How I Tricked My Brain To Like Doing Hard Things (dopamine detox)

Summary

This thought-provoking video explores the role of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that drives motivation and desire, in shaping our behaviors. It delves into how our brains crave activities that release high levels of dopamine, such as video games and social media, while struggling with tasks that yield lower dopamine rewards. The video proposes a 'dopamine detox' – a temporary abstinence from high-dopamine activities – to reset our sensitivity and regain motivation for less stimulating but more productive pursuits. Ultimately, it encourages finding a balance by consciously linking dopamine rewards to meaningful goals, fostering a healthier relationship with motivation.

Takeaways

• 😀 Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that motivates us to desire and pursue rewarding activities. It plays a key role in shaping our behaviors and priorities.
• 😮 Our brains can develop high dopamine tolerance to activities that provide frequent or intense dopamine hits, making low-dopamine activities less appealing or motivating.
• 💻 Modern technologies like social media, video games, and internet browsing release high levels of dopamine, contributing to increased dopamine tolerance and decreased motivation for productive activities.
• 🧘‍♀️ Performing a 'dopamine detox' by abstaining from high-dopamine activities for a period can help reset dopamine levels and make low-dopamine activities more rewarding.
• ⏱️ Using high-dopamine activities as rewards for completing low-dopamine, productive tasks can help associate dopamine release with beneficial behaviors.
• 🎯 It's important to consciously direct dopamine release towards activities that align with long-term goals and personal growth, rather than relying on short-term pleasures.
• ⚖️ Maintaining balance and moderation in dopamine-releasing activities can prevent the development of unhealthy tolerances and addictions.
• 🌱 Cultivating an appreciation for low-dopamine activities through practices like meditation and self-reflection can increase motivation for productive pursuits.
• 💡 Understanding the role of dopamine in motivation can help individuals make more conscious choices about their behaviors and priorities.
• 🔑 Developing strategies to manage dopamine release and tolerance is crucial for maintaining motivation, productivity, and overall well-being.

Q & A

What is the role of dopamine in motivation and behavior?

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that makes us desire things and gives us the motivation to pursue them. High levels of dopamine are released when we anticipate a potential reward, driving us to repeat rewarding behaviors.

Why do people often struggle with motivation for difficult tasks?

Activities that release high levels of dopamine, like video games or social media, become more appealing and rewarding than activities that release lower levels of dopamine, like studying or working on projects. Our brains develop a tolerance for high dopamine levels, making low-dopamine activities feel less exciting.

What is a dopamine detox, and how does it work?

A dopamine detox involves abstaining from high-dopamine activities for a period of time, allowing dopamine receptors to recover and regain sensitivity. This makes low-dopamine activities feel more rewarding and exciting again, increasing motivation.

How can the dopamine detox be implemented?

There are two main approaches: 1) A full day without any high-dopamine activities like technology, junk food, or entertainment, embracing boredom. 2) Avoiding one high-dopamine activity for a day each week.

What is the author's strategy for using high-dopamine activities as rewards?

The author tracks low-dopamine work and rewards himself with a limited amount of high-dopamine activities (e.g., 15 minutes for each hour of work). This way, he stays motivated to complete difficult tasks by using enjoyable activities as incentives.

Why is it important to limit exposure to high-dopamine activities?

Excessive exposure to high-dopamine activities can lead to dopamine tolerance, where normal, everyday activities feel less rewarding and exciting, making it harder to stay motivated.

How does the concept of homeostasis relate to dopamine tolerance?

Homeostasis is the body's tendency to maintain a balanced state. When exposed to high levels of dopamine consistently, the body down-regulates dopamine receptors to maintain homeostasis, leading to dopamine tolerance.

What are some examples of high-dopamine activities mentioned in the script?

Playing video games, scrolling through social media, watching internet pornography, eating junk food, and using technology like phones and computers.

What advice is given for people struggling with addictions to high-dopamine activities?

