Dopamine Detox

Out of many feel-good neurotransmitters , there is one called dopamine , that gets released in anticipation of reward , meaning when you anticipate pleasure , that's when dopamine surge is the highest . As per usual , humans have engineered life in a way that provides an intense , unnatural surge of dopamine Sugar .

Here is the biggest culprit Social media outlets , shopping , video games , where every time you log in you collect a reward . All of that is cashing into your dopamine reward system . Same with gambling , slot machines , you name it .

What we don't think about usually is that dopamine reward can also come from anticipating , let's say , decorating your home or looking forward to hugging a loved one , that bite of solid food after a long day of fast . Not all dopamine rewards are created equal . Kale doesn't have the same pleasure response as , let's say , a crunchy bag of chips .

20 plus years of marriage does not have the same dopamine response as the novelty of a new relationship , but ironically , all of these are still related to a dopamine response . Anything that you've ever experienced as satisfactory or pleasurable has dopamine related to it .

Heroin , on one hand , is the product that causes the highest dopamine reward of any other item known to man . In animal experiments , heroin has been shown to increase brain's dopamine reward system by 200% . Although anticipating a drink of water also gives you dopamine release , it's just not as intense as heroin .

So if you're binging on snacks , sugar , tv dopamine says this feels really good . So the lower brain then comes up with extremely creative stories to justify why this must be good for our long-term survival . To make matters worse , dopamine doesn't know what's good for us in the long run . That's our higher brain's job .

Dopamine is responsible for getting us out of the cave in anticipation of food and procreation so that we can survive . It doesn't know that engaging in either of these behaviors to access can actually kill us . This makes for a life where we consume instead of live . Now enter dopamine detox . What is that ?

That is a concept that's been equated to resetting your mind , kind of like a hard reset on your computer . So , like I described , dopamine is associated with false pleasure and true pleasure . False pleasure is related to consuming artificially engineered pleasures , and this will have unintended harmful consequences .

After the behavior , this type of pleasure is followed by pain , and that pain is bigger than the one that leads you to the behavior in the first place . Same dopamine is also associated with true pleasure , and this type of pleasure will enhance your life . The original pain will diminish and overall , your quality of life will improve .

You know the difference between the two . I just know that you know that's one of the life's lessons that we learn just by being alive . So while you might know the difference , you just don't know how to switch from one to the other . Let's explore that more . Dopamine burst happens when your phone dings while working .

Curiosity builds up as to who the message could be from or what the notification chime is responsible for . So dopamine creating that anticipation of pleasure directs you to take the action of picking up your phone for the hundredth time in an hour while your work stays unfinished and you come to the conclusion that I can't concentrate . I have ADHD .

This work is boring and hard , but consider this . There's also a dopamine response related to finishing the task at hand , the one you actually sat down to do . That pleasure is derived from anticipating how it will feel when we've accomplished this work . This dopamine reward is just not as high as answering the ding from the phone , which is an engineered stimulus .

One is a false desire , one is true . One decreases your life , which is an engineered stimulus . One is a false desire , one is true . One decreases your life , the other one enhances it . In his autobiography , will Smith accounts for his journey in the life and at one point he describes when he understood the difference between desire and purpose .

He says purpose and desire can seem similar but they are very different , sometimes even opposing forces . Desire is personal , narrow and pointed and tend towards self-preservation , self-gratification and short-term gains and pleasures . Purpose is wider , broader , a long-term vision encompassing the benefit of others , something outside of yourself you're willing to fight for .

There have been many times in my life where I was acting from the place of desire , but I'd fully convinced myself that it was purpose . So in this description he's basically describing . What I told you guys are the stories told to us by the lower brain . It makes desire seem like our highest purpose in life .

That lower self gets very creative in justifying why the false desire is needed . Then eventually it becomes a cycle about chasing desire , which is a hole that never seems to fill . It continues to get deeper and deeper instead . The more dopamine is released , the more you need it . You develop a desensitization to the chemical .

Same stimulus will not be enough to release the same amount of dopamine . You'll need to engage in the behavior longer or intensify the stimulus to get the same burst of dopamine . That's why , when you're chasing a reward , you need more and more of it each time . Here , dopamine detox seems to be the solution .

It is defined as a time period where a person avoids dopamine triggers for a set period of time , anywhere from hours to days . The massive reward of engineered stimulus and ease of availability of these instant gratifications makes for instant consumption , which is explained in detail in the book called Dopamine Nation .

