The Dopamine Fast Alternative: A Lifestyle Approach to Reset Your Nervous System

Hey there, everybody, and welcome to this presentation on an alternative lifestyle approach to the dopamine fast. I'm your host, Dr. Donnellice Snipes. There's been a lot of talk about the dopamine fast over the past few months and it has become sort of a fad, if you will. And so I want to talk a little bit about what that is, what dopamine is, and a potential alternative, more, more lifestyle centric approach to the dopamine fast. So in this video, we're going to talk about the function of dopamine, we're going to overview the dopamine system, we'll explore the concept of tolerance and withdrawal, identify the main principles of the dopamine fast, highlight some potential dangers of the dopamine fast, and then explore a dopamine fast alternative. Does the dopamine fast actually reduce dopamine? No. Dopamine fasting is a catchy title that some very enterprising publisher came up with for a book that explores principles for reducing compulsive and addictive behaviors and enhancing mindful awareness and mindful behaviors. The dopamine fast focuses on eliminating or greatly reducing problematic pleasurable behaviors. And that's one of the things that seems to be very strongly emphasized in the dopamine fast. Additionally, the dopamine fast can be done intermittently a certain number of hours per day, like one or two hours or four hours a night, or a certain number of days per week, for example, the two weekend days or a certain number of weekends per month. But what does dopamine actually do? Dopamine is so much more than our, quote, pleasure chemical. In reality, dopamine is actually not a pleasure chemical. It's a motivation chemical. And it prompts the release of other neurochemicals like endorphins that help us feel pleasure. Dopamine is involved in our movement. People with Parkinson's disease and restless leg syndrome have a dysfunctional dopamine system. Dopamine is involved in our energy levels. People with high dopamine tend to have high energy, and people with low dopamine tend to have low energy, which is one of the reasons that people on antipsychotic medications, for example, may feel more fatigued, because antipsychotic medications act to lower dopamine levels in the brain. Dopamine is also integral in the sleep process by assisting in the regulation of the circadian rhythms. So that's another really important thing there. We need good sleep. Dopamine is also implicated in our libido. Low dopamine, low libido and pain modulation. Low dopamine, low pain tolerance. Dopamine has also recently been associated with inflammation. As dopamine levels go down, systemic inflammation levels may go up. Additionally, and this is the one we generally think of with dopamine, is mood. When people are engaging in activities that are pro survival or pleasurable, dopamine is released and often increases other neurochemicals that do produce the pleasure. Like our endocannabinoids, our endorphins and serotonin. Dopamine is also involved in cognition or our thought processes. It helps us with attention. If we're going to do something and our body's going to say, hey, let's do that again. Dopamine is saying, hey, pay attention to this. Dopamine is involved in memory formation. It helps us figure out what to pay attention to and helps us form those memories. And it also prompts decision making based on what's going to produce survival, what's going to produce the most pleasure. Dopamine is what I generally call a motivation chemical. And again, it's involved in so many different biological and psychological processes that grossly underestimates its power. But dopamine levels are really integral in motivation. It's our I want to do that again neurochemical. I want to get off the couch and go do that neurochemical. And dopamine is also important in impulse control. People who have low levels of serotonin and high levels of dopamine tend to be more impulsive. Serotonin helps with mood regulation. So if people are having difficulty regulating their mood, they may be more likely to act impulsively. Dopamine receptors like most other neurotransmitters, dopamine receptors are found throughout the body. They're not just in the brain. They're not just in any one place. And imbalances can be caused by a variety of things. We need to remember that just saying my dopamine is too low or too high is a significant oversimplification of what's going on. And in order to fix it, we, we need to understand a little bit more about what could be causing the symptoms of not enough dopamine. There may be enough there, it's just not. The system's not working well. Too little dopamine may be made for some reason the person, either due to their nutrition or stress in their life. They may not actually be producing enough do dopamine. It's possible too much or too little being secreted in response to a stimulus when the brain is overstimulated. For a long period of time, it starts to turn down its sensitivity to stimulation. So things that normally would trigger