Forget a draining dopamine detox and do these 2 effective things instead

Feb 26, 2023

I understand why people want to believe the fantasy that a dopamine detox is the solution to their lack of passion and attention span.

A few years ago, I bought into the idea big-time.

I was feeling just “blah” and I was deeply disturbed by how short my attention span had become.

Could a dopamine detox be the answer?

Unfortunately, cutting literally everything that brings life and color to your existence is very hard and, I believe, totally unnecessary.

I’ve come to the realization that people are looking in the wrong place to try and resuscitate their interest in real life.

I’m going to propose a radical idea if you’re feeling depressed and frazzled: try not taking drugs every day.

A depressed man with a headache. (Photo by Jorge Franganillo on Unsplash)

The Life-Drug Cycle

Stop putting common drugs in your body that send you on a biochemical roller-coaster and sap your joy for the simpler things in life.

I bet most people who feel they’ve lost some of their passion for life or their attention span for simpler pleasures are likely caught on what I call the Life-Drug Cycle.

First, they get up and immediately have a coffee or energy drink.

Caffeine works in the same way that cocaine and heroin do: it increases dopamine levels by slowing the rate of dopamine reabsorption. It also blocks adenosine to keep you alert and boosts your adrenaline and cortisol (stress hormone) levels.

The reason people grab that fake energy first thing in the morning is they’re already going through withdrawals.

Here’s what one Johns Hopkins study said about it:

“The satisfying feelings and perceived benefits that many coffee users experience from their morning coffee appear to be a simple reversal of the negative effects of caffeine withdrawal after overnight abstinence.”

So you’re jacked up all day and you’ve set the stage for a crappy sleep at night.

Does any of this sound healthy so far?

Then, after pumping themselves full of stimulants all day and with their receptors shot they “come down” and “relax” by drinking alcohol at night.

Alcohol, of course, is a depressant that also messes with your dopamine levels. Here’s how Alcohol Change UK puts it:

“The human brain uses a number of chemicals — known as neurotransmitters — to carry messages. One of the most important of these is dopamine, which is often thought of as a ‘happy hormone’.

“When we start drinking alcohol, our bodies produce extra dopamine, which travels to the parts of the brain known as ‘reward centres’ — the bits that make us feel good and make us want to do more of whatever we’re doing.

“In the longer-term, the body becomes used to the dopamine boosts it’s getting from alcohol, and starts making less dopamine to compensate. That means that if drinking becomes a habit, we may become dopamine-deficient and this could contribute to us experiencing low mood.”

I have an idea.

How about, instead of using stimulants and depressants to constantly try to pound your mood into submission, you just set both aside for a short period of time and revisit your natural state?

A digital illustration of a glass of red wine and a cup of coffee. — A digital illustration of a glass of red wine and a cup of coffee (Credit: James Julian/Dall-E 2)

The wrong target

I once watched the most insane dopamine detox video on YouTube. I mean this guy was literally just sitting in a room breathing. He had to meditate for hours on end.

He wouldn’t even allow himself to read or to listen to music while he was exercising. He couldn’t check out his favourite TV show. He couldn’t eat anything with, you know, flavour.

This is so unnecessary.

The reason for getting your dopamine sorted by removing drugs from your life is so that you can once again enjoy the simpler, beautiful things like music at the same level you used to.

Honestly, you don’t need to sit alone in a room and stare at a grey wall all day to accomplish that.

Get rid of the most artificially produced dopamine — the kind driven by drug intake — and then marvel at the world around you.

Everything is awesome

Suddenly, everything becomes interesting again.

One thing I noticed when I cut life drugs out of my life is that I actually slowed down and noticed my kids again.

Now I consider myself a great, engaged father, but you know how life gets.

You’re so busy running around trying to be in 5 places at once and get everything done (while you’re already stressed from being jacked up on adrenaline and cortisol from your caffeine habit) and it all becomes a blur.

When I cut out Life Drugs, I actually listened more closely to what my kids were saying and what they were doing, and what they were doing and saying was even more funny and interesting than I thought!

In fact, all conversations with everyone I talked to become more interesting.

Attention economy

One of the reasons I was intrigued by the dopamine detox fad a few years ago was that I felt I no longer had any attention span.

I was a voracious reader of books in my 20s and early 30s, but as time went on, I found they weren’t able to hold my interest for more than a couple of pages (if I picked up the book at all).

I blamed social media for this, but in reality, I was on a terrible cycle.

I was depressed, so I’d drink alcohol. Then I’d be tired from drinking alcohol, so I’d drink more caffeine, and I would gradually keep increasing the amount I consumed until I crashed, at which point I’d make another (usually failed) attempt at ditching both.

Don’t get me wrong: getting social media out of your life is massively beneficial.

Those cursed apps are designed to wreak havoc on your brain as well and keep you hooked.

But I would argue that the benefits of cutting it out paled in comparison to the effects of losing caffeine and alcohol.

The key to it all

This all gets back to perhaps the most important point: You need to sleep.

If you’re not sleeping properly, everything else in your life becomes crappier.

And if your sleep sucks, it’s probably because you’re so pumped full of drugs that they’re either still in your system while you’re trying to sleep, or waking you up because you’re already going through withdrawals.

Meanwhile, unhealthy sleep is also contributing to chemical imbalances in your body, building on what the drugs are doing.

I think if you honestly consider all of the above, you’ll agree that listening to music too much probably isn’t the problem.

Getting alcohol and caffeine out of your life is a deeply difficult endeavor (and I invite you to read some of my other work for some tips on how to deal with both), but the rewards are priceless.

Your dopamine receptors will (eventually) thank you.

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