This staged life is a complete setup for humans to fail . So thus we introduce something called dopamine detox , which is about resetting your brain , gaining some clarity , discovering your blind spots of where you are unknowingly engaging in false pleasure and your brain is calling it true pleasure .

During this detox period , people will avoid media , food games , sexual activity , anything that stimulates any sort of pleasure . In the Harvard Health blog article titled Dopamine Fasting , it is described that Dr Cameron Sipa , a California psychiatrist , who coined the term dopamine fasting , which is now referred to as dopamine detox , just because it's more catchy .

The article describes that when he created this , his intentions were to help people understand how addictions become reinforced . It had little to do with fasting or dopamine .

His idea was that by allowing yourself to be lonely and bored or to find pleasure in doing the simpler and more natural activities , we will gain control of our lives and be able to address compulsive behaviors that might be interfering with our happiness . So just to be clear , you cannot fast from dopamine .

You can only relocate it from false , harmful pleasures to pure , long-lasting rewards . Kind of like one hour of scrolling on the phone versus one hour of playing Monopoly with the family , afternoon of binge watching Netflix with an afternoon with basketball with the friends or walk on the beach with the besties or being mindfully present with Quran or Dhikr .

One of them gives you a net negative result in life , the other one net positive result . The point of dopamine fasting is not to eliminate the molecule , which is biologically impossible .

It is to just relocate the stimulus of dopamine from compulsive behaviors to simple pleasures of life , a life that you actually want to live , not a life that is being driven by compulsions .

Let's look at some historical development around this concept . In the early 20th century , scientists took rats and put them in a cage with two sources of water one plain and one laced with heroin or cocaine . Rats almost always showed preference for the drug water and almost always led to their death , proving addiction .

But in the 1970s , bruce Alexander of University of Vancouver questioned this setup and did what is now called rat park experiments . He designed experiments where he put rats in a cage with sources of drug-laced water and regular water , but this time he added tons of fun activities in the cage .

He made it a fun playground and gave them lots of fun activities like tunnels and friends to play with . He made the cage a rat heaven . Thus the name Rat Park Experiment . From this he found out that barely any rats used the drug water and in this setting , none of them used it compulsively and none of them overdosed . Why is this , you might ask ?

To help explain this , johan Hari , a journalist and author of book Lost Connection , says it turns out that rats were looking for connections . When they were alone in the cage , they connected with drug water . When they were in the park , they connected with other rats and didn't bother with the drugs .

The anticipation of connection was their dopamine feel-good source , rather than the drug being the feel-good source . He also says when we lose connection with others , that is when we develop a void . We fall into depression and anxiety and start to seek connection with materials , especially things that will help us lose touch of reality .

Now , this journalist , mr Harry , was actually physically abused as a child and he had some run-ins with humanly mistakes himself , like plagiarism , which he admitted to later on .

But he went on to dedicate his career to this topic , which is why I'm including him in this podcast , because if we have a tendency to judge him for his mistakes , we will also have a tendency to disregard him for his mistakes . We will also have a tendency to disregard his work . But when he speaks of lost connections , he speaks from a deep personal level .

So , based on these insights , let's examine humans . When we get addicted to substances video games , shopping , youtube , food , vacationing , workout that's because we are using these items to be our feel-good source rather than making a real connection with humans . But what I say to this is what if that connection was not with others ?

No one external , no one outside ? What if that connection was with ourselves . What if a dopamine surge happened in anticipation of connection with ourselves ? What if a dopamine surge happened in anticipation of connection with ourselves ?

And I'm suggesting not only is that possible , that is the primary purpose of dopamine detox as it is prescribed to us , especially through fasting in the month of Ramadan , when we voluntarily give up all of these pleasure stimuli , ramadan and dopamine detox . Give up all of these pleasure stimuli , ramadan and dopamine detox .

Now that's a catchy title , but let me explain why I go this route . You cannot find your connection with God if you haven't connected with yourself . In a hadith , qudsi Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam says Allah Almighty said I am as my servant thinks I am . So finding that connection with yourself will reflect what connection we then project onto Allah .

Author A Halwa says in her book Secrets of Divine Love by its very nature , parts of Quran will trigger you because this revelation is like a pure mirror . You see in it what you bring to it . If you come with hatred and separation , you will see hatred of your own heart reflected back to you .