somebody's attention or get them motivated just doesn't do it anymore. So the brain becomes, or the nervous system becomes less responsive to stimuli in the environment. Likewise, if somebody has experienced trauma, they may become what we call hyper vigilant. So their brain is on high alert. And people respond extremely strongly to stressors in their environment or to stimuli in their environment. It could be that there's a dopamine imbalance, either too much or too little, because the dopamine is staying in the synaptic space for too long. When dopamine, or not long enough. When dopamine is released from one neuron into the synaptic space before it goes to the other neuron, the receptors, it sits there for a minute, and the longer it sits there, the more is absorbed. At a certain point, the brain releases enzymes that break down the dopamine and it gets taken back up, it gets put back into storage, if you will. And I know for you neuroscientists over there, you're probably cringing, but let's just go with that analogy. So if it doesn't stay in the synaptic space for long enough, if it's broken down and put away too quickly, then not enough gets through to the other side. Likewise, if it sits in the space for too long, then the other side becomes supersaturated or hypersaturated. Too much gets through. So it's important to recognize that it may not be dopamine itself. It may be the enzymes that break down the dopamine that are out of whack. Insensitivity or hypersensitivity of the dopamine receptors can also cause alterations in dopamine levels for various reasons. Some people's receptors, when dopamine comes a knocking, may not be as sensitive. But other times the receptors are super supercharged and will respond excessively strongly. During addiction especially, or anything that causes excessive stress and a neurotoxic environment in the brain, it's possible that dopamine receptors actually get eliminated and new neurons neurogenesis, the new neurons that are formed kind of shrivel. Think about being in a garden. When you plant a plant from, from the time it's a seed through a seedling, that's when it's most vulnerable to being scorched by the sun or to drought. Once it turns into a plant and it has some good solid roots, it's a lot more resilient. So we need to Recognize that if people's brains are regularly scorching, if you will, the new neurons, then we may start seeing a loss of a net loss of neurons in the brain. And we've seen in people who have ptsd, who have chronic stress, who have addictions, that there is a significant change in the structure and the density of the brain and there can be just a breakdown in the communication between neurons. Maybe stuff goes from one neuron into the synaptic space, gets picked up by the receptors, and it's sent down to the next neuron. But there's a breakdown in the communication, there's a breakdown in the nervous system. So there are a lot of different reasons that dopamine can get out of whack. And focusing on dopamine itself greatly oversimplifies our system. Homeostasis is a term we use a lot, and it means balance. And each person has a thermostat, if you will, to maintain homeostasis of the different neurochemicals in their body. Alterations of any hormone or neurochemical impacts most other hormones and neurochemicals. So alteration in dopamine is going to impact the levels of serotonin, endorphins, norepinephrine, glutamate, thyroxine, oxytocin, our bonding hormone, and even estrogen and testosterone. When neurons are exposed to ultra high levels of a hormone or neurotransmitter, the nervous system very rightly regulates itself. That's the awesome thing. Our brain and our body are wired for self preservation. So when it starts running too hot, if you will, it takes steps to reduce the stimulation if too much stimulation exists, if there's too much dopamine, for example, then receptors are shut down, if you will, in order to prevent system overstimulation. Think about alcohol. When people drink alcohol initially, they may get a buzz from drinking one or two drinks. And then it doesn't take long before. It takes far more than that for them to get the same buzz that is their body shutting down the receptors and saying, you know what? No, I'm not going to, not going to let that stimulation through. When we were younger or when I was younger, many, many years ago there were movies that were out. And when people watch movies from the 70s and 80s now, a lot of times they find them dreadfully slow and boring. Back then we thought they were just super exciting. But we've become habituated, we've become used to this high intensity, constant stimulation, both visual and auditory during movies, that the old fashioned movies aren't stimulating enough. Anymore. So our as a society, we have actually become somewhat tolerant to dopamine in many situations. If too little dopamine exists and this occurs, people start experiencing cravings or withdrawal if the cravings are not acted on, if the person doesn't self medicate by engaging in something that will produce