“Dopamine detox” to combat screen addiction is on everyone’s lips. In a video where she recounts her month of digital treatment, content creator Léna Situations declares: “If we are addicted to our screens, it is because they exploit our brain. Each notification releases something called dopamine – the pleasure molecule, which is literally the same molecule as during sex. And it creates a reward cycle that keeps us coming back again and again. »
More precisely, “dopamine guides many of our behaviors, by causing the sensation of pleasure,” explains Inserm. An effect which “relies on a neural network called the “reward circuit””. Stimulating activities causing a release of dopamine then create satisfaction “which constitutes a reward and leads us to repeat this behavior”.
What is “dopamine detox”?
To thwart this phenomenon, well known to the teams who work behind the platforms to retain their users, certain influencers, like Louis Esquier who has cut himself off from fast food and porn, extol the merits of “dopamine detox”. On TikTok, the corresponding hashtag has accumulated nearly 90 million views in a few weeks.
Dopamine fasting consists of preserving your brain from any source of artificial stimuli for a given period, to no longer secrete dopamine and thus wean yourself off screens or any other addictive distraction. And this with the aim of offering our brain a few days of rest, to take care of our mental health. Some even decide to ban other pleasures in life, such as music. But is this trend really wise?
When lack of dopamine affects mental health
Several experts advise against using “dopamine detox”, particularly because this molecule is essential to our motivation and our survival. If the word detox “implies withdrawal, it means creating a lack of dopamine. It’s stupidity,” says Sébastien Carnicella, researcher at the Institute of Neurosciences in Grenoble, interviewed by “20 minutes”. In addition, “when our dopamine becomes really low, it is accompanied by psychological withdrawal such as anxiety or depression, it is not a functional state”, adds the expert in the columns of “Libération”. And to emphasize that the link between dopamine and immediate pleasure “does not exist, it is not really dopamine that is involved. It is obtained in the long term, during physical and mental effort.”
Replace addictive behaviors with healthier activities
Moreover, Cameron Sepah, the American psychiatrist who invented the concept of “dopamine detox”, specifies that “the emphasis is on problematic behaviors, not on dopamine. Dopamine is just one mechanism that explains how addictions can be reinforced. And it provides a catchy title. It should not be taken literally,” reports RTBF media.
We should therefore rather attack certain dangerous habits, above all, rather than dopamine as such. In this sense, Sébastien Carnicella recommends replacing addictive activities with other occupations. “If we remove the object of addiction, we must replace it with another object of interest to re-educate the dopaminergic system to more normal and healthy stimulation,” he explains to “20 minutes”. By resorting, for example, to reading, sports, walks in the forest or even outings with friends.
