What is 'dopamine fasting' and is it good for you? - BBC REEL 

Irony is we are watching this also on a addictive platform.

"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone" -Blaise Pascal (in the 1600s!)

I've been doing it once every 3 months for 2 weeks. Dopamine fasting is more about cutting down or stopping things what you love the most for certain period of time ,just be by yourself and detach from things you love or are dependent on or enjoy the most .what I can tell you is it refreshes you quite a bit and gives lot of perspective ..

5:18 >>> These words have become an "earworm" for me. "There is value biochemically, physiologically, evolutionarily in being bored and being alone with your thoughts"

There is a HUGE difference between pleasure and happiness. Pleasure is temporary, easy. Happiness lingers, and can be permanent, yet is created slowly, increnentally. I recommend a book, The Hacking of the American Mind, by Robert H. Lustig, who also wrote a book on sugar addiction, Fat Chance.

i did an outward bound course before high school in 2019 and thinking back it was a major dopamine fast. For 10 days: no electronics devices, social interaction was just 14 people i never met before, hiked/canoed for majority of the day, slept outdoors, food was limited and no sweets, and to top it off 20 hour self isolation period at the end. I came back a new person.

Best way to dopamine fast is to go to a place where there is no internet and also only cook and prepare your food, and hang out with family and friends. For me this place is deep in Oaxaca, Mexico in a village where my grandparents live. Everytime I come back from a vacation there my brain feels completely refreshed and motivated.

I seriously feel like despite all the abundance, this era is truly the worst time for anyone to be growing up.

This is incredible! Thank you!

Dopamine detox is a real game changer, once you get the hang of it. Everyone who is trying: Keep going, you got this 💪🏻

i am 17 years old. I was addicted to anime, reels, RU-vid, nonstop music and other internet related things like shopping and games. I quit all of these at the same time because I was aiming to score high in my exams. After a few days I experienced sudden stress and anxiety and was confused about what was going on with me. I had gotten anhedonia because of sudden drop of dopamine and was very very scared about my future. It's been 1 month and I'm still having a few symptoms. I get a lot of mood swings, I don't enjoy anything as much as I used to before, I get scared of many things, I get suicidal thoughts even though I would never do such a thing. These suicidal thoughts make me overthink and give so much distress that I disconnect from the world and just keep thinking about why all this is happening to me. There have been a few positive changes since the past month. It's very difficult for me to handle this. I'm glad I have such wonderful parents and friends and that is why I get panicked and scared about getting suicidal thoughts. Please tell me what I can do to have a speedy recovery so I can enjoy life again. I really really hope this is temporary.

I think we actually need a balance in everything. Don't over indulge in social devices, keep a balance with offline activities and u r good.

At the end, when she said, it’s better to get the dopamine directly and paying for it upfront… Is that basically saying it’s best to get your dopamine organically like exercising being outside or reading a book? 📕 as opposed to social media scrolling video games and binge watching TV. I feel those things are like the junk food of entertainment.

I like the idea, but I think there is also some responsibility among creators of addictive apps and devices, to acknowledge this. And to build product with that in mind.

My performance has degraded since I was in my final year at school. Thanks to internet and digital devices, I have still been experiencing the issues regarding focused attention 😓 Edit: I have read Dopamine Detox by Thibaut Meurisse and applied the 48-hour rule. Accordingly, it worked well for me. I am thinking of following the rules in the book

Interesting. Many religions (including my own) recommend periods of fasting. In my own faith it’s for many reasons, but a big one is by fasting from something that is good (that is, there is nothing wrong with it in itself), you are better able to have self control to say no to things that are destructive. It’s practice in self control. It’s recommended for limited periods, not all the time.

Superb info.... much needed in today's day n age

Well it seems that all those long boring Sundays I spent as a kid and teenager through the seventies in the uk probably did me some good after all. Not much in the way of a dopamine rush on a February Sunday afternoon for a 13 year old on a Yorkshire council estate in 1975. Character building I think they would call it.

I ❤ the pay for it up front analogy/strategy. Never heard it put that way before💪🏾...

thank you! so helpful

Could we get more resources and literature on this topic?

Thanks for sharing 🙏

It's not dopamine fasting. It's normalizing our dopamine receptor. It'a simple, just get less contact with any device for starter. If it's hard, force it, bit by bit. Don't too much. The relapse is a pain in the ass.

Dopamine fasting is great, but I also recommend pursuing worthwhile pain. The classical example is of course exercise, but there are many others.

Facintating stuff! Thanks.

Very interesting. Thank you.

I like this video. I think I need something like this right now.

I find pleasure in silence, meditation, immersion in nature, and withdrawal from society. I don't know about others, but I suspect I'm not "dopamine fasting" when I do these things. I feel high at those times, maybe it's not dopamine? IDK. Then again, I'm not a social media doom scroll kind of guy. I find little pleasure there. edit: My weekly day of silence was often my best day of the week. It's sad I don't do it anymore. #2 I get it now, my dopamine fast is my daily life at work. /satire

I think this helped me arrive closer to the answer to my question. “What is this “pain”?And I am now seeing this pain is just a biological mechanism. Where I keep thinking this inability to just sit still is bc I don’t want to face myself, my traumas/problems, insecurities and I’m seeking endless distraction from that. I’m the one attaching this meaning to the pain. But this pain just is

Very informative video 👍

Halfway through the vid, and I haven't turned it off yet. Useful points. My start of day routine is good, but I see I need to add some things.

For those who are interested. In Islam we do speritual and physical fasting for 30/29 days each year

thank you

Good vid that explains stuff to help me think about it

The last part of the video where she explains to pay for dopamine gave me goosebumps thinking about the magic and complexity and fairness in our creation.

