Written by: Aasutosh Subedi - 24070, Grade XI
Posted on: 23 December, 2022
Have you ever wondered what is responsible for us being addicted towards certain activities? It is a part of our nervous system; so let's find out what it exactly is and what it does.
The part of the nervous system that is responsible for all the addiction, satisfaction and pleasure, is dopamine. What exactly is dopamine? Dopamine is basically a chemical messenger also known as neurotransmitter. It is also known as the happiness hormone. It plays a vital role in our body. It is involved in movement, memory, reward seeking, attention seeking, pleasure, mood, sleep, arousal and satisfaction of the body. The release of large amounts of dopamine forms a habit or craving, for example when we are choosing a food to eat, our brain tells us to pick the one which releases more dopamine as it gives us more pleasure. Basically, the internet platforms and video games have switched from chronological feed to algorithm based feed. This is why video games have levels and ranking systems as they make us keep coming back to the game, and this is exactly what makes us addicted. Social Media platforms have such algorithms that make us release dopamine faster and this gets us addicted towards the platform and forms a habit.
What is the best way to not set an unwanted habit or get addicted towards something? The method that helps is dopamine detox. What is dopamine detox? Dopamine detox is restraining yourself from all activities that can raise your dopamine level. When we detox dopamine, we detach ourselves from everyday stimuli. Dr. Cameron Sepah is the creator of dopamine detox. Why should we try dopamine detox and how does it help us? As we know, dopamine is basically responsible for people becoming overweight, alcoholic, drug addicts and addicted to video games or others. Even extreme sexual desire is because of dopamine and basically it is the reason why people tend to have forced sexual intercourse. Dopamine detox is the process when we basically avoid bad habits that make us feel pleasure or any kind of satisfaction. It is said that we’ll stop doing a set of addictive activities after 90 days of dopamine detox. Dopamine detox is done when we basically give up doing addictive tasks that are unhealthy for our health like playing too much video games, using social media, consuming sugar, binge-watching series and start getting engaged in healthy tasks. The healthy tasks that are to be done in dopamine detox are exercises, talking to people, doing our normal tasks, cooking and also reading.
What are the benefits of dopamine detox? Basically the real benefit of dopamine detox is that we will start getting rid of bad habits and start forming good habits. We will gradually start becoming even healthier as we will stop consuming unhealthy substances and also stop consuming stuff on social media. We will stop procrastinating and doing unwanted activities which will give us more time for important activities. The other benefits of it are stress relief, lower blood pressure and improved sleep.
I would like to conclude by saying that dopamine detox is not completely possible as dopamine naturally occurs and the brain produces dopamine all the time. Dopamine detox is also not a scientifically researched approach. We will obviously feel pleasure or satisfaction and crave for many things which will release dopamine from our brain so that a true dopamine detox is not possible; however, in the process, we will get rid of many bad habits and also we will start feeling healthier and fresher.
