WHAT IS DOPAMINE DIET?


Are you sick of how much time you spend on the Internet but you can’t help yourself?
Do you find regular activities that other people find fun not fun at all?
Do you know what you should do, but you give in and do something immediately rewarding instead?

These are the signs that you need a Dopamine diet. But WHAT IS DOPAMINE DIET?

The Dopamine diet appears to be a good guideline for healthy digital habits, but we think it won’t do the trick in re-establishing healthy surfing habits and overcoming internet addiction.

What is Dopamine?
Dopamine is more of a predictive and motivational neurotransmitter. The things that give you pleasure - sex, drugs, food etc. are the actual source of the pleasure itself; they don’t increase dopamine levels which then makes you feel pleasure. They directly give you pleasure via nerve signals to the reward Centre of the brain, the nucleus accumbent.

What is the Purpose of Dopamine and What Does it do?
Although dopamine plays a role in many functions, including hormone control and regulating insulin production, researchers often focus on one trait in particular – motivational salience.
Motivation Salience

Dopamine provides you with the effort needed to overcome mental resistance. When you don’t want to go to the gym, for example, the release of dopamine (through the anticipation of pleasure or reward) will create the energy needed to overcome this resistance. As a result, we feel motivated and driven to achieve a goal despite any short-term pain.
This reward-seeking behaviour has roots in our Homo sapiens hunter-gatherer days when obtaining resources, such as food, wasn’t as simple as it is today, such as a quick trip to the supermarket. Thousands of years ago, foraging for resources such as food, shelter, and social interaction came with considerable danger. Whether it be territorial disputes, navigating predators, cuts leading to infection, or leaving your dependents alone and vulnerable, we needed the motivation to overcome these risks despite our inherent cravings for safety. Dopamine is the universal currency for foraging and seeking. It trades the risk of immediate short-term danger for the greater good of longer-term prosperity. It motivates you to expose yourself to danger now so you will have the safety of food and shelter later.
What Triggers Dopamine?

Dopamine is triggered by any pleasurable or rewarding activity we do. This includes everyday activities like eating or drinking to more addictive activities like taking drugs, alcohol, sex, or playing video games. Taking drugs and playing video games produce an instant rush of Cheap Dopamine. According to some studies, video games release large amounts of dopamine in our brains – comparable to when taking drugs like amphetamine. And because these activities release more dopamine than others, we feel more pleasure doing them. So, consequently, we do more of these activities. Our brain gets used to the stimulus after some time, which means that we’ll need to take more and more of the drug or play more video games to satisfy our needs. Other activities start to feel less enjoyable compared to our desired stimulus.

What are the Side Effects of Too Much Dopamine?
1. ADHD
2. Addictions
3. Binging behaviours
4. Gambling
5. Obesity

High levels of dopamine can also be a contributes;
1. Mania
2. Hallucinations
3. Delusion
4. Schizophrenia