Great Information

Thanks

Thank you 🥲

That is why we fast in Islam for a month every year to purify our souls, bodies and thoughts

I'm doing this right now.. hopefully it will do me good..

TY.

That’s a very easy method to detox. Good article

I moved house and have not connected the net yet, been reading more and less screens 🙌

Wonderful! Now I got a hip excuse for my self-induced coma on social media.

it sounds great i will do it every saturday from now on along with my fast

Maybe I should take up some of this stuff and so get some dopamine induced joy in life

Sometimes the lack of dophamine causes their one problems

At one point in the video it says a dopamine fast of 24 hours will balance you, then later we are told it takes 30 days for the "gremlins" to get off the balance when you are avoiding behaviours that causes you problems. So which is it, balance after 24 hours or 30 days? A dopamine fast sounds like my life. I'm retired, have no family, do not leave home more than 3 or 4 times a month, have few friends (well, only one actually) , a poor appetite, and the majority of my time is spent reading (I use the internet for a short time each day, and use no social media). I also write in my journal every day. My dopamine levels must be very low, but as dopamine is a natural part of the human condition, surely you can suffer from low levels as much as high. I also feel that what you do during a dopamine fast would not have an effect for many people, being outside in nature, writing, and even meditation can be so pleasurable that surely you are still being stimulated to produce the dopamine.

informative

Just for a bit of perspective on how electronics effect people, i am in the middle between 2 groups of people. 1. The typical, college age student in modern society. Uses their phone a lot. 2. A friend group which is primarily religious, uses their phones far less often times not at all in any social situations. I have noticed the second group is consistently happier, and more outgoing specifically because they rarely have that kind of stimulation. We could all benifit from a significant reduction or compete elimination of idle dopamine. Dopamine is meant to make us strive for more of whatever is releasing it. Why should we do an activity that only continues to release more dopamine, but only wastes time and gets you nowhere?

It takes a lot of Discipline to follow through with one of these.

I was going to say, what about exercise? Glad it’s even better than the fast.

Good, This was one of my random research to heal that time . The after effect from narsistic abuse.

I spend about 6 weeks on retreat with no electronics and lots of nature and meditation.

We(most of us) are social creatures. so People people people. Find the right types of people for you to socialise/ hangout with. It’s simple as that.

And yet this video is visually very much stimulating 😂

So the tech executives that got us hooked on this stuff are now getting off it themselves. Good job, bros.

Sounds like she's suggesting you should train yourself to enjoy pain , so to forget about pleasure . Furthermore , refraining for 30 days for an addict , will only excel irate their destructive behavior , once they return to active addiction . SHE SHOULD KNOW THAT !

What you are doing now, I have been practicing this fasting for more than 4 years. Best of luck.

Great stuff! I take a break from cocaine 3 days outta the week just to reset. Ill try 4 days next month.

Rather than seeing the dopamine as a villain, try to use it as a tool to gain good habits.

Read Thoreau's Walden (again) 😀

Pay up front. I like that

The level of stimulating graphics in this video is interesting

Ok but what if you get dopamine from basically everything even without phones or socializing 😂

Thank you Anna Lembke.. dopamine is necessary to move period.. so a full fast is known as "catatonic state" lolll... the reward system and dopamine are a different story almost...

I bet this applies to buying using credit versus saving then paying cash. (Having the pain first)

Meditate, journal, drink, walk, and think

ADHD here. I need more dopamine

その後何するかが大事。 半永久的に幸福にしてくれること

I have anhedonia. My entire life has been one big dopamine fast.

it's called shabbat, six days do your work but rest on the seventh day (whether it's Saturday or Sunday for ye)

The video editing kind of proves the point...

In our line of work we call it a "Digital Detox". And yes, it works wonders! :)

6:35 OK, but exercising also gives you dopamine, as the act itself is rewarding. Like Runner's high

I wish people would heed this when they enter cinemas, by turning off their phones, instead of flashing around their bright screens while the rest of us are trying to watch a movie.

Techbro discovers the value of disconnecting and going outside

Try to learn Vipassana meditation🧘‍♀️

“All I’m allowed to do…”

The ironic thing is that watching youtube videos also release short term dopamine. This is why you got easily addicted to youtube, instagram, or any social media that reward anyone with short time investment. Why go to the Gym or Working on a project if you can get the same reward with 5 minute investment ?

If you actually want to benefit from this, you need to change your lifestyle. A temporary fast won't do anything unless you remove or significantly decrease your use of highly dopaminergic things (like social media, video games, drugs, etc) from your life in the long term.

this video is so stimulating lol

i am dopamine STARVING !!!

Well were doing that 1month in every year, and it's running for thousand years.. in my religion it's called Ramadan. And we all love that month. It's a magical month

Decision הבחירה שלנו

I guess I don't have this problem. I don't have a "hangover" effect as I don't take drugs and avoid excess sugar.

Dopamine fasting sounds like life in the 1980s

I ws once misdiagnosed with schizophrenia

Irony that all this is communicated on social media via mobiles.

Dopamine Nation Sarasvati the Godess of knowledge bless this book.Om Sai Ram.

Delay reward by instilling a healthy habit instead of a short term fix.

Im addictive to youtube

Can I listen to music/ podcasts while fasting ?

His dopamine fasting sounds like the instruction for observing the Sabbath...

We used to call this unplugging. Silicon Valley doing its rebranding of things we've been doing forever.

Woww 🎉

I fast from LIFE period👽

Someone's out there changing his life 180 degrees after watching this.

5:20 most important part of the video begins here

Is the a 'dopamine fasting' supplement?