Dopamine Detox: Become Invincible

What if I told you that you're an addict and you don't even know it? Don't worry, you're not alone. We all are, or most of us at least.

And here's a little experiment to prove it: once this video ends, turn off your phone and leave it in a drawer for the next 24 hours. Do you think you can survive without it? If you're willing to give it a try, you're already among the few people courageous enough to do so.

That sadly doesn't mean it'll be easy. In the first few hours, you might experience a feeling of emptiness or anxiety. You might feel your phone vibrating in your empty pocket. You might involuntarily reach for it while you're waiting on the bus or for an elevator. As your day progresses, though, a sense of freedom should wash over you.

You'll all of a sudden be witnessing the world through new lenses, so to speak. You'll start noticing things you haven't in a while, and your brain will be more active than it ever can be while mindlessly scrolling through social media. When the 24 hours are over, you would have gained a new perspective on your relationship with your phone, and you might even become more aware of how much time you spend using it.

But if we're being completely honest, chances are you'll be back to your old habits before you know it. Because, like I said, you're an addict. We all are. But our phones aren't the problem; our brains are.

There's a thin line between pleasure and pain, and you've probably heard this before. But even if you haven't, your brain knows this very well. At our core, we're hardwired to seek pleasure and avoid pain, which makes the two linked so much so that the part of the brain that controls these two very contrasting emotions is one in the same.

In our early days as a species, differentiating between the two was often the difference between life and death. With scarce resources, our survival depended on being able to distinguish between the pleasure of having a full stomach and warm shelter from the pain of starvation and the elements.

Fortunately, times have drastically changed since then. We're now living in an era of overabundance. Instead of scarcity, ideally speaking, this should make us happier, right? Sadly, the data shows that we're actually less and less happy.

Depression levels have spiked in the last 30 years, and people in high-income countries have become less satisfied with their lives in the past decade. Even though we're arguably living in humanity's golden age, it turns out that the reason we're unhappy is because of this very overabundance.

We've become addicted to the feel-good drug that our brain naturally releases: dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter released in our brain whenever we're anticipating a reward. You can say it's arguably the most important neurotransmitter because it's responsible for our experience of motivation, pleasure, and reward.

Going back to the thin line between pleasure and pain that we talked about earlier, the truth is it's more of a seesaw and not a line. Your brain is constantly working to remain in a state of equilibrium called homeostasis - the balance between pleasure and pain.

So, let's say you're scrolling through social media and you experience something pleasurable, like a cute cat video on your For You page. Your brain will immediately recognize that as a pleasurable experience and release dopamine, which will tilt the seesaw towards the pleasure side.

Then the balancing act begins, and your brain immediately tilts the seesaw back an equal and opposite amount to the pain side in order to restore homeostasis. This is when you start feeling restless, anxious, and unhappy. Instead of sitting with this emotion until that balance is restored, you decide to indulge in more cat videos to get another dose of dopamine.

And this is where dopamine can become a double-edged sword. Because just like any drug, the more your brain releases it, the less its effect, and the more you're craving. This is why it's recommended that we limit our time on social media and instead use our devices for something that'll give us incredible long-term benefits, like learning a new skill through the sponsor of today's video: brilliant.or...