How I Tricked My Brain To Like Doing Hard Things (dopamine detox)

It's highly probable that you don't encounter significant challenges when engaging in video games or perusing social media on your mobile device. In fact, I'm confident that you can sit in front of your screen and indulge in these activities for extended periods, often lasting two hours or more, without your concentration wavering.

However, when it comes to dedicating just thirty minutes to studying, the enthusiasm might dwindle. What about investing an additional hour in working on your entrepreneurial endeavors? This might not seem as appealing.

Even though you logically understand that activities like studying, exercising, or building a business promise more significant long-term benefits, you often find yourself drawn to the allure of watching television, playing video games, or mindlessly scrolling through social media.

One could argue that this preference arises from the stark contrast in the ease of engagement. One set of activities demands minimal effort, while the other requires focused dedication.

But, intriguingly, some individuals consistently commit to demanding tasks like studying, exercising, or working on their entrepreneurial projects. This raises the question: What motivates some people to willingly tackle challenging endeavors, and is there a way to make those difficult tasks feel more effortless?

To address this question, we must delve into the realm of a crucial brain neurotransmitter: Dopamine.

Dopamine is often simplistically labeled the "pleasure molecule," but its role extends far beyond mere pleasure. Dopamine is what fuels our desires and provides the motivation for action.

To emphasize the power of dopamine, consider some experiments conducted on rats by neuroscientists. In these experiments, electrodes were surgically implanted into the rats' brains. Whenever a rat pulled a lever, it triggered the brain's reward system. The result was an insatiable craving that led the rat to pull the lever repeatedly for hours. These rats would forego eating and even sleeping, driven by their desire for more dopamine.

But when the researchers blocked the release of dopamine in the brain's reward center, the rats became remarkably lethargic. They couldn't even muster the motivation to get a drink of water, let alone eat. They lost interest in mating and appeared to lose their will to live. However, if food was placed directly in their mouths, they would still eat and enjoy it. They simply lacked the motivation to engage in these actions on their own.

You might assume that basic needs like hunger and thirst are the primary motivators for seeking food and water. However, dopamine plays a significant role in these behaviors as well. Those rat experiments, while extreme, reflect the effects dopamine has on humans in their daily lives.

In fact, your brain prioritizes activities based on the expected dopamine rewards. If an activity releases insufficient dopamine, you'll lack the motivation to engage in it. On the other hand, if an activity promises a substantial dopamine release, you'll be driven to repeat it over and over.

So, which behaviors trigger the release of dopamine? Any activity where you anticipate a potential reward releases dopamine. But if you know there are no immediate rewards associated with a behavior, your brain won't release dopamine. For example, before you indulge in comfort food, your brain releases dopamine because you anticipate that the food will make you feel good, even if it ultimately makes you feel worse. Your brain doesn't concern itself with whether the high dopamine activity is harmful; it simply craves more of it.

A classic example of this is someone struggling with addiction. They know that their actions aren't in their best interest, but their desire for more of the substance overrides all rational thinking.

Apart from this, almost every activity triggers some level of dopamine release. Even drinking water when you're thirsty can elicit a dopamine response. However, the most significant dopamine releases occur when rewards are unpredictable. Think of playing a slot machine in a casino, for instance. Even if you've been losing money, you expect a larger reward to come your way, although you don't know precisely when. In today's digital age, we constantly inundate our brains with artificially high doses of dopamine, often unknowingly.

Some examples of high-dopamine behaviors include scrolling through social media websites, playing video games, watching internet pornography, and more. The anticipation of a reward accompanies these activities, which is why we're constantly checking our phones, expecting text messages or notifications.

We're becoming akin to those rats pulling the lever, seeking a new dopamine hit. And you might think, "What's the harm? It's not negatively affecting me." However, you'd be mistaken.

Our bodies have a built-in system called homeostasis, which aims to maintain internal physical and chemical conditions at a balanced equilibrium. When there's an imbalance, our bodies adapt.

Consider an example: when it's cold outside, our body temperature drops, and we shiver to generate heat. But when it's hot outside, our body temperature rises, and we sweat to cool down. Our bodies strive to maintain a temperature around 37 degrees Celsius (98 degrees Fahrenheit).

However, homeostasis also manifests as tolerance. For instance, someone who rarely consumes alcohol gets drunk quickly, while a regular drinker needs more alcohol to achieve the same level of intoxication. This is because their bodies have developed a tolerance to alcohol.

Dopamine follows a similar pattern. Your brain strives to maintain homeostasis by down-regulating dopamine receptors. In essence, your brain becomes accustomed to higher dopamine levels, and those levels become the new baseline. This is what's known as a dopamine tolerance.

The challenge with dopamine tolerance is that activities that provide less dopamine no longer interest you. Motivating yourself to engage in these activities becomes more challenging. They feel boring and less enjoyable because they don't release as much dopamine compared to the high-dopamine activities.

