I am a bit of a perfectionist - but not in a good way. I like to do things well immediately. And when I do, I get a rush of happiness from my achievement. But because most things don’t go right immediately, or take a lot of time, I am quite susceptible to procrastination. A few months ago the YouTube algorithm presented me with a magic tool to productivity: the “dopamine detox”. Multiple videos surrounding the method popped up on my feed, but I wasn’t sure if it would really work the wonders that some claimed. I finally decided to test it out for myself and share my experience with you.

What is a dopamine detox?

A dopamine detox is derived from the idea of a dopamine fast, created by a psychiatrist. However, some forms of the current dopamine detox to deviate from the original method. The trend of dopamine fasting and now crowned “dopamine detox”, took off as a creativity and productivity enhancer in Silicon Valley. The basic idea is to limit the release of dopamine (especially “instant dopamine”) for a day. Some say this means that after the detox mandatory and usually dull or not very rewarding tasks will generate more dopamine and therefore you’ll be more driven to do it. A dopamine detox can be done in different extremes. There is no official rule book, but this is a basic overview of the 3 levels of extreme:

The most extreme version is to almost truly do nothing: no food, only water as a drink, no exercise only light walks, no human contact, no work, no internet, and no forms of entertainment (eg. music, books, laptops, TVs etc). Basically, some of the few things you can do are: mediate, drink water, take an easy walk, sleep, and sit alone with your thoughts.

Then you have the medium extreme (which I did). In this version people usually abstain themselves from everything you might consider “bad” for you: no electronics (phone, laptop, tv, game console, etc.), junk food, and drinks that are not water. Also music or podcasts are usually still banned at this “level”. What people usually do allow themselves to do during the medium extreme which isn’t done in the most extreme version is: (light) exercise, eat “clean” foods, read a physical book, converse with people they encounter, clean.

And a “light dopamine detox”, where you just restrict just one or a few things you know give you instant gratification but isn’t good for you. For example, you might give up gaming and social media for a full day. With this level the recommendation is to repeat it every week or two weeks.

What does science say?

Science doesn’t really support the theory of the current dopamine detox trend. And it’s important to note that it has swayed from the original method by the creator of the “dopamine fast”, Dr. Cameron Sepah. This fast was only supposed to last a few hours and to be “minimally disruptive to our lifestyles”. Next to that dopamine is also a natural chemical that is in our brains, and we can’t truly turn it off for a day. Also not engaging in human interaction isn’t necessarily productive or healthy!

My experiment

I decided for the medium level, instead of naming everything I couldn’t do I’ll list what I could do: drink water, eat whole foods, exercise, use my laptop/the internet for school purposes, read, take part in my driving lesson.

Mainly the start of the day was really hard, I usually listen to a podcast while making breakfast and watch YouTube or a TV Show during my breakfast. Because I wasn’t allowed to do this, I found the start to my day quite dull and I did not feel energized. It did make me realize how I am not a fan of silence in the morning, especially not when I eat.

Once I started working for school I wasn’t too bothered. The only thing that I didn’t like was again the lack of background noise. I usually put on background music while I do my work in order to concentrate better. Now that I did not have this music, I could hear everything that was happening outside my window and I found this quite distracting.

During lunch and dinner, I again struggled with the fact that I had to eat in silence with no distractions. I have thought in the past about becoming more “mindful” when eating, but honestly this was a bit much.

One thing I did like is that the day really showed me my tendencies and habits. I became more aware of what I was doing and normally do on a day to day basis. I also must say not checking my messages was nice. I didn’t really have a problem with no social media, because at the time I had already temporarily taken social media apps off my phone to focus more on work for my classes.

As for the days after: I felt a bit more productive day one after my experiment, but my “drive” quickly faded in the days to come. I am however still more aware of my day to day actions, which is nice.

My takeaway…

In short: a “dopamine detox” is not for me, although it definitely made me more aware of my habits and tendencies. I’m not even sure how much more productive I was during the dopamine detox itself; a lot of my energy was spent on trying to resist my urges and trying not to get distracted by noises. I think a dopamine detox might work for some, but if you want a dopamine detox to have an actual effect you will have to consciously work on fostering its effects in the “post-detox” days. If you consider doing this I recommend first reading this article published by Harvard Health Publishing and doing your own research!