the 20-something's guide to a dopamine detox:: spring cleaning part III (aka:: how to apply “spring cleaning” to your mental health!)
okay i swear i had all intentions of making this a 2 part series, but here we are…part 3 wellness big sisters & misters!!
there is a huge trend around dopamine & digital detoxes right now, so i wanted to dive into our pathways for motivation & reward, the reason to do a dopamine detox, in addition to general “spring cleaning” & tidying up for our mental health! this one might be my favorite one yet, so buckle up because this one gets so real!
what is dopamine & why does it matter? time to get micro!
dopamine is the neuromodulator involved in helping us feel motivated, excited, & hopeful, in addition to helping us fine tune our movements. it is the primary reason we might feel successful, driven, or a certain amount of pleasure in a particular activity or food. (dark chocolate anyone…? just me? okay…) dopamine can be the reason we continue to pursue an activity or goal, but it can also be the reason we experience a drop in mood after we’ve achieved that goal. dopamine is also heavily involved in addiction & addictive behaviors. the rise & fall of dopamine above & below baseline throughout the day helps inform our subjective experience of a certain situation & whether or not we will want to pursue that activity again. clearly it is a super important neuromodulator to understand when it comes to our mental health, pursuit of a goal, movement, & overall wellness!
dopamine is controlled via multiple circuits to target both movement quality & our feelings of motivation, drive, & reward. it is released both locally (neuron to neuron receptor ) & volumetrically (let’s dump it all into the system!). dopamine can have a cascading effect, meaning dopamine attaches to a receptor that signals or opens a door to a subsequent, cascading event. i like to think of it like a chocolate fountain. for the cascading events of dopamine, i might dip my strawberry in one of the many various fountains coming off the main “receptor” that accepts the chocolate… i mean dopamine! in general, the effects of dopamine are slow, meaning we may not experience the effects of it immediately; it may take a few seconds to minutes (trust me, verrryyy slow when it comes to the brain & neural pathways!).
how we feel is associated with how much dopamine we have in our system & the level of dopamine we currently have compared to our most recent experience. if our dopamine levels are higher, we will feel motivated; if our dopamine levels are lower, we will feel less motivated. the delta, or difference, between our dopamine levels currently compared to our previous dopamine levels determines how we feel. for example, if we listen to our favorite song, we might experience higher levels of dopamine. this higher level of dopamine is followed by a subsequent lowering of dopamine below baseline proportionally to the increase, so a few minutes after we listen to our favorite song, we might not feel as rewarded or motivated. your levels will eventually return to baseline, but this is why you might buy a piece of clothing you’ve really wanted, then a few minutes later not feel the same satisfaction actually having the item in your closet!
let’s dive in deeper to this mountainous, peaks, & valley situation for dopamine. if we have a girls night with our best friends, eat our favorite food, listen to the best music, & watch our favorite movie, we experience extremely high levels of dopamine, but our lowering below baseline is likely substantially lower than if we had just performed one of those activities. if we have a girls night, eat our favorite food, then wait a few hours before watching our favorite movie, then wait a few hours & listen to our favorite songs, we will have a rise & fall of dopamine, but we will likely experience the largest difference in our dopamine levels from baseline with the first super exciting activity, with each subsequent exciting activity not ranking “as exciting” due to our already elevated levels of dopamine. kinda crazy, right? our experience of something we enjoy & how much we actually enjoy it can be altered based on our dopamine levels for the prior activity!
a quick, micro note on the movement side of dopamine:: think parkinson’s disease. in parkinson’s disease, our movement quality & timing is affected. a lot of times, patients with parkinson’s have what we refer to as a “shuffling” gait pattern, stiffness, & tremors. a lot of the time we have to work on a patient’s movement, balance, gait, strength, & ROM, & overriding some of the neural circuits through music, dance, or patterned movements, like boxing!
what is it with dopamine/digital detoxes, & how do we “spring clean” our dopamine systems?
dopamine detoxes & digital detoxes have been all the craze lately. a dopamine detox can mean different things for different people, but in general, it revolves around refraining from certain activities, foods, experiences, etc. that we may have become slightly addicted to in order to “reset” our dopamine levels & our ability to experience various dopamine highs to a fuller extent.
