Dopamine Detox: Week 2 Lessons and Musings
14 days in baby! The realizations don't stop coming and they don't stop coming...
Hey friend! I’ve made it through two full weeks of my dopamine detox and I’ve got to say I’m feeling pretty good!
My Biggest Challenges This Week
Videogames continue to be the thing I miss the most. I ruminated on this and came to the conclusion that the games I play are so addicting and such a dopamine boost because I am constantly completing tasks and getting rewards throughout them. Every few minutes I get a reward and thus a dopamine boost. With this knowledge, I feel like I can add games back into my life but on a scheduled basis.
My next biggest challenge this week was dealing with my fatigue and brain fog without coping devices. Once again, I was forced to sit with myself and my emotions regarding the situation and process them thoroughly.
What was my general mood throughout the week?
My week started off a little more irritable. As the week progressed however I started feeling better and better. I noticed my irritability faded from multiple times throughout the day to only brief periods at the end of the day to virtually no irritability.
Once again, I had more energy than usual and overall felt way more clear headed which has been such a huge bonus of this all. As the week progressed I noticed myself feeling happier and more playful in general.
My Biggest Takeaways This Week?
Oddly enough, I’ve been craving less sugar.
I did not expect this challenge to impact my eating habits but when I think about it it makes complete sense. See dopamine spikes can happen when we eat as well. After all, it was a survival mechanism for us to continue to find food, shelter, safety, etc. So when we’re stuck requiring more and more and more dopamine we often turn to things like high sugar, high fat, or high salt foods. They taste good and feel good to our brains.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed my sugar cravings are wayyyyy down. I used to require a sweet treat every day/night and while I still treat myself throughout the week it’s nowhere near the same frequency as before. I’m simply not craving it the same way I used to. A happy bonus.Fatigue is a big mental trigger for me.
Now I can’t say I didn’t know or recognize this pre-challenge but it’s become more apparent without my typical coping mechanisms. This is something I’ve realized for a while now. When I’m struggling with my chronic fatigue I get incredibly moody, irritable, depressed, etc. It’s something I’m now actively working on and trying to release and that brings me to my next point…Rest days are necessary but should be planned. There needs to be a balance.
I can be a bit of a workaholic. I grew up with two workaholic parents and the lines are incredibly blurred for me when it comes to working too much in life.
Around day 10 I noticed I was getting more irritable. Irritable I wasn’t able to be productive all the time despite the measures I was taking. Irritable I hadn’t had my version of a “rest” day (video games, smoking, etc) in so long. At this point, I also had the realization that I had been taking way too many “rest days” before the challenge where I was just checking out of life.
I’m someone who preaches balance but was not living a very balanced life. I realized that I have way too many days of half rest and half productivity now as well and while I’m sure that works for some folks it leaves me feeling like I’m always needing to be “on.” For me personally, I need set days where I’m getting down to business and set days where I allow myself to rest and mentally check out to feel my best.Our internal narrative is incredibly important in determining how we feel, react, and respond to all of life.
Again, this is something I knew before the challenge but had not been living in that knowledge.
Our internal narrative determines how we feel about ourselves, others, and where we are in life. It determines how we respond and react to others and the ups and downs of life. It truly changes our brains for better or worse.
My internal narrative was not good the past couple of years. As I’ve been going through this challenge and forced myself to look deeper I’ve realized this and have been working on it. I can already say in just two weeks I feel so much better adjusted to life and its stressors. My brain is becoming a safer place to be in and I can feel the growth that this new environment is creating internally and externally.Social media is incredibly hard to avoid even if you’ve removed yourself from it entirely.
This comes as no big shock but when you’re off of the apps it makes you even more aware of it. From friends texting you posts to people physically sharing posts with you in person, it’s very hard to avoid.
Of course, being shown a post is not the same as sitting down and scrolling for hours but if you were truly addicted to it I can’t imagine recovery would be easy by any means with how engrained in our culture it is.
With this said, I’m genuinely much happier off of social media apps like Instagram and don’t plan to download it to my phone again. If I do continue to use it in any capacity it will be a disposable app for me or I will use it on the web browser so I’m forced to sit down at a computer instead of having the ability to carry it everywhere with me.I can absolutely find a way to waste time if I want to without needing my high dopamine substances. (Thank you to my ADHD.)
Week one I was hyperproductive because I was looking to fill my time with things 24/7. Week two I noticed I slowly started to let myself slack. I would sit down on the couch and watch too much TV or go on one of my “approved apps” and scroll for a little too long. I would avoid tasks I needed to get done, like laundry, in favor of deep cleaning my car.
Shit, I can even avoid tasks by staring at a tree for a long period of time. Truth is, if I want to avoid something I don’t need an app or game to do it. That’s the that on executive dysfunction baby!My brain functions best when I don’t use my phone or view any media in the morning.
This is a huge one for me. Like I said above, this past week I started finding ways to avoid or procrastinate on tasks. I realized the days I did this most I started off browsing news websites, Reddit, or watching a few Youtube videos.
For me personally, a low dopamine morning routine sets me up for success for the rest of the day. Instead of looking at my phone, I can start my morning with a book and coffee, do a few quick chores, or take the dogs on a walk. When I avoid my phone for as long as possible I feel better, I’m more productive, and it doesn’t put me in that cycle of continually checking my phone for a dopamine hit.
I will say as this challenge has gone on I’ve realized it’s not quite as transformative as I built it up in my head to be but there are so many benefits to doing it and I’m so glad I decided to go for it. Overall, I do feel better and it was a wake-up call for me to help get my life back on track and out of auto-pilot mode. Some of the things I took out during this challenge have been incredibly easy to part with and others have been very difficult. It’s made me realize that I will add some things back into my life but with rules on how and when and other things I simply won’t add back in because I’m happier without them.
They say week 3 is where you really start to feel the full benefits so I’m interested to see how the next week goes.
Until next time!
Xoxo,
Roo
P.s. 5 spring mocktail recipes will be coming to Mundane Joys this week! Keep your eye out for the post!
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