This is why people often prefer playing video games or browsing the internet over studying or working on their businesses. Video games make us feel good and comfortable because they release a lot of dopamine. Unfortunately, activities that involve hard work or reading release lower amounts of dopamine.

This phenomenon is one of the reasons why drug addicts who attempt to quit have a challenging time adjusting to a normal life. Their dopamine tolerance has become so high that ordinary life fails to match it. They become like the rats in the earlier experiments, lacking the motivation to do anything if there isn't a substantial dopamine release.

It's not limited to drug addicts; people addicted to video games, social media, or internet pornography experience similar challenges. Once their dopamine tolerance reaches a certain level, they struggle to enjoy low dopamine activities.

This leads to a crucial question: Is there a way to prevent this from happening?

The solution lies in the concept of a dopamine detox. By now, you likely have a good idea of what a dopamine detox entails. It involves dedicating a day to abstaining from highly stimulating activities, allowing your dopamine receptors to recover.

A quick disclaimer: if you're struggling with drug addiction, it's advisable to seek professional help, as you may have developed both physiological and psychological dependencies. This is to avoid severe withdrawal symptoms.

Returning to the detox, for an entire day, you'll strive to minimize activities that offer pleasure. You won't use the internet or any technological devices like your phone or computer. You'll refrain from listening to music, avoid engaging in self-indulgent habits, and abstain from junk food. Essentially, you'll eliminate all external sources of pleasure for the entire day. You'll embrace boredom, and there will be plenty of it.

However, there are exceptions. You can go for a walk, meditate, engage in solitary reflection on your life and aspirations, and jot down any ideas that arise. These ideas should be noted on physical paper, not on your computer or phone.

This regimen might seem quite stringent, but it is through these extreme measures that remarkable results can be achieved in a short time. For those not grappling with substance addiction, a milder form of dopamine detox can be a viable option.

Select a specific day of the week when you'll abstain from one of your high-dopamine behaviors entirely. This behavior can be of your choosing, whether it's excessive phone usage, marathon video game sessions, TV binge-watching, overindulgence in junk food, or consumption of internet pornography. On this designated day, you'll inevitably experience some boredom, and that's the intention. The goal is to allow your dopamine receptors to recover from the torrents of unnaturally elevated dopamine. Surprisingly, boredom can spur engagement in alternative activities that you might typically put off due to their limited dopamine rewards.

While periodic abstinence from high-dopamine behaviors is commendable, the ultimate objective should involve reducing or eliminating these behaviors to the greatest extent possible. The aim is to reallocate a more substantial share of dopamine to activities that yield long-term benefits.

In this endeavor, it's illuminating to view high-dopamine behaviors as rewards for completing demanding tasks. This is precisely the approach I employ in my personal routine. I meticulously track the hours dedicated to strenuous, low-dopamine tasks, encompassing activities such as tidying my living space, refining my piano skills, consuming literature, partaking in physical exercise, and creating educational content.

Once I've accomplished a predetermined volume of low-dopamine work, I reward myself with a proportionate duration of high-dopamine indulgence at the day's conclusion. This structure maintains a critical sequence, with high-dopamine activities following the completion of more demanding tasks.

If you were to invert this sequence and indulge in high-dopamine activities beforehand, the motivation to engage in less rewarding pursuits would substantially diminish. In essence, your motivation would dwindle.

To illustrate, for every completed hour of low-dopamine work, I allocate myself 15 minutes of high-dopamine enjoyment at the end of the day. These ratios align with my preferences but can be adjusted to suit individual inclinations.

It is essential to underscore that if you're addicted to something harmful to your health, you should not perceive that behavior as a suitable reward. Instead, seek an alternative reward that does not jeopardize your well-being, one that you still find worthwhile. This reward should offset the effort required.

As for my personal guilty pleasure, it's the internet. Hours can effortlessly slip away as I navigate its vast expanse. Consequently, I've devised this system to exert control over my indulgence. Nevertheless, even with this system in place, I occasionally set aside days for complete abstinence from high-dopamine activities.

In conclusion, it is entirely possible to make arduous tasks more approachable. However, when your brain is perpetually bombarded with excessive dopamine, the motivation to undertake tasks offering limited dopamine wanes.

Therefore, it's prudent to curtail excessive engagement with mobile devices, computers, and other high-dopamine behaviors. This choice promises substantial returns.

For individuals grappling with motivation issues, the implementation of a dopamine detox is a recommended course of action. By consciously disengaging from artificially elevated dopamine levels, everyday, low-dopamine activities can once again ignite enthusiasm and sustain engagement.

In reality, we are all to some extent dopamine addicts. This isn't inherently detrimental, as dopamine serves as a driving force for the pursuit of goals and self-improvement. However, the source of your dopamine remains a matter of personal choice.

Will you channel your dopamine into activities that offer no genuine benefit, or will you harness its potential to propel you toward the realization of your long-term aspirations?

The decision rests with you.