For serious addictions, such as drug addiction, the author suggests seeking professional help. For less severe cases, implementing a dopamine detox and finding alternative, less damaging rewards can be helpful.

What is the key takeaway from the script?

It's important to be mindful of the sources of dopamine in our lives and to ensure that we're getting enough dopamine from activities that benefit us in the long run, rather than relying solely on short-term pleasures that can lead to tolerance and reduced motivation.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 The Role of Dopamine in Motivation

This paragraph explains how the neurotransmitter dopamine plays a crucial role in motivation and desire. It describes experiments on rats where stimulating or blocking dopamine release significantly impacted their motivation to perform activities. The paragraph highlights that our brains release dopamine when we anticipate potential rewards, which motivates us to repeat rewarding behaviors. However, activities that release little dopamine, such as studying or working, can feel less appealing compared to highly rewarding activities like video games or social media.

05:00

⚖️ Dopamine Tolerance and Homeostasis

This paragraph discusses the concept of homeostasis, where our bodies try to maintain internal balance. It explains that when exposed to high levels of dopamine regularly, our bodies develop a tolerance, leading to a downregulation of dopamine receptors. As a result, activities that release lower amounts of dopamine become less interesting, making it harder to motivate oneself to engage in productive but less rewarding tasks. This tolerance can lead to addiction-like behaviors, where people constantly seek high-dopamine activities while neglecting less stimulating but beneficial activities.

10:00

🧘‍♂️ Dopamine Detox and Managing Rewards

This paragraph introduces the concept of a 'dopamine detox,' where one abstains from highly stimulating and rewarding activities for a period to reset dopamine receptors. It suggests either a full day of avoiding all sources of external pleasure or dedicating one day a week to avoiding a specific high-dopamine behavior. The paragraph then discusses using high-dopamine activities as rewards for completing low-dopamine, productive tasks. It provides an example of the author's system, where they earn 'high-dopamine time' based on completing low-dopamine work. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the importance of managing dopamine sources and aligning them with long-term goals.

Keywords

💡Dopamine

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain that plays a crucial role in motivation and desire. The video explains that dopamine is often misunderstood as a pleasure molecule, when in fact it is what makes us desire things and gives us the motivation to pursue them. The video uses examples of rat experiments where stimulating dopamine release caused rats to compulsively pull a lever, while blocking dopamine made them lethargic and unmotivated.

💡Motivation

Motivation refers to the driving force that propels us to take action and pursue certain activities or goals. The video explores the neurological basis of motivation, explaining how dopamine levels influence our motivation to engage in different behaviors. It contrasts activities that release high levels of dopamine (e.g., video games, social media) with those that release lower levels (e.g., studying, working on a business), and how this affects our motivation to pursue them.

💡Dopamine Detox

Dopamine detox is a concept introduced in the video as a way to reset our dopamine receptors and regain motivation for less stimulating activities. It involves intentionally avoiding highly stimulating and dopamine-releasing activities for a period of time (e.g., a day or a specific day of the week) to allow our brains to recalibrate and find pleasure in less intense activities. The video suggests that this can help us overcome the tolerance we develop to high-dopamine activities.

💡Homeostasis

Homeostasis is the biological principle that the body seeks to maintain internal balance and stability. The video uses this concept to explain how our bodies adapt to high levels of dopamine by down-regulating dopamine receptors, leading to a tolerance and a need for higher levels of stimulation to achieve the same effects. Homeostasis is presented as a key factor in the development of addictions and the difficulty in pursuing low-dopamine activities.

💡Addiction

Addiction is a complex condition characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding behaviors, despite negative consequences. The video discusses addiction in the context of dopamine and how activities that release high levels of dopamine (e.g., drugs, video games, social media) can lead to tolerance and a decreased ability to find pleasure in less stimulating activities. It suggests that modern society floods our brains with unnaturally high levels of dopamine, potentially contributing to addictive behaviors.

