Dopamine Detox

 I spent nearly 20 hours on Instagram, 15 hours on Youtube and 14 hours on Netflix one week.

It's safe to say I suffered from a crippling case of Phone Addiction.

Hello everyone and welcome back!

The stats you read above is not limited to just me. 
Nearly every teenager with an access to social media suffers from the above.

I've spoken about Phone addiction and Doom Scrolling  in my earlier posts but for today's post, I thought, why not share a few tips to overcome the same?

Without further ado,
Let's dive right into it!

Firstly,

What is a "Dopamine Detox" and Why is it important?

It's reducing the amount of content intake we consume from the tiny little box we carry around in our pockets 24x7.
This post is mainly going to focus on Dopamine Detox in relation to social media.

Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat, Twitter - you name the media - are packed with news and content. Content that keeps you hooked. Content that brings the app, money. Content that makes you a product, an object. 

This content is essentially a "dopamine trigger"; dopamine being a "pleasure or reward-seeking" hormone put simply. Put a little more complicatedly, your pleasure response is a complex process involving multiple physiological mechanisms. In that cascade of circuitry, dopamine is the neurotransmitter that tells your brain to repeat a behaviour.

When we consume social media heavily, the levels of dopamine in our body increases significantly. And the repercussions of the same include being linked to being more competitive, aggressive, obese and having poor impulse control.

This is why a "Dopamine Detox" is important - to gain back control in your life. To snap out of a world of make-believe and ground yourself in reality. 

How do you embark on a "Dopamine Detox"

If you think posting an "off" story, cutting out, or deleting the social media app is the key to detox, I'm sorry, you're going to be crawling back onto the app within 15 minutes.
From being addicted to something so much so that you can't spend an hour without it to going to an absolute 0, all by yourself (specifying so as to not confuse it with Rehab), is not going to work.
We don't have that self-control and it's a fact.

You might log back thinking "Oh well, just 5 minutes of media, just to catch up on everything" and BAM! It's been 3 hours!

At times you might not even realise you've opened the app and have begun watching reels -Your brain just automatically knows to swipe and click on a few buttons on your screen and you land up on Instagram (I cannot describe the countless amount of times this has happened to me!)

A much better way to go about starting a Dopamine Detox is to first mark your starting point. 
How much time are you spending a day?

Then work backwards.
If you're spending about 2- 3 hours on an app, set a goal for 1 hour.
If it's lesser or more - adjust accordingly to your convenience (but be legit and strict with yourself)

Dimaag mei sochna easy hai, but apply karna mushkil.

To this, I would recommend app timers. 
Samsung phones are usually built-in with a feature where you can set a time limit for an app after which the app becomes inaccessible for the rest of the day.
Personally, this was the most effective technique for me.

I started off with youtube; it would show me the amount of time I had left each day which helped me "conserve" the time for later in the day which ultimately got accumulated to night and I slept off, leaving the 30 minutes unused. 
I gradually began doing this with other apps as well and it has worked wonders.

You need a physical external force to stop you from doing something that is uncontrollable by you.

A necessary tip I would advise before going on a Digital Detox is to have an activity which does not involve social media (Google is an exception provided you use it for productive purposes).
For example, when I don't use social media, I keep myself occupied with academics or blogging or some other activity. 
If you don't have a backup, you're going to get bored within an hour and regress into your old habits.

Go slow; eventually you yourself will notice how much more productive you are without social media and will appreciate taking a break from the same.

Last but not least, everyone is different and has different levels of tolerance so don't compare your style and schedule with your friends.

If you want to learn more about this topic from a cognitive perspective, I would recommend reading Harvard Medical School's article on it!

That was it for today's post! Drop down if you've tried/will try this sometime soon.
Don't forget to share and comment for more <3

(Also this was a 3am thought so excuse the length)

Signing off,

Kuhu :)