What is Dopamine Diet?
Dopamine is the reason why your brain would rather spend hours watching Netflix than the same time exercising. You know that exercising will bring you more satisfaction in the long run (even if it is unpleasant in the short run), but Netflix would bring you similar satisfaction instantaneously, with little to no effort. The more extreme end of the spectrum includes drugs such as cocaine and amphetamines. These can cause withdrawal symptoms so strong that we would sacrifice our well-being to get more of them. The idea behind the hypothetical detox is that we reset our brains’ reward pathways to become re-accustomed to more a natural level of dopamine release. This could result in us getting more satisfaction from simpler, more productive activities like meditation, working, and healthy eating. In this way, we could achieve or even surpass our goals. Levels of dopamine detoxing can range from abstaining from only one activity to abstaining from all activities that could bring enjoyment, including even simple conversations.
History of the Dopamine diet
The underlying concept of the dopamine detox has been around for centuries and can be traced back to Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, who toyed with the idea that abstaining from certain enjoyable activities can lead to a more morally satisfying life. The ‘Dopamine diet’ itself, however, is a modern term coined in 2020 by Dr Cameron Sepah, a Harvard psychiatrist from California. His idea was to help Silicon Valley tech and venture capitalists reduce mobile phone dependence. The concept has now become a widespread TikTok and social media trend.
In his own words: “Dopamine diet” is an evidence-based technique to manage addictive behaviours, by restricting them to specific periods and practising fasting from impulsively engaging in them, in order to regain behavioural flexibility.”
How Dopamine diet is intended to work
Dopamine diet is a form of CBT, a therapeutic methodology that identifies unhelpful patterns of thinking or behaving, associates them with underlying causes, and helps you cultivate more beneficial processes. The underlying concept is that you’re more likely to engage regularly in unhelpful behaviours if they’re pleasurable and capable of producing dopamine. This is the process that can ultimately lead to addictive behaviours or impulsive pleasure-seeking.
Why would you do a dopamine fast?
You might want to do a dopamine fast for a couple of reasons
• You’re sick of the way you spend time
• You can’t help yourself and stop surfing
• You want to make regular things more interesting and fun (and not need to have your phone in your hand constantly just to feel engaged)
Have a healthier relationship with your smartphone, the Internet, and the digital world as a whole.
The goals are:
1. To break the pattern of compulsive behaviors like surfing the web or picking up your phone mindlessly. E.g: rabbit holes of YouTube videos
2. To realize wanting or craving something doesn’t mean we’ll like it when we’re actually doing it. For example, we might be exaggerating how good it would feel to re-experience playing a certain game. In reality, that’s just our nostalgia at play.
3. To let the restore the dopamine receptors so regular things become more fun once again. E.g: You turn to a hobby because you enjoy it once again
The simplified destroy the addiction looks like this:
“Desire to change + Understand addiction + Break the compulsive pattern + Build a better life + Learn to handle your emotions better = Success”
Doing a dopamine detox is about acting on the desire to change and breaking the compulsive pattern. This gives you a room to breathe, build a better life, and if you actively try to do so, also learn to handle your emotions better.

How long should you do a dopamine detox?
• In general, 2-12 weeks. It takes time for our brains to rewire.
• 2 weeks are the minimum to experience noticeable effects (that's why we made our challenge 14 days long).
• 30 days are long enough to see changes and make for a good monthly challenge. We recommend going with this route.
• 12 weeks is the typical time horizon for Internet addiction therapy (which is also close to popular 90 days or 100 days challenges). This is most often long enough to transform your life but it can be too daunting for a lot of people.
WHAT IS DOPAMINE DIET? - Do's and Don'ts
You Do:
• Eat Healthy Foods
• Drink Water
• Be in Nature
• Meditate and Walk
• Write / Read Books
• Set your Future goals
• Be Social

You Don't:
• Eat Sugar
• Have Masturbate
• Watch TV/Netflix/YouTube
• Use social media
• Over Exercise
• Consume Drugs/Alcohol (including Caffeine)
• Use the Internet/ Use Mobile Devices/Screens of Any Kind
• Eat Junk foods/ Carbonated Drinks

Benefits Of Dopamine Diet
• Increased ability to focus on hard tasks
• Increased self-motivation
• Improved emotion regulation
• Developed greater self-control and willpower
• Developed and improved patience
• Greater life satisfaction
• Increased feelings of self-worth
• Developed self-discipline

Summary
What is Dopamine Diet? - Signs of needing a dopamine diet are similar to the signs of an addiction: you don’t feel good about how you spend your time, you aren’t even enjoying it, and you act compulsively often. Dopamine diet is a catchphrase, but the technique is based on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, which is super effective even for treating Internet addiction.
Dopamine diet is a temporary solution that helps you rethink your relationship with digital devices.
Do it as an experiment. See how you use your time when all of it is not taken up by scrolling.