a dopamine tsunami, eventually more receptors are created. And because they're not maintaining that neurotoxic environment, those receptors are able to flourish from seedling to full plant. Now, the dopamine, fast, if you will, may have some benefits to it. Because no matter how you do it, if you are giving your body a break from this overstimulation, it can be beneficial. Think about if you are driving your car and, and you're driving it on the interstate or wherever and you are just pedal to the metal, not advocating for it because I'd be breaking the law. And you drive for a long, long time and your engine block starts heating up. Well, then you take a break, you let it cool down and then you start driving again. Well, that's possible. And if you have not been in a habitual state of overstimulation, then the intermittent dopamine fast can be really helpful because you haven't done made permanent changes in the brain. You've just gotten that engine block a little too hot and you need to let it cool down. So that can be really cool. Unfortunately, and like everything, there is no one size fits all treatment or intervention that works for everyone. And the biggest caveat that I've seen with the dopamine fast, and we see the same thing with yoga and meditation in some people who have trauma histories, suddenly eliminating all sources of excessive stimulation can lead to significant physiological and psychological discomfort. When people are forcing themselves, even if they're doing it willfully, willingly, when they're forcing themselves to sit with their own thoughts, with their own feelings, with their own sensations, and they become aware of those, it can trigger a cascade of flashbacks and dysphoric feelings, which may be really overwhelming to somebody with trauma. Reduced levels of dopamine stimulation may also trigger them to want to self medicate because they've seen that when dopamine levels are reduced, when dopamine levels go lower, that PTSD symptoms may increase. And they've seen this some too in people who take antipsychotic medications and have ptsd. They've noticed that if dopamine levels get too low, PTSD symptoms may come back. It's not saying that somebody with a history of trauma can't do meditation, can't do yoga, can't do, eventually a dopamine fast. What I am saying is that the person needs to be very aware of the possibilities of what could happen when they still themselves and have tools and support to deal with that. In the event that it starts triggering distress, I promote what we'll call a dopamine fast alternative, and I've talked about this in somewhat in other videos on resetting the nervous system. The dopamine fast alternative is a lifestyle approach and what I'm encouraging people to do. It's not for an hour, it's not for weekend. It's an actual intentional reduction of overstimulation on a daily basis throughout your life. So it's a lifestyle approach to reduce activation of the stress response. We're not just targeting dopamine. We're not just targeting problem behaviors. What we're trying to do is reduce the activation of that stress response system, reduce the neurotoxic environment from all those excitatory chemicals that are just running way too hot. In this way, we're hoping to help the person feel less wired or conversely, exhausted. Sometimes people feel really, really wired, and then as soon as they sit down, they're just plum exhausted. And that's not really how we're meant to be. So the dopamine fast alternative, or the DFA lifestyle, is one that embraces moderation stress, even eustress, and that's positive stress, like going to a theme park or riding a roller coaster triggers excitatory neurochemicals, and this will refer to as our hot neurochemicals. When those are happening, your physiological processes are increased, your heart rate's going faster, your breathing's going faster, your excitatory neurochemicals are flooding the brain. Even if you've had a wonderful day, if you've been at a theme park all day riding rides and experiencing, you know, regular surges of euphoria, you're going to be plumb exhausted by the end of the day. It's not just negative stress or distress that causes us to feel exhausted, that causes us to burn through energy. Chronic stress can create a neurotoxic environment that can lead to neuronal death and systemic inflammation. By eliminating excess input, excess stimulation, you're able to reduce neurotoxicity, including neurotoxicity of things like norepinephrine and glutamate, which are two of our stress, distress, fight or flight hormones. By reducing excess stimulation, we allow ourselves to learn to notice our feelings and develop the skills we need to tolerate distress. So when we feel angry or scared or depressed, we don't automatically start getting stressed out about it and feel like we are going to be overwhelmed. We don't automatically trigger a additional stress reaction. We become more mindful of ourself and our environment. We start to notice how we're feeling. We start to notice the things around us. How many