Get To Know Dopamine Detox Trends To Overcome Addictions

Happy People Illustration (Bruce Mars / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - In order to be free from stress, boredom, and feelings of unhappiness, people often do fun activities that arouse enthusiasm and passion. Any activity that smells of pleasure is closely related to dopamine, a neurotransmitter and hormone in the body that is associated with happiness.

Yes, who doesn't want to have fun? However, recently there is a trend that is being echoed, namely the dopamine detox. As if contrary to our daily habits, dopamine detox invites us to fast from fun things.

The name dopamine detox was coined by a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco and first became a trend in the Silicon Valley area.

This detox is carried out with the aim of changing cognitive behavior and wanting to restore normal living conditions without any interference from technology, including notifications, gadget sounds, social media, and so on.

So actually there are many ways to trigger dopamine. You can eat foods high in protein, reduce saturated fat consumption, sunbathe regularly, listen to music, and get enough sleep.

However, in today's era we also get dopamine from the internet and social media, including the number of likes on photos, the number of followers, and the number of comments, shopping online, playing games, to pornography. Recent versions like this will affect habits and lead to addiction.

When you become easier to trigger high levels of dopamine from light things, you will be lazy to do other activities that are heavier but produce little dopamine.

Having fun in your daily life is certainly good for your physical and mental health. However, if it is dealing with dopamine, then in fact pleasure must have a limit to be in a balanced position.

If your dopamine levels are too low, you will find it difficult to focus and feel unmotivated. However, if the levels are excessive then you will be in a phase of mania or excessive pleasure, hallucinations, and even delusions.

So, this dopamine detox is done to rearrange the brain so that it is free from small habits that provide instant pleasure that leads to addiction. Then, you can explore other activities that feel boring but can also be fun, for example exercising, studying, reading books, meditating, planning for the future, starting your own business, and other positive activities.

With dopamine detox, the hope is that people can be better, productive, don't delay work, and can have good relationships with people in the real world. Of course, so as not to become addicted to things that are not really useful for life.

How do you do this detox? Simply put, you have to stay away from the stimulus, whatever it is, for example cellphones as a whole, social media, games, online shops, or pornography. As much as possible, distance yourself from the stimulus or limit its contact.

Resist all the turmoil that makes you want to do these things and control yourself as much as possible. The easiest way is to close all access to it, for example deleting shopping applications, unfollowing online shops, blocking porn sites, and deleting all the games you have.

Do you have to stay away from it forever? Not really! You can also make a schedule to be more disciplined. For example, stay away from cellphones 3 hours before bed, two full days every weekend, and three full days a week on holidays.