💡Reward System

The reward system is a group of brain structures and neural pathways that are activated by rewarding stimuli, such as food, sex, or drugs. The video explains that dopamine plays a key role in the reward system, as it is released in anticipation of potential rewards. The rat experiments demonstrate how directly stimulating the reward system can lead to compulsive behavior, while disrupting it can result in a complete lack of motivation.

💡Boredom

Boredom is the state of feeling disinterested or lacking engagement due to a lack of stimulation or activity. The video presents boredom as a potential tool in the dopamine detox process, suggesting that intentionally embracing boredom can make less stimulating activities more appealing and enjoyable. By temporarily depriving the brain of high-dopamine activities, boredom can reset our dopamine receptors and make low-dopamine activities more rewarding.

💡Delayed Gratification

Delayed gratification refers to the ability to resist immediate rewards or pleasures in favor of longer-term goals or benefits. The video advocates using high-dopamine activities as rewards for completing low-dopamine but productive tasks, rather than indulging in them first. This concept of delaying gratification aligns with the idea of connecting dopamine release to beneficial activities, rather than relying solely on immediate pleasures.

💡Incentive

An incentive is something that motivates or encourages a particular behavior or action. The video suggests using high-dopamine activities as incentives or rewards for completing low-dopamine work or tasks. By associating the dopamine release with productive activities, the brain can be trained to find those activities more rewarding and motivating, rather than relying solely on passive pleasures.

💡Self-Control

Self-control refers to the ability to regulate one's emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in the face of temptations or impulses. The video emphasizes the importance of self-control in managing dopamine levels and avoiding addiction or excessive indulgence in high-dopamine activities. Strategies like the dopamine detox and delayed gratification require self-control to resist immediate pleasures in favor of long-term goals and well-being.

Highlights

Dopamine is what makes us desire things, and it's that desire that gives us the motivation to get up and do stuff.

Your brain develops priorities in large part based on how much dopamine it's expecting to get. If an activity releases too little dopamine, you won't have much motivation to do it. But if an activity releases a lot of dopamine, you'll be motivated to repeat it over and over.

Our bodies have a biological system called homeostasis, which tries to maintain a balance. With dopamine, our bodies down-regulate dopamine receptors, leading to a dopamine tolerance, making it difficult to motivate ourselves for low-dopamine activities.

Examples of high dopamine behaviors include scrolling through social media websites, playing video games, watching internet pornography, etc. We anticipate some sort of reward with each one of those behaviors, leading to a constant craving for a new dopamine hit.

To perform a dopamine detox, set aside a day where you avoid all highly stimulating activities, like using the internet, phone, computer, music, junk food, etc. Embrace boredom to let your dopamine receptors recover.

A smaller dopamine detox involves picking one day a week to refrain from one of your high dopamine behaviors completely. This allows your dopamine receptors to recover and makes low-dopamine activities more appealing.

Ideally, avoid high dopamine behaviors altogether or as much as possible. Instead, connect more dopamine to activities that benefit you in the long run.

Use your current high dopamine activities as a reward for completing difficult work. Track your low dopamine work and reward yourself with high dopamine activities after completing a certain amount of work.

It is possible to make doing difficult things feel easier by limiting your exposure to high dopamine activities and letting your brain recover from the unnaturally high amounts of dopamine.

Separate yourself from the unnaturally high amounts of dopamine, or at least expose yourself to it far less frequently. Only then will normal, everyday, low dopamine activities become exciting again and you'll be able to do them for longer.

We are all dopamine addicts to a certain extent, and it's up to us to decide where we're going to get our dopamine from – things that don't benefit us or working on our long-term goals.

Drug addicts, video game addicts, social media addicts, and internet pornography addicts all experience the same difficulty in adjusting to a normal life due to their high dopamine tolerance.

Before you eat comfort food, your brain releases dopamine because you anticipate that the food will make you feel good, even if it actually makes you feel worse.

