First a disclaimer, I'm not a therapist and this is not a substitute for therapy.
So dopamine fasting is an idea that I'm seeing a few people on Youtube talk about, usually in the context of video games. The idea is that if you reduce your dopamine levels, you decrease your tolerance to dopamine and such activities become more enjoyable. You can see why this idea has started to take off. Just one problem. It is NOT POSSIBLE to lower your tolerance to dopamine. Not only that, but a lack of dopamine can lead to health problems. Abstaining from all pleasurable activity is NOT healthy.
The concept this came from was meant to limit problematic activity, like pursuing a specific pleasurable activity at the expense of everything else, (what some call "addiction") or compulsive behavior like checking social media every 2 minutes. It IS healthy to set a comfortable and regular timed abstention from problematic activity, (you don't have to give it up completely) and to replace that activity with something else you enjoy rather than purposefully induce boredom. You can also set a certain time or times to do that activity, such as checking social media for a set amount of time after meals. This won't directly make anything more enjoyable, but it does reduce stress and gives you more time for those other activities.
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2 weeks, 4 days ago
15 Oct 2025 02:33 CEST
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