You Don't Need Dopamine Detox

If you're watching this video on your phone, chances are that before I'm done talking, you'll get a notification, a text from a friend, a like on a recent post you just shared, or a new follower or subscriber. When this happens, do you feel a rush, a sense of validation and excitement? We tend to check social media or texts, our phones in search of a reward. And when that reward doesn't come and we're faced with a blank screen with no notifications, we're left saddened and kind of let down.

We live in a constant state of anxiety, waiting for the next time our phones will light up, so that our brains can be flooded with that rush of pleasant emotions caused by none other than dopamine, the most controversial hormone. On the one hand, Pinterest is rampant with photos of people tattooing the molecule on themselves. Fashion magazines and blogs fall on dopamine fashion trends—bright, bold colors that can supposedly trigger the coveted chemical release. Well, on the other, there is a school of thought that dopamine is this evil hormone that needs to be stopped, expedited with exercises like the popular dopamine detox.

But the truth, as with most things, is that the chemistry at work here is more complex than the extremes that the opposite sides of this fence would have you believe. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, which are the chemical messengers between our brain and our body. You can think of them like Amazon delivery drivers getting packages to the right addresses through a complex web of logistics. They're involved in movement, memory, motivation, attention, and more. Essentially, without them, our body wouldn't know what to do with all its bones, muscles, organs, and systems. And dopamine is in charge of our brain's reward center.

Our brains evolved this system to let us know when we're doing what we need to survive and encourage us to do more of it—things like seeking food, clothing, shelter, and fighting off that wild animal. Speaking of food and water, I want to take a moment to thank the sponsor of today's video: the Lark pitcher. Over the last few years, I've tried to become more conscious about my consumption habits, from my digital to my physical consumption, in an effort to lead a more sustainable life. One of the first things I knew had to go were single-use plastics, like water bottles.

But for a long time, I couldn't fully make that switch because I was worried about the quality of the water I put into my body. 186 million Americans right now have tap water with lead that is higher than the levels recommended by the EPA. Knowing the dangers of lead poisoning, I was understandably terrified. But all that changed when I found the Lark pitcher. In just seconds, this pitcher goes through its two-step filtration and purification process that sanitizes the water.

Thanks to its self-cleaning feature that does this automatically every six hours, it's also a hassle-free process. Best of all, the water tastes extremely pure and fresh, which is no surprise considering the fact that the two-step process eliminates water pollutants like PFAS, lead, chlorine, pesticides, and bio-contaminant growth that can affect the quality and taste of your water. The Lark pitcher also comes with an app that has a host of great features, from showing you how much water is being filtered through to letting you know how much water you've been drinking, and even exactly when you need to replace the filter, which eliminates the guesswork that comes with some other pitchers.

All in all, if you're looking for a way to reduce your plastic use, I highly recommend giving the Lark pitcher a try. You'll have contaminant-free water and be helping the environment at the same time. The rush you feel when you get that social media notification is not a fluke. Platforms like Instagram have designed algorithms that know our behavior. They know it so well, in fact, that they will sometimes withhold likes and deliver them in one burst to give us the biggest rush possible, craving more and more and more.

Instagram is certainly not the only company manipulating our brain chemistry. Most companies out there are looking to control our dopamine levels and therefore our behavior through algorithms, marketing, and other attention-grabbing tactics. Over the past several years, companies have been working to increase the rate at which people use apps by studying this neurotransmitter and devising ways to trigger it. This idea is nothing novel; Silicon Valley did not discover the power of dopamine but merely exploits it to a new level.

Social media platforms use the same techniques that slot machines have been relying on for decades, forcing us into habits we don't even realize we're developing. Overuse of our phones, social media, and other technology, including slot machines, provokes unnaturally large rewards that overstimulate our brains and keep us coming back. And before we know it, we can't escape the cycle. This, of course, isn't a feeling most of us enjoy. We know how dependent we are on our devices, but we can't seem to cut ourselves off from them.

We read articles about the tactics technology companies are using, but knowing about the effects of something doesn't really make it any easier for us to fight it. We simply know that it's bad for us, but we can't help ourselves; we're addicted. During the 1980s, scientists Wolfram Schultz was the first to show that dopamine is one of the major chemical players in addiction. In his lab, he placed an apple behind a barrier and immediately saw a dopamine response when the rat in the experiment walked around the barrier to bite it.

This response of dopamine in the rat served as a motivator for the rat to eat again, or perhaps for the specific rat to find another apple. And for us, the stay glued to our phones—addiction is rooted in the swinging highs and lows of our dopamine levels. Like a seesaw, our brains are always trying to find a balance, so if we feel a surge of dopamine, a depletion of it—what we experience as a crash—is sure to follow. Drugs, alcohol, and other substances create a huge, fast release that acts as a surge of energy, pleasure, happiness, and relief.