If you come reflecting divine qualities of love , mercy , kindness , majesty , you will experience the taste of God's beauty . So this is very much about nurturing your divine qualities of love , mercy and kindness to yourself and then recognizing the love of Allah . So essentially , we reflect onto Allah what we have growing inside of us .

And without dopamine detox , first , we never get to recognize that connection with ourselves because we're compulsively engaging in things that inhibit introspection . And second , if we do recognize that connection , we don't like what we see . Most of the time our self-language is around guilt and shame . I have come across countless examples of this .

I've coached client after client where they want to find that connection with Allah . They want to find khushru and serenity in their prayers , but they are unable to . And this is despite of their best and purest intentions . And what I've come to find out over and over again is that it's because their connection to themselves is missing .

So I had a client who diligently coached with me . In every session she brought complexities of life , how she felt so guilty for not being able to concentrate in Salah and how upset she was every time she was angry for something .

And , being a nurse , if she was short with her patients , she always found that she was beating herself up afterwards for her behavior . Now she had a healthy recognition of everyone having their own responsibility in their relationship with her , but she could not get herself to stop feeling guilty over her anger or upset .

Now this is the type of self-relationship I'm talking about the ability to forgive yourself and hold yourself in grace . This is the Muslim woman's biggest struggle . That connection with the self , the connection with the self that we have nowadays is rotten to the core , festering with guilt , shame and the like . That's not the type of connection I'm talking about .

That will never bring you closer to Allah . That will never bring any pleasure response . What I'm talking about is solid grounding within yourself and your faith through the qualities of love , mercy and kindness . So , with this client , it took us a lot of work for her to get to that solid grounding .

During the sessions I asked her what if your sister or best friend made this mistake of getting angry ? And then what if she came to you and said I can't forgive myself for being angry and short with others ? What would you tell them ? She immediately said she would tell them to go easy on themselves . There's nothing to forgive . Humans make mistakes .

Sometimes emotions take the best of them . She said she would tell her best friend not to be so hard on herself .

She even told me that she would say the same thing to a complete stranger off the street and offer them comforting words and tell them it's okay to be human and to forgive yourself as many times as you need to , to which I replied and yet here you are , unwilling to do that for yourself .

That was followed by a long pause and the familiar look of cognitive dissonance on her face , and then something clicked she had gotten really good at practicing a broken relationship with her , the same broken connection that we seek to mend with substances of the world . If you can repair that relationship , all of the external will become inconsequential .

Relationship all of the external will become inconsequential . If you can find your dopamine surge in that connection with yourself , you will automatically connect to Allah . I mean automatically . And the reason is that giving yourself that forgiveness , that grace , you are resurfacing your soul and that soul is your direct connection to Allah .

When you give yourself unconditional love , you're holding your soul in the highest regards and there is no other way out but straight to Allah . And with that I don't mean don't correct your mistakes , I just mean you can't punish yourself out of it , because so many of us try to find that connection with God by judging ourselves for being human .

And that judgment is shaitan's best trick . All it does is veil your soul and bury it deeper and deeper , and then you beat yourself up more for not being able to find serenity in your prayers or making any other humanly mistake .

So in the rat park experiment , when the rats preferred connection with others over drugs , humans do the same thing , except we are more complex than rats . We have the ability to introspect , we can think about our thinking . We can identify ourselves as individuals . We have metacognition .

When Allah gave usahu wa ta'ala , gave us the prefrontal cortex and made us the best of creation , he instilled in us the ability to create a connection with ourselves . That is what we're seeking . That is what sets us apart from animals .

And when we beat ourselves up for our natural shortcomings and those might look anything like getting all the practice exam questions wrong or not showing up fully as a leader , or not having clean uniforms for kids because we forgot to run the dryer , or just binging on healthy food when we told ourselves we wouldn't when you punish yourself for your natural

shortcomings , they compound . When you are harsh to yourself in any situation , we are literally chopping that connection with the self with an axe , and when that connection with your soul is severed , we then turn to others looking for that connection , we turn to substances of the world . The relationship we are seeking is with ourselves .

Connection with Allah will come automatically and after that , connection with others becomes secondary . It is super important , but still secondary . Dopamine of connection versus dopamine of material . Yes , society at large is addicting , but connection is more addicting .

Most addictive connection is the one with yourself , because that is the way you get connected to the creator . So this Ramadan , go through the dopamine detox and relocate the source of your connection within yourself , because that is where your soul lives and that is directly from Allah .

