Why You Might Need a Dopamine Detox

If you’ve been having a hard time focusing, accessing creativity, and generally feeling more alive, maybe it’s not mushrooms you need in your life, but a dopamine detox.

Okay, time for some real talk just between you and me.

I am and have always been a super curious person, and for those who know the Meyers Briggs personality profiles; I’m an INFJ. Sigh.

I find myself constantly scanning the societal landscape on a micro and macro level.

Learning as much as I can about as many topics as possible is not only a virtue but, in all honesty, arguably a compulsion.

Why am I oversharing all this with you here? And what does this have to do with functional mushrooms? 

Well, it’s because my insatiable hunger for information, trends, and patterns, happens to come with a high price attached.

The progression over the years has been slow and hard to pinpoint, but I’ve eventually come to understand that there are so many things I used to love doing and now feel ambivalent about.

More than anything, I have a really hard time getting started and then staying focused.

As it turns out, there is a very strong correlation between how much online information I consume and my ability to focus, my access to a sense of enthusiasm, and my tendency to feel centered.

I’m swimming in dopamine.

What is Dopamine?

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a vital role in mood, pleasure, and the overall drive to complete a task. 

Dopamine is the hormone of desire and craving. A chemical that gets triggered during the process of achieving, acquiring, and executing.

Oftentimes, a dopamine crash is experienced upon the completion of a goal, a case in point is the Gold Medal Syndrome.

Suffice it to say, that dopamine is the juice that gives us the urge for forward motion. Any semblance of achieving something triggers a slow drip that, if consistently fed, will eventually become flooding.

The Science of Dopamine

Who better to explain the effects of the dopamine neurotransmitter than Dr. Andrew Huberman?

If you remember nothing else, remember this:

Dopamine is not the reward; it’s the build-up to the reward

Also what may be considered a bug and not a feature is that there is a law of diminishing returns when it comes to dopamine.

The easier and more accessible the dopamine hit, the sooner that life feels a little more muted and less appealing. 

In short, the more time we spend scrolling social media, the less likely we are to go out for a walk or meet up with a friend.

Watch this interview on Modern Wisdom discussing the effects of dopamine with Anna Lembke. 

She is a psychiatrist and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic at Stanford University and an author.

What is a Dopamine Detox?

Huberman also said that the future will reward those who know how to self-soothe and self-regulate. 

He suggests that those who understand their physiological states at any given time and can fluidly move back to a sympathetic (calm) baseline will be favored in all areas of life and society.

Even though I’ve been listening to podcasts since 2007, the changes in my life have felt slow and incremental.

Now in 2023, I listen to nearly a dozen podcasts every day, manage our social media groups (Facebook and Discord), check in on the many YouTube channels I follow, read a bunch of articles, and scan Instagram for news and inspiration.

That is just a regular day in my life.

I’m not saying it because I’m doing anything extraordinary; I’m saying it because you can likely relate and are also likely to be doing even more than what I listed above.

I know I need a dopamine detox. Immediately!

Perhaps you might also benefit from such a discipline. This man explains Dopamine Detoxing so well. 

And for those at home keeping score, yes, I did enjoy a pleasant dopamine hit from discovering his excellent content. 

Titrating our flow of dopamine is a crucial skill for us all to learn if we want to level up and thrive.

In the 21st century, it’s vital to learn how to manage our flow of dopamine for maximum personal output with minimal anxiety, procrastination, and yes, maybe even less self-loathing.

How to dopamine detox (fast)

The way to detox or fast from dopamine is to reduce any activity or stimulus that would trigger this hormone.

Sadly, the activities to be reduced are all the fun ones, such as screen time, eating, shopping, podcasts, music, etc.

So in real life, this can look like installing Kill News Feed, it’s a web browser extension that blocks you from seeing the news feeds on Facebook.

Another great extension is Distraction Free YouTube, its YouTube filter or sorts. It stops you from being distracted by videos of kittens, dance challenges, and/or kinetic sculptures.  

Other Detoxing Habits Include

Free, accessible, and doable limits you can impose on yourself while as a dopamine fast is to turn off all notifications and also delete social media apps from your phone. 

You can also set your phone to grayscale so that your screen displays no colors whatsoever. 

The black and white colors are much less appealing and engaging, making it much easier to not spend time on the phone.

At the same time every evening, put the phone in another room or a closet and leave it there until at least mid-morning.

Impose limits on how much music and podcasts you listen to. Learn to be at peace while unstimulated.

No matter what you choose to reduce or eliminate, this guy has 4 key areas that must be addressed for an effective dopamine detox.

It won’t be long before you notice that a dopamine detox is a powerful mindfulness practice. 

A dopamine detox is a profound spiritual invitation, asking us to address our inner triggers while also allowing our internal chemistry to rebalance naturally. 

Basically, not for sissies.

Potential Benefits Include

Imagine overflowing manholes g after a rainstorm, walking the streets can quickly become tricky, right?

Reducing the flow of dopamine and limiting the hours within which it is triggered will free up your headspace like nothing else.

The effects of a dopamine detox can include:

• Improved focus and increased ability to concentrate (accessing flow states)
• Improved emotional regulation (more resilient)
• Improved emotional range (feeling emotions as they arise)
• Increased satisfaction (self-confidence and integrity boost)

Reducing activities that trigger dopamine will allow the brain to return to a sustainable sympathetic state.

Implementation of these disciplines will restore the mental bandwidth you’ve been hoping to access all this time.

What Does This Have To Do With Mushrooms?

My point with this article is that sometimes there are no supplements or compounds potent enough to correct the impact of certain lifestyles.

So yes, Lion’s Mane is known for its supportive effects on cognition and mood. Is it a silver bullet that will override the 14 hours spent on TikTok yesterday? Sadly, it is not.

If you really wanna take it to the next level you could start a dopamine detox while taking Lion’s Mane, now that would just turn you into a superhero. Are you ready for such a responsibility?

It’s fair to say that it’s time for us all to step away from all the screens, the activities, the stimulus, and the consumption.

As uncomfortable as it is to step into the silence of our minds and our lives, there is medicine on the other side of that.

To recap moving forward. Set yourself some boundaries. Replace your phone with an alarm clock. Reduce the likelihood of being in a heightened state during the day. 

Rinse and repeat for a minimum of 7 days. 

And if at any point you want to wear that superhero cape and include some high-potency dually extracted Lion’s Mane to your life, feel free to grab some here.

Are you willing to try some of my suggestions for a dopamine detox? Do you think it would serve you to try it? Tell me all about it in the comments below.

As always, 

Shine bright. Do good. Flow strong.

Asha ✨