The highest dopamine release happens when you get a reward randomly, like playing on a slot machine in a casino.

Neuroscientists did experiments on rats where they implanted electrodes in the rats' brains and stimulated their reward systems. The rats developed such a strong craving that they kept pulling the lever to get a dopamine hit until they dropped from exhaustion.

Transcripts

You probably don't have a problem playing video games or browsing social media on your phone.

In fact I have no doubt you could sit in front of a screen and do both of those activities

for 2 hours, or even longer without breaking your concentration.

But what about half an hour of studying?

Oof.

That might be too hard.

How about working on your side business for another hour?

Hmm.

Doesn't sound too appealing.

Even though you logically know that studying, exercising, building a business or something

equally productive, will bring you more benefits in the long run, you still prefer watching

TV, playing video games and scrolling through social media.

One might argue that it's obvious why.

One activity is easy and doesn't require much effort, while the other activity is difficult

and it requires you to apply yourself.

But some people seem to have no problem studying, exercising, or working on their side projects, regularly.

Which begs the question: Why are some people more motivated to tackle difficult things?

And is there a way to make doing difficult things, easy?

To answer this question, we need to look at this brain neurotransmitter: Dopamine.

Dopamine is often considered a pleasure molecule.

But that's not quite what it does.

Dopamine is what makes us desire things.

And it's that desire that gives us the motivation to get up and do stuff.

If you're not sure how powerful dopamine is, let me introduce you to a few experiments

neuroscientists did on rats.

The researchers implanted electrodes in the brains of rats.

Whenever the rat pulled a lever, the researchers stimulated the rat's reward system in the brain.

The result was that the rats developed a craving so strong they kept pulling the lever, over

and over for hours.

The rats would refuse to eat or even sleep.

They would just keep pressing the lever until they would drop from exhaustion.

But then the process was reversed.

The researchers blocked the release of dopamine in the brain's reward center.

As a result, rats became so lethargic that even getting up to get a drink of water was

not worth the effort.

They wouldn't eat.

They didn't want to mate.

They didn't crave anything at all.

You could say that the rats lost all will to live.

However, if food was placed directly in their mouths, the rats would still eat and enjoy

the food.

They just didn't have the motivation to get up and do it themselves.

You would think that it's thirst or hunger that motivates us to get food or water.

But there's also dopamine that plays a key role here.

Those rat experiments might be extreme cases.

But you can see similar effects dopamine has in humans and in our daily lives.

In fact, your brain develops priorities in large part based on how much dopamine it's

expecting to get.

If an activity releases too little dopamine, you won't have much motivation to do it.

But if an activity releases a lot of dopamine, you'll be motivated to repeat it, over and over.

So which behaviors release dopamine?

Any activity where you anticipate there's a potential reward, releases it.

But if you know there are no immediate rewards with the behavior, your brain won't release it.

For example, before you eat comfort food, your brain releases dopamine, because you

anticipate that the food will make you feel good.

Even if it actually makes you feel worse.

That's because your brain doesn't even care if the high dopamine activity is damaging

to you.

It just wants more of it.

A stereotypical example would be someone who's a drug addict.

He knows that what he's doing is not good for him.

But all he wants is to get more of that drug.

Besides getting you high, cocaine and heroin release unnatural amounts of dopamine, which

in turn makes you crave them even more.

Of course it has to be noted that nearly everything releases some amount of dopamine.

Even drinking water when you're thirsty, does.

But the highest dopamine release happens when you get a reward randomly.

One such example is playing on a slot machine in a casino.

Even if you've only been losing money until that point, you eventually expect to get a

bigger reward.

You just don't know when it could happen. And in today's digital society, we are flooding

our brains with unnaturally high amounts of dopamine on a daily basis, even if we don't

know it.

Some examples of high dopamine behaviors include: scrolling through social media websites, playing

video games, watching internet pornography, etc.

We anticipate some sort of reward with each one of those behaviors.