The soul is always pure , always there , always seeking a connection with your qalb , your thought and your emotion pair . As we all know , fasting and Ramadan takes away the most natural dopamine stimulation of food , water or sexual relations . This detox gives you the control of your life back , gives you the opportunity to see what objects are controlling your life .

It just points out to you what false pleasures you might be pursuing that need to be weeded out from your life . I am a firm believer that obligatory prayers are just done for the pleasure of Allah and just because we are asked to do them .

But sometimes learning the science behind it can help some people make the right decisions , and all of this is just so fascinating to me . So why not improve your life in this world as well ? We know , muslims , that our acts of ibadah are not needed by allah . They are only for our benefit . Most of the time we don't see the benefit .

So here I've described just one of the many benefits in the form of dopamine detox . But we strive to always elevate our intentions for doing our ibadah for the sake of Allah . So nobody is asking you to stop all pleasurable behaviors . That might amount to being impossible , given that even salah could be an act that brings you pleasure .

Instead , perform targeted detox where you identify what behaviors you actually want to purge out of your life . So Dr Sipa of Dopamine Fasting doesn't recommend you abstain from human connection , and that's not what I'm suggesting either . Our hard wiring for social connection is one of the greatest blessings of Allah .

And compare that to the communal event that is Ramadan celebrations , how Ramadan brings Muslims together locally and globally .

And Dr Sipa also says in his work that the six compulsive behaviors that may respond to dopamine fast are emotional eating , excessive internet usage and gaming , gambling and shopping , acts of sexual nature , thrill and novelty seeking and recreational drugs .

But he also emphasizes that dopamine fasting can be used to help control any behaviors that are causing you distress or negativity in your life . And when you're actively in dopamine detox , just the idea of giving up the temptation can be frightening , because when you do give it up you'll have to face the feelings that you're trying to suppress .

That is the core of the problem . That is the work here . When these feelings and doubts surface , you write them down , you bring them to coaching , you recognize that that is your roadblock and actively try to solve it .

If you don't address these core beliefs , then chances are that the dopamine detox period will become a time to just grind through and the same pre-detox behaviors will resurface afterwards . Because you didn't address the root problem . You'll go back to avoiding and escaping .

You'll know it has been a successful detox period when you have a sense of control and empowerment that comes from being in integrity with your highest self , your soul .

In some sense , the modern wellness industry might have changed this concept into another lucrative , profit-making proposition , but I see a lot of good in this technique , but I see a lot of good in this technique . I mentioned this book earlier , but in her book , dopamine Nation , dr Anna Lamke asks us to utilize out-of-sight , out-of-mind concept .

If you're addicted to TV , lock up the remote or pull the plug out . Next time you're compulsively sitting down to watch TV , you'll have to take the extra steps to turn it on . That will act as a deterrent .

Some people even cut the cable off , like physically cut the wire , but she proposes this solution after pages and pages of describing more long-lasting solutions , things that I've mentioned here in this podcast .

Practice mindfulness to the present Process emotions rather than escaping them , because if you don't know how to address that , you will find a way to get that remote . You will repair the wire and find yourself sitting in front of the TV in no time .

I do believe dopamine detox is necessary in this world , because this way we get to abstain from pleasure rewards , so then we can break the cycle of constant compounding effect . This is the way to escape the noxious cycle . All desire can be linked to dopamine , even the desire of connection . In Islam we are not told to fast from connection .

We are actually encouraged to create it . Use the act of ibadah , of fasting , to relocate the source of your dopamine to something as pure as experiencing the love of Allah . There is no dopamine hit stronger created in this world . I say that with full conviction , but I cannot demonstrate it with words . You have to experience it .

So with that , since you're more educated on this topic , given that dopamine detox is not at all about detox , because you actually cannot get rid of this molecule , it is just about readjusting priorities and training your mind to visualize your highest goals I hope you can use this knowledge to elevate your life . Inshallah .

With that , I pray that Allah , subhanahu wa ta'ala , grants us connection in our prayers . I pray that he forgive our humanly mistakes , give us the courage to learn from these mistakes and recognize our highest , truest self , our soul .

I pray that the Muslim ummah at large finds this message and uses it for self-development , no matter how hard the circumstances seem . Our main purpose on this planet is to find connection with the one true creator . Our purpose sometimes gets diluted with the distractions of the world .

I pray that we use Ramadan , fasting and all of acts of Ibadah as a detox to purge out all of the false desires . Please keep me in your du'as . I will talk to you guys next time .