in order to healthify & spring clean our dopamine systems, we can prioritize…
cold exposure, which has been shown to increase baseline dopamine levels for a sustained period of time after cold exposure!
retraining our thought patterns to allow our “reward” & motivation to be tied to the journey rather than the destination. a lot of the time when we are pursuing a goal, we allow the goal to become the reward, which causes more difficulty for us to be motivated day-to-day when trying to reach a goal. if we can learn to tie the effort to the increase in dopamine, we will be that much more motivated throughout the journey!
randomly assigning rewards & randomly varying when & how we experience dopamine highs. for example, if working out with music causes you to experience more motivation, try working out randomly without music so you aren’t constantly having to increase the amount of dopamine your body requires in order to feel motivated to workout!
dopamine detox checklist
my proposal for a dopamine detox involves checking in on possible behaviors that might become addictive. for example, & yes…this is true, i notice myself oftentimes reaching for my phone during silent moments for no particular reason. i don’t have to check my emails. i don’t have to answer a text. i’m simply just picking up my phone because that is what i have programmed myself to do. sometimes i’ll check in on social media to see how something is performing or to find inspiration, but i rarely just sit in the silence & notice my environment. i’m also a huge podcast girly, but that oftentimes means that i am constantly seeking some sort of input, learning, or distraction. so now that i’ve been a bit vulnerable, take a look at possible activities that are becoming addictive or numbing for you. a disclaimer:: none of these things are inherently bad. i am simply just bringing them up to see if you notice anything with your own patterns or reliance on these things! all of these activities or experiences are wonderful, but sometimes it is nice to take a step back to “spring clean” this list & see how much time you are truly relying on these activities for pleasure rather than experiencing relationships & the beautful world around you!
social media
podcasts
music
reading a book or certain type of book
snacking
movies
tv shows
online shopping
spring cleaning for our emotions… written therapy
this topic is so much deeper than words on a page, but i believe checking in on our own emotional health & being honest with our feelings is so necessary if we are truly “spring cleaning” ourselves body, mind, & spirit to be the wellest sisters & misters. i’m about to finish the book “untangle your emotions” by jennie allen, & i cannot recommend it enough. it takes a faith-based perspective on our emotions & teaches you steps to take to start to untangle the web of emotions we all have. over the last 6 months or so, i have been on my own journey in regards to my emotional health, working to untangle all that is involved in my own mental health. it has been a challenging but rewarding experience, & i have found so many parallels in my journey, my own emotional health, & jennie allen’s book.
part of what her book talks about & what i have been working on revolves around “somatic tracking”, or sensing how certain emotions or experiences make my body feel & where they are located in the body. it involves sensing the emotion, where it comes up in the body, & allowing it space to tell its story with your full attention. a lot of the time, our emotions get pushed down, & we silence them before they are able to speak. sometimes it is necessary in the moment, but then we don’t revisit them, & they never get to tell their story. it is such a complex & complicated experience, & i know i am only explaining it in an elementary way, but as one wellness big sis to another, take a look at your emotions. write down different experiences, how they made your feel, where you felt them in your body, & allow them to tell their story without judgment. your body & mind will truly thank you!
& if you feel you may be in need of professional help, i encourage you to seek out a counselor or therapist to guide you. our body really does keep the score, & our emotional health is heavily related to our physical health. if you need encouragement or have been thinking about trying therapy, let this be your sign to take the first step towards untangling whatever knots you find yourself in. love you, sister!
side note:: i love personifying my emotions because it helps me view them as friends & helpers, rather than “negative” or “fearful”. i always think of the movie series “inside out” when i think about emotions & emotional health, & there is so much truth in that little movie! (cannot wait for the 2nd one!)
as a part 2 challenge for may, take some time to reflect on activities, thoughts, or patterns that you find yourself in often. for me, i’ve been focusing on stopping the spiral of negative thoughts in their tracks & paving the way for new, hopeful, & positive thinking! i’ve also tried to take inventory of my own digital use & increasing thresholds for dopamine, so i encourage you to check in with yourself as well!
this post was so much fun to write, so i hope you guys learned a lot from this spring cleaning series:: part I for the body, part II for the brain, & part III for emotional health!
all the best,
kelsy