That's why we're constantly checking our phones.

We expect to see a text message or some other notification.

And we know that eventually we're going to receive it.

We're becoming like those rats pulling the lever, tying to get a new dopamine hit.

And you might think, "Oh so what?"

"It's not like it's harming me in any way."

But you'd be wrong.

Our bodies have a biological system called homeostasis.

It means that our body likes to keep internal physical and chemical conditions at a balanced level.

Whenever an imbalance occurs, our body adapts to it.

Let me give you an example: When it's cold outside, our body temperature falls.

And as a result, we start shivering to generate heat and warm the body.

However when it's hot outside, our body temperature rises.

And we start sweating to lose some of that heat.

Essentially our body is looking to maintain a temperature of around 37 degrees Celsius

or 98 degrees Fahrenheit, no matter what.

But there is another way homeostasis manifests itself.

And that is through tolerance.

For example, someone who rarely drinks alcohol, will get drunk really fast.

But someone who drinks on a regular basis, will have to drink more alcohol, because their

body has developed a tolerance to it.

Essentially it takes more and more alcohol to make them drunk, because they've become

less sensitive to its effects.

And it's not much different with dopamine.

Your body tries to maintain homeostasis, so it down-regulates your dopamine receptors.

Essentially your brain gets used to having high levels of dopamine and those levels become

your new normal.

Thus you develop a dopamine tolerance.

This can be a huge problem, because the things that don't give you as much dopamine, don't

interest you any longer.

And it's much more difficult to motivate yourself to do them.

They feel boring and less fun, because they don't release as much dopamine, compared to

the things that do release it in high amounts.

That's why people tend to prefer playing video games or browsing the internet, compared to

studying or working on their business.

Video games make us feel good and comfortable, as they release a lot of dopamine.

Sadly things like working hard or reading, releases it in lower amounts.

This is one of the reasons why drug addicts who try to quit, have a hard time adjusting to

a normal life.

Their dopamine tolerance gets so high that normal life isn't able to match it.

They become like those rats from previous experiments who have no motivation to do anything

if there's not enough dopamine release.

And it's not just drug addicts.

People who are addicted to video games, social media or internet pornography experience the

same thing.

Once their dopamine tolerance gets too high, they simply aren't able to enjoy low dopamine

behaviors.

Which begs the question: Is there anything that can be done to prevent this?

The answer is you need to perform a dopamine detox.

By now might already have an idea what dopamine detox is going to look like.

What you're going to do is set aside a day, where you're going to avoid all the highly

stimulating activities.

You're going to stop flooding your brain with high amounts of dopamine and you're going

to let your dopamine receptors recover.

Just a disclaimer: If you're suffering from a drug addiction, then I suggest you seek

professional help, as you've probably formed a physiological and psychological dependence.

And I don't want you to experience any extreme withdrawal symptoms.

Now back to the detox.

For 1 whole day you will try to have as little fun as possible.

You won't be using the internet, or any technology like your phone or computer.

You're not allowed to listen to music, you're not allowed to masturbate or eat any junk food.

Basically you're going to remove all sources of external pleasure for the entire day.

You're going to embrace boredom.

And trust me, there will be a lot of boredom.

You are however allowed to do the following: Go for a walk.

Meditate and be alone with your thoughts.

Reflect on your life and goals.

Write down any ideas you get.

Not on your computer or phone, but on a physical piece of paper.

All of this might seem quite intense.

But if you want radical results and you want them fast, you need to be able to take radical action.

Now you might be asking yourself: Why would this even work?

You can think of it this way.

Let's say that you've been eating every single meal at the best restaurant in your town.

As a result, what happened is that those fancy meals became your new normal.

If someone offered you a bowl of plain rice, you would probably refuse.

It simply wouldn't taste as good as your usual restaurant meal.

But if you suddenly find yourself stranded on a deserted island and you're starving,

suddenly that bowl of plain rice doesn't seem so bad.

