow, I’ve promised myself I’d get some deep work done.

Before I sleep though I will play one more game, the last one didn’t end on a satisfying enough note for me to end my night.

Ahh.. bed at last. It’s 4:37 AM, sun is starting to come up now but it alright, tomorrow will be great, I’ve got it all out of my system.

I have my next day planned, by the hour, starting from 9AM when I wake up.

I will clean my room, do laundry, get healthy groceries, go to the gym and finally start working on my online business.

You check the time again, and its now 5:12 AM.

Oh crap, I got stuck in my social media rotation scrolling for a bit there. But it was worth it, there was a lot of funny memes and I can’t believe Megan would post something so lewd and seductive.

Oh what’s the harm, she turned me on too much, I’ll just masturbate real quick and sleep, I sleep better after I jerk off anyways. I’ll make it quick, just need to pick the right video.

It’s 6:09. Fuck. It’s alright, that was pretty good, now I can sleep like a baby. I’ll just wake up at 10 AM instead, push my whole schedule down 1 hour.

You open your eyes, feeling somewhat rested, but still ready to tackle your day.

Sitting up from the bed full of pip, you pick up your phone to check the time.

What the fuck. How is it 3 PM already? No matter, I’m energized, I’m ready to make the world my bitch.

Just need to check my notifications and make sure I haven’t missed anything important before I start my day.

I’m smarter this time, I’ve only spent 40 minutes catching up on my notifications and scrolling instead of my usual hour and a half.

You put your dirty laundry in the machine to wash, started collecting trash and making a list of healthy foods you plan to buy.

Then you see your computer with the corner of your eyes while collecting trash.

“Must resist, today is my day.”

That’s when your phone buzzed.

“Nope, not checking it.”

It buzzes again.

Then again.

And again.

And again.

It must be important. I have to check my phone just in case.

The buzzes are from the gaming group chat I’m in with my best friends.

After 10 minutes of catching up on the chat, you see the last few messages.

“Yo let’s get some games going BOIIIS” - Jerry

“HELL YEAH baby let’s fuck some shit up! Logging on rn.” - Anthony

“Fuck.” - You,

Alright, I’m logging on too. I’ve cleaned up enough, and my gym clothes are in the washer anyways, it’s not like I can go even if I wanted to.

Haven’t done any groceries but it’s fine, what’s another day of ordering delivery. I’ll get a pizza this time.

Wait no I will go for some sushi, I’ve cleaned up today and I should treat myself a little bit.

In the middle of eating your sushi while in a gaming session with the boys, it dawned on you.

“Holy shit, I’m a degenerate.”

First thing you did after realizing was to go on YouTube to search:

“How to stop being a degenerate.”

Hundreds of videos pop up.

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1 simple steps to reset your brain with dopamine detox

You watch the video telling you how to do the dopamine detox.

The video starts with flashy graphics and stimulating tones of voice and editing style.

The video is ironically feeding your brain more dopamine as it’s telling you to stop flooding your brain with dopamine.

I think I’ve learned something, after I finished the video, I realized the way to stop being a degenerate is to stop doing all the degenerative things I’ve been doing.

Simple. I’m a monk now. I’ve been in enough mental pain to know how bad my current lifestyle is, and I have the motivation to start the detox process.

You delete all your games.

You delete all your social medias.

You delete all the different food delivery apps on your phone.

You muted all the group chats you’re in.

The process has begun.

You’ve held on to your willpower for dear life. You’ve pulled through and managed to avoid all the instant gratification activities just from your sheer will. It is hard but you are finally starting to feel a sliver of fulfillment in your life.

Then you start to crack, one tiring afternoon you’ve decided it would be okay to order junk food just once, it’s been a week now.

Then you tell yourself it’s alright, I’ll just play video games for only one hour tonight. (News flash, no one ever only plays for one hour when they say they will only play for an hour)

You couldn’t sleep one night and felt the urge the masturbate and watch porn again.

One by one, your mental fortresses start to crumble against the world that’s was designed by millions of scientists to exploit your human tendencies.

You’re back to your old ways.

An absolute degenerate. But, a little bit different, because this time your room is cleaner than when you found out you were a degenerate.

You’re slightly healthier than before, slightly more energetic from the nice restful nights you’ve given yourself.

What' you’ve done however, is you fueled yourself for another 2 months of degeneracy.

Be honest, how many “Degenerate to monk, to degenerate” cycles have you been through now?

Do your little dopamine detox really help?

What have you done wrong?

Listen my friend, the dopamine detox really works. But the method of applying the practice is not optimal.

If you know you can’t build 7 good habits at once, what makes you think you can get rid of 7 bad habits at once?

Dopamine detox is a lifestyle design, but it is being wildly marketed as a magic pill to solve all your psychological problems.

And who could you blame for this type of marketing? It is us lazy bastards that always gravitate towards easy things that can solve big problems.

If I were to tell you that there is a surgery to get your dream body in one day, without pain and effort, and it costs the same as 30 months of gym membership, which one would you choose?

The 30 months of going to the gym? Or pay a couple thousand bucks to get that surgery?

We are always looking for shortcuts, and honestly it’s smart to do so. But you must understand that there really isn’t a shortcut for getting you to a better mental health.

People would rather take depression pills everyday and feel numbed to everything around them instead of confronting what’s causing the depression.

That’s no shortcut at all.

It’s just that much easier to take a pill and forget, but the problem is that the source of your pain is still going to be there forever and ever until you decide to fix it.

The cold turkey dopamine detox method being sold by your trusty YouTubers are the magic pills.

I’m here to give you the proper way to do things. It’s not going to be easy but it works, and it’s a hell of a lot easier than being stuck in that cycle for the rest of your miserable life.

80/20 dopamine detox

To detox you cannot just jump right into 100%, alcoholics know this. Cold turkey quitting alcohol will literally kill an alcoholic.

You need to taper off and at the end your goal is to keep just one or two instant gratifications that truly lift up your mood.

If you were to try and build multiple habits at once, you will fail to build all of them. The opposite is also true, if you were to try and get rid of all the habits you have, you will probably be good for a day or two, then back to the old ways you go.

Get rid of them 1 by 1.

Start with making a list of activities that you know are not doing you any good in life.

Netflix, Instagram, YouTube, video games, TikTok, Junk food, porn, weed, alcohol,

ALL that good stuff.

Pick 2 to 3 that you really really enjoy.

Maybe you need to drink on the weekends with the boys, maybe the only time you get to socialize is when you play video games, whatever.

Pick your 2 to 3, and start getting rid of the ones that aren’t picked, one by one.

You are allowed to indulge in the 2 you pick, but the rest must go.

This is a much more sustainable model, we are not actual monks. We need a little color in our lives. “Dopamine detox” should be a lifestyle, not a magic pill.

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