Imagine a child climbing a tree in their backyard. They make it up the first time, see the view, and it's thrilling, euphoric; they've never been happier. Once the brain knows that feeling is possible, it wants more. So they go back a few more times. Eventually, they climb the trees so many times that the thrill wears off. To get the same thrill, they now need to climb taller and taller trees, so they set their sights on a bigger tree across the yard.

With repeated use, our threshold gets higher and we take more of whatever gave us that coveted feeling. That's when things start to get dangerous. An addict ups the ante over and over again, just searching for that initial surge. The drugs make it harder and harder for their body to produce dopamine naturally, which leads to emotional lows when the drug isn't in their system. The seesaw of the brain is doing its balancing act, but the highs have become so high, the lows become even lower.

It's these lows that lead addicts to become anxious, depressed, or worse. Of course, addiction is a spectrum; we all experience it to one degree or another, and it's not necessarily from drugs and alcohol. There are plenty of other ways to raise our dopamine that are available at our fingertips. Some of us search for quick hits in coffee, which raises our dopamine and has the same effect on building up a tolerance in our brains. Have you ever interacted with someone trying to wean themselves off coffee?

Chocolate raises it by 50%, sex raises it by 100%, and nicotine by 150%. For comparison, amphetamines, which are found in common prescription drugs used to treat ADHD like Adderall and Dexedrine, raise dopamine levels by one thousand percent in individuals who otherwise naturally lack it. For them, artificially raising dopamine levels can be necessary. But for many people, when our brains are flushed with too much dopamine, we experience crashes similar to those an addict might encounter.

How many people do you know who have said they're addicted to their phones? Maybe you can even count yourself as one of them. These addictions, however big or small, can take a real toll on our happiness. And so just like with any other human struggle, there are people out there who have come up with a solution—or at least something we think is a solution: the dopamine detox.

This popular trend tells us to cut out sugar, social media, or any other unhealthy stimuli that consumes our lives for days, weeks, even months, and replace them with blessed, impulsive habits. The goal is to rewire our brain and make it less dependent on huge dopamine releases. It's taken the world by storm in recent years. On TikTok alone, the hashtag dopamine detox has more than 20 million views, which is a little ironic.

The practice is meant to help us step away from unhealthy stimulation. After all, a dopamine detox cuts you off from notifications, rings, or texts. It puts emphasis on our willingness to simply be bored and not respond to the manufactured alerts in the palm of our hand. Dopamine detoxes are most popular among tech addicts—those of us who are sick of the sinking feeling we get when our phone is in the other room. But theoretically, the detox can be used to combat any sort of addictive behavior, like shopping, thrill-seeking, or drugs.

If we limit our dependence on the activities that are causing our highs and lows, then we should be healed, right? As much as internet wellness gurus might preach the idea of detoxing our brain from dopamine, science tells us that we can't ever really get rid of it, and we shouldn't even be trying to do so in the first place. Dopamine is part of our complex neurological system that keeps us functioning, and eliminating it would be disastrous to say the least.

What we can learn from the trend, though, is to be mindful. To turn off our phones before we go to bed, to eat healthy, to be aware of activities that create that huge rush of dopamine, and eventually leave us feeling like crap. As with all things in life, moderation is key to regulating dopamine and allowing us to feel rewards in a healthy, balanced way. If we're looking for balance in our brain's release of dopamine, how do we get there?

The healthiest place we can be is in a flow state—the complete connection between mind and body. When we find ourselves completely absorbed and momentum comes effortlessly, we feel clear, passionate, and miraculously undistracted. A flow state is getting lost in the book you're writing, the marathon you're training for, or the project presentation you're putting together. We lose track of space and time in the best way possible, no peaks and valleys, no cravings for that rush of stimulation.

In a flow state, our brain experiences a steady stream of dopamine that leaves us feeling level, balanced, and energized. The bad news is that the flow state can be hard to find for most of us; it's not even in our comfort zone, and stepping outside of what's comfortable can be scary—painful, even. We naturally want to find distractions to give us rapid dopamine hits that feel great, instead of sticking with something for long enough until we can immerse ourselves in it.

Good news, though, is that we're in control of our behaviors, even as much as those addictive notifications on the phone might make us think otherwise. We don't need to be ruled by that rush we feel when it happens. What if we told ourselves, "Oh, that's just a dopamine release; it's just a turn signal." In the end, I'm the one in the driver's seat.