things do you miss because you're typing on your phone or because you're listening to music and just be bopping along and you don't notice things like bunny rabbits that are hopping along on the side of the road? By reducing excess stimulation, we also encourage ourselves to find other sources of dopamine and simple pleasures. Now, those simple pleasures may not produce the same intensity of a rush that addictive behaviors do, that adrenaline type activities do, that drugs do, but it's going to help us recognize, it's going to help us feel content without feeling overstimulated. So these simple pleasures can be anything, whatever it is that makes you smile. And a lot of times when we are overstimulated, we are so focused on, you know, all being bombarded by everything. We miss a lot of the good stuff. We miss a lot of the rainbows and the bunny rabbits and the, you know, pretty flowers. And by reducing excess stimulation, we allow ourselves to become better able to identify and address the underlying causes of compulsive or impulsive behaviors. A lot of times we engage in these compulsive behaviors or addictive behaviors in order to escape or avoid either physical or emotional distress. As soon as we're not engaging in those behaviors, we notice the distress and we're given the opportunity to figure out, okay, well, instead of just avoiding it, you know, sweeping it under the rug, what can I do to actually deal with it? And sometimes our compulsive or impulsive behaviors are just under stimulus control, which means we're on autopilot. We see something, we do something, we see a television, we turn it on, we see food, we eat it. And by becoming more mindful and reducing excess stimulation, we are more able to notice when we have an urge and discover that we can have an urge without having to act on it, when. Which decouples that stimulus control. So instead of the stimulus controlling us, the stimulus may trigger us, but our brain has control. So what do you do in a dfa? Start by creating a more relaxing environment. And there are three S's. Safe, secure and singular. It needs to be safe. If you don't feel safe, if you can't actually sit down, take a breath, relax Close your eyes and not be stressed out or fearful. That's not a safe environment. So what can you do to create a safe environment? What can you do to create an environment in which you feel secure, in which you feel loved? And what can you do, and this is the really hard one for us, for most of us anymore, is to create a singular or a mindful environment. And what I mean by that is create. Creating an environment in which you're focusing on one thing in the moment. If you're eating, you're focused on eating. You don't have the television on and the dogs barking and the baby throwing stuff on the floor. Now you, obviously the baby, you may need to pay attention to them. I'm not saying not to, but recognizing, focusing on as few things as possible in the moment. If you're watching television, you're watching television. You're not watching television. And knitting and waiting for your phone to ring and looking at push notifications when they come up, you are, that's me. You are focusing on the television. Or if you're knitting, you're focusing on your knitting. That's the first step, you know, really start figuring out how can I create an environment that's safer and more secure? So doing just that is going to reduce your stress because you don't feel hyper vigilant. You don't feel like you've constantly got to be on edge, like when are the dogs going to bark or when is somebody going to come in and need something? It's an environment where you can relax and singular and that will come next. And choose activities one at a time. Singular focus when you do something. When you take a shower, focus on taking a shower. You know, not listening to the news and thinking about what you got to do at work. But focus on the shower. When you are brushing your teeth, identify particular activities and try to focus on those as you do them. That in and of itself can reduce a lot of stress, but start there and remember, this is a lifestyle approach. So you aren't going to do all of these things the same day. You're going to gradually add them in. As you get good at one, then you can add in another one. Practice deep diaphragmatic breathing for one minute three times a day. And I encourage you to put in push notifications in your, in your phone, whether it's when you get up and at lunch and when you go to bed or some other random times. Set a timer for one minute so you don't have to count your breaths. You just breathe in for a count of 4 or maybe 8. Hold for a count of 4 or maybe 8. Exhale as slowly as possible, hold for a count of four or maybe eight. And eventually you won't even need to count. You'll just breathe in, take a really big deep breath as much as you can. You'll hold for as long as you can. You'll exhale slowly and then you'll hold for as long as you can, and then you'll repeat it. And in one minute, you're probably only going to have time to do