The Dopamine Detox: A Comprehensive Debunking

Why is everyone talking about dopamine fasting? Sounds pretty sus. Lockdown boredom was intense, so I tried to understand how dopamine works (SCIENCE!) and if there are any merits to dopamine detoxing. I might have gone a little overboard with this very long take. *This video was originally uploaded in May 2021. Sources are located at the timestamp below. _____________ SOCIALS Twitter: Instagram: _____________ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Introduction 01:10 A Montage of Dopamine Detox Videos (ft. Better Than Yesterday, Improvement Pill, and more!) 06:43 So Is That What Dopamine Is? 09:25 Two Examples of A Dopamine Detox (Alex Becker vs. Nathaniel Drew) 12:03 I Did My Own Research and It Broke My Brain THE SCIENCE PART 12:57 Part 1 Neurotransmitters (HOW DO THEY WORK?) 15:11 Part 1.1 Dopamine Lore (Theories About Dopamine ft. Donkey Kong) 18:38 Part 1.2 “Reward“ - What Does This Word Actually Mean? 20:03 Part 1.3 Dopamine Is Complicated (ft. Avril Lavigne) 23:15 Part 2 Luckily There’s A Science Guy (ft. The Molecule Of More) 27:35 Part 2.1 Dopamine Misconceptions, Dopamine Addictions, and Rat Experiments 33:09 Part 2.2 Dopamine Levels (Can You Actually Measure Them?) 37:45 Part 2.3 DRUGS (How They Mess With Your Brain - Why “Dopamine Tolerance“ Isn’t Actually A Thing) 45:35 Part 2.4 You Are Not A Mindless Dopamine Machine (Clearing Things Up) 48:40 Part 3 Dopamine: The Molecule Of Addiction (What Is Addiction - Theories Of Addiction) THE DETOX PART 58:29 Part 4 What Are We Detoxing From? (ft. Andrew Kirby and the Time) 1:02:20 Part 4.1 Social Media is Ruining Your Life 1:09:33 Part 4.2 Video Games are Ruining Your Life 1:21:17 Part 4.3 The Bad Touch (NoFap and the Great pr0n Experiment) 1:37:30 Part The Coolidge Effect (Rats Doing It) 1:42:00 Part Shame and Sexuality (Doing It Is Different Than pr0n) 1:49:20 Part 4.4 Something Something Evolutionary Psychology 1:52:16 Part 5 You Are Not Supposed To Take Dopamine Fasting LITERALLY 1:55:05 Part 6 Why Everyone Is Using “Dopamine“ (And It Might Be OK, Sort Of) 2:02:47 Part 6.1 This Is All Entertainment (Random Online People Probably Can’t Solve Your Problems - but a little advice and motivation can be good) 2:06:11 LIMITATIONS and CAVEATS 2:07:30 SOURCES ()