And that is what the dopamine detox does.

It starves you of all the pleasure you usually get, and in turn, it makes those less satisfying

activities more desirable.

To put it simply: Dopamine detox works because you become so bored, that boring stuff becomes

more fun.

Now if you don't want to take such extreme action and starve yourself of all the pleasure,

you can perform a smaller dopamine detox.

You're going to pick one day of the week, where you're going to refrain from one of

your high dopamine behaviors completely.

Whatever that behavior might be.

Maybe checking your phone all the time, playing video games on your computer, binge watching

TV, eating junk food, watching internet pornography, whatever.

And from now on, every single week for one whole day, you're going to avoid that activity.

You can still do other things, but the behavior you pick is off limits.

Yes, you will feel slightly bored, but that's the point.

You want to let your dopamine receptors recover from the unnaturally high dopamine that's

been flooding your brain.

And boredom is going to propel you to do other things that day.

Things that you would normally put off, because they don't release as much dopamine.

And because you're bored, it's easier for you to do them.

Of course avoiding high dopamine behavior once in a while is good.

But ideally you should avoid those behaviors altogether, or at least as much as possible.

Instead you want to connect more dopamine to the things that will actually benefit you.

And what I found is that your current high dopamine activities, can serve as an incentive

to pursue things, that actually give you those long term benefits.

In other words, you could use your high dopamine activity, as a reward for completing difficult work.

And this is exactly what I do myself.

I track all the difficult, low dopamine work I do.

Cleaning my apartment, practicing the piano, reading books, doing some sort of exercise,

creating these videos, etc.

After I'm able to get a certain amount of work done, I reward myself with some amount

of high dopamine activity at the end of the day.

The key words here are: after, and, at the end of the day.

If I indulge in high dopamine behavior first, then I'm not going to feel like doing the

low dopamine work.

I'm simply not going to be motivated enough.

So I always start with the difficult things, only then I allow myself to indulge in high

dopamine activities.

To give you an example: For every completed hour of low dopamine work, I reward myself

with 15 minutes of high dopamine behavior at the end of the day.

That means that for 8 hours of low dopamine, I allow myself roughly 2 hours of high dopamine

behavior.

Of course, these are my ratios.

You can tweak them to your liking.

Also it has to be noted that if you're addicted to something that's damaging to your health,

then you don't want to treat that behavior as a reward.

Instead find a different reward, that's not as damaging.

One that you still think is worth the effort.

And if you're wondering what my guilty pleasure is, it's the Internet.

I can easily get lost there for hours without doing anything else.

That's why I have this system.

It's so I'm able to control my addiction.

But make no mistake, even with this system, I still plan days where I abstain from high

dopamine activities completely.

To conclude this video I want to say that it is possible to make doing difficult things,

feel easier.

But when your brain is getting so much dopamine all the time, you won't be as excited about

working on something that doesn't release much of it.

That's why you might want to limit your phone and computer usage, along with other high

dopamine releasing behavior.

And I can tell you that it's definitely worth it.

So if you have motivation problems, start dopamine detoxing your brain as soon as possible.

Separate yourself from the unnaturally high amounts of dopamine, or at least expose yourself

to it far less frequently.

Only then will normal, every day, low dopamine activities, become exciting again and you'll

be able to do them for longer.

We are all dopamine addicts to a certain extent.

And that's a good thing, because dopamine motivates us to achieve our goals and improve

ourselves.

But it's up to you to decide where you're going to get your dopamine from.

Are you going to get it from things that don't benefit you?

Or are you going to get it from working on your long term goals?

The choice is yours.

If you enjoyed this video, I would really appreciate if you would gently tap the like button.

It helps out my channel a lot, as the almighty Youtube algorithm sees that people like these

kinds of videos and it shows my content to a bigger crowd.

This allows more people to start improving their lives.

As always, thanks for watching, and I hope this video made you better than yesterday.