a couple of those breaths. So it's not something that's going to feel like an eternity. I also encourage you, when you start practicing the breathing, to also practice doing it when you notice you're feeling stressed or overstimulated. If you're feeling overstimulated at your desk, just push yourself back, you know, get into a place where you feel safe and comfortable so you can relax for a minute. Close your eyes and take one of those deep breaths. Hold it, exhale, hold it, maybe do it a second time. But that will trigger your vagus nerve response, that will trigger your relaxation response and, and help reduce the excitement or neurotoxicity of the brain. Stay hydrated. That's a really easy one. But hydration is essential for maintaining neurological communication throughout our body. It's essential for pain management. It's essential for cushioning our joints. Staying hydrated can reduce distress, it can reduce activation of your stress response because of pain. Reduce caffeine. Caffeine triggers a rush of dopamine and norepinephrine. So reducing caffeine is one easy way, sort of easy way to give your brain a little bit of break of a break. So it's not running as high, it's not running as hot. Reducing caffeine. For most people, it's suggested that you do it gradually, reducing by maybe a 10th every week. So it'll take 10 weeks to get down to full decaf. But that will prevent a lot of your headaches and irritability. That may come along with reducing caffeine. Find activities that help you relax and take regular stimulation breaks. I encourage you to do this throughout the day and I'll do it at our office. When I start feeling overstimulated, I will go out and I will just take a walk around the office complex. Now it's not a park, but it's nice. Where I used to work at, we actually did have a park right behind the center that I worked at and we could go out and just walk around the, walk around the building and it was very nature like and very relaxing. One lap around I didn't hear over overhead pages, I didn't hear phones ringing. There was no chance of having email alerts come up or anything. I was just out in nature for a few minutes. And they've actually shown that some of the terpenes, some of the things that we smell when we're in a natural environment can reduce blood pressure and reduce our stress levels. Engage in only mild exercise if you're feeling rundown or unmotivated. And I have two asterisks by this because some people this will cause them even more stress. Obviously you need to choose interventions that work for you. But moderate to intense exercise increases cortisol and some of your stress hormones, at least briefly. Mild exercise actually reduces cortisol and stress hormone levels. Define your rich and meaningful life and use your energy with purpose. I've talked about this in other videos. Identify who's important in your life. When what are those relationships like? What do you do? How do you spend your energy to nurture those relationships? What is important in your life and how do you spend your energy to nurture that and identifying what things really actually need my energy. Does scrolling through TikTok or Instagram or Facebook use my energy in a way that's going to move me towards my goals or not? And generally the answer is no. And the interesting thing about a lot of social media is that it's actually been programmed to cause us to have repeated dopamine surges. And because of that it can be somewhat addictive. Reduce or time limit Internet usage and gaming which provides never ending novelty and reinforcement or stress. You can, if you're shopping, you can find never ending novelty in whatever you're shopping for. If you're looking at porn, you can find never ending novelty. If you are on TikTok you can find never ending novelty. Novelty triggers dopamine. So every time you find something that's new, you get this hit of dopamine. It's like, oh, let me pay attention to that. Likewise, some people when they are on the Internet or even when they're gaming, if they're losing it triggers a lot of excess stress that maybe they don't need. So it's important to really ask yourself, is this behavior an effective way to use my energy? Do I need to be doing this? Dopamine fasting does not actually reduce the amount of dopamine, although it aims to reduce the stimulation of your dopaminergic system from impulsive problematic behaviors. The dopamine fast alternative can help you rediscover things in your life that are pleasurable and be more mindful in your experience of them. Now remember, neither the dopamine fast nor the dopamine fast alternative necessarily promotes meditation of any sort. What we're trying to do is reduce being bombarded with input. We're trying to reduce distress. We're trying to reduce overstimulation. When you allow your system to rest and rebalance, you may find that you're more successful when you do need to focus or you do need energy or motivation because your system has had a chance to rebalance itself a little bit and it's not completely overloaded.