Winter is my busiest season for various reasons (hello seasonal depression, my old friend).
I start prepping my clients as early as the fall and it’s always funny to me how nobody “thinks” they have sensitivity to the seasonal changes until... it’s the dead of winter and we’re all googling “how long does winter last” over and over again.
I always tell my clients that I wouldn’t recommend anything for them that I wouldn’t do myself. In order to prepare for winter, I had put myself on a dopamine detox starting in November and intended on maintaining it through the holidays. Dopamine detoxing is a bit of a misnomer, we cannot detox a neurotransmitter that we very much need to function. It is a phrase for eliminating one’s addiction to impulsive and short lived highs that are harmful to us.
Our licensing board had to update our testing materials to include for us, as therapists, to understand the mental health implications of 1) excessive tech use and 2) excessive social media use since they have become huge issues in terms of mental health.
Both are responsible for an increase of depression and anxiety symptoms, loneliness, delayed sleep, memory loss, body image issues, and physical health issues. Both create a negative feedback loop because when we feel worse, we tend to gravitate towards our phones and social media-- which keeps us addicted to feeling worse. And guess who benefits from that? (Hello tech execs and advertisers)
And this gets progressively worse in the winter months because the more we are stuck inside, the more we need more stimulation.
I think it’s appropriate to plug various studies that show how the constant scrolling and skimming of information is heavily impacting how our brains process things. Basically, we are robbing our brains of its ability to distinguish what is important and what is not, which is why we keep doom scrolling.
We are essentially rewiring our brains for instant gratification. And one of the most telling studies of all, shows that the brain scans of social media addicted brains were very similar to drug dependent brains, as well as mimics mania and depression similar to patients with bipolar disorder. It’s basically a constant cycling of very minimal highs and very low, lows. And the more it impacts our esteem, the more we become stuck in a never ending cycle.
How did I incorporate a dopamine detox and what did I learn:
For the past 2 and a half months, I minimized my tech use and reduced the time that I used my phone and social media
Here’s what I recommend for anyone attempting to change an addiction behavior:
-Replacement hobbies are a necessity and setting up your environment for success is a must. Make accessing tech and social media hard and make accessing your replacement hobbies, easy
-Accountability buddies don’t hurt
-You can buy a lock for your phone + gray out your phone so its less stimulating
-Deactivating your socials (as I write this... on social media, the irony is not lost on me and I will promptly hop off). The goal is not abstinence, but less engagement, and what that looks like varies from person to person. I have found success in periodically deactivating and letting instagram automatically reactivate once I hit my goal. Deactivating can be very helpful with starting a refresh with how you relate to your phone, almost immediately.
-Setting up a reward system for myself when I kept my screen time low was a huge motivator to keep going.
-Not looking at my phone first thing in the morning helped to set the tone for the day and feel less stressed. I set meal times as technology free time. I have designated areas in my space that are now virtually technology free zones.
I had intended to keep my strict detox going until post holidays, but after starting to lose steam last week, I decided it was better to stop restricting in order to prevent a binge. Remember restricting will always lead to binging. I feel my reentry into technological society was well earned and that I have cultivated habits that can continue to support me without having to be so limiting. There are some positive effects of social media and technology and I was starting to miss all of the little interactions with all of my friends and family. Plus, how will I make it through the holidays without some distraction?
What have I noticed for myself?
I have more time (the same amount of time, but just redistributed) to connect authentically with the people around me.
I have had more time to incorporate so many little moments of things I love throughout my day.
Being less plugged in to all the things happening in the world, helped me to feel more positive.
I have more patience and presence with myself and the people around me
Everyday we are bombarded with more reasons to keep using our technology and social media in the same ways. As a therapist, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t assess these in my clients and continue to remind everyone to cultivate more presence in their worlds, by starting with my very own.
