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I prepared a summary to introduce you to this topic:
The crucial brain reward neurotransmitter activated by addictive drugs is dopamine, specifically in the “second-stage” ventral tegmental area to nucleus accumbens link in the brain’s reward circuitry. This has been learned over many decades of research, and is based upon many congruent findings.
When we crave something, it signals our brain’s demand for a substance or action linked to pleasure or alleviation of discomfort. This demand triggers the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine, which stimulates the brain’s reward pathways, creating a compelling urge for the craved item or activity.
Animal studies have shown that when cortisol is released with chronic stress, changes in the brain’s response can lead to lower dopamine levels and increased cravings. Stress has also been associated with increased levels of the hormone ghrelin, again causing stronger cravings.
Today, Crystal methreleases more dopamine in the brain compared to any other drug. Dopamine is a brain neurotransmitter that serves a number of functions, including the feeling of pleasure. When crystal meth leads to a powerful surge of dopamine in the brain, people feel motivated to seek it out again and again.
Additionally, the intensified dopamine response in the brain that mood-altering drugs produce does not naturally stop once the behaviour is initiated or completed (as is the case with natural reward behaviours such as eating or having sex); as a result, cravings for the rewards associated with the drug continue to occur.
Dopamine affects movement, emotion, learning, reward, and executive functions.High levels may result in impulsiveness and aggression, while low levels may lead to tiredness and a lack of motivation.
High dopamine symptoms include anxiety, excessive energy, insomnia, and hallucinations. Low dopamine levels are associated with brain fog, mood swings, and muscle spasms.
When we constantly overstimulate ourselves with things like excessive screen time, gaming, and unhealthy eating, it can lead to issues like addiction and poor mental health. During a dopamine detox, you have to avoid activities like social media, gaming, junk food, and even work.
Engage in Natural Dopamine-Boosting Activities: Physical exercise, meditation, exposure to sunlight, engaging in hobbies, and listening to music can naturally increase dopamine levels. These activities not only help in elevating mood but also in reducing cravings.
Dr. Andrew Huberman discusses the science of addiction, focusing on the role of dopamine to understand why quick rewards make addiction so hard to combat. Dr. Andrew Huberman is a tenured professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine and host of the Huberman Lab podcast.
2 Nov 2023
Dr. Andrew Huberman discusses the dopamine-driven cycle of craving and motivation.
Mania and hypomania are symptoms that are often seen in people with bipolar disorder (also known as bipolar spectrum disorders, or BSD) and sometimes in people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders. However, you don’t have to have these mental health conditions to experience mania or hypomania. Mania and hypomania are often misdiagnosed as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, psychosis, or even ADD/ADHD. Making the distinction between someone who has manic or hypomanic episodes and someone with these other mental health conditions is critical because following the wrong treatment plan can make symptoms much worse. This is why it is so important to look at the brain with SPECT imaging to get an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan.
Difference Between Them
With both mania and hypomania, friends and family members may notice the changes in your mood and behavior, but you may be unaware of them. Here are some details.
Mania is a mood disturbance in which you feel unusually energized, excited, euphoric, and able to accomplish anything. Manic episodes may last a week or more. During a manic episode, you may impulsively start several projects at once and stay up all hours of the night to work on them. However, you may not complete any of them. These behaviors can interfere with everyday life and in some cases, may be so severe that a person requires hospitalization.
Hypomania episodes are similar, but they are less intense than those of mania. Episodes may last only a few days, and you may simply feel like you have a surge of good energy. It’s likely that you’re able to meet your daily demands.
What are the Core Symptoms?
Symptoms range from high energy and excessive appetite to hallucinations and paranoia. (See below for a list of symptoms related to mania and hypomania.)
What are the early signs that you’re getting ready to have a manic episode? We call these early signs the prodrome. Being able to detect early signs of a manic episode can be helpful in either preventing the episode or lessening the impact of it. Bipolar disorder is progressive. The episodes build momentum. The prodrome is the period of milder symptoms that precede the more severe symptoms. This period can be weeks to months. With bipolar disorder you can have a prodromal period before depression as well as before the mania. The most common prodromal symptoms for mania tend to be an elevated mood, decreased need for sleep and increased activity. These symptoms can build for several weeks before it becomes an out-of-control, manic or hypomanic episode. In this video, I discuss ways to recognize these early signs.
What Causes Mania and Hypomania?
Many things can contribute to mania or hypomania, including high stress levels, lack of sleep, physical illnesses such as hypothyroidism, drug intoxication, significant life changes, trauma, medication side effects, or losing a loved one. They are often seen in people with bipolar disorder and sometimes in those with schizoaffective disorders.
Left untreated, mania—and hypomania—can have a negative impact on your life.
Right now, billions of neurons in your brain are working together to generate a conscious experience — and not just any conscious experience, your experience of the world around you and of yourself within it. How does this happen? According to neuroscientist Anil Seth, we’re all hallucinating all the time; when we agree about our hallucinations, we call it “reality.” Join Seth for a delightfully disorienting talk that may leave you questioning the very nature of your existence.
Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks brings our attention to Charles Bonnett syndrome — when visually impaired people experience lucid hallucinations. He describes the experiences of his patients in heart-warming detail and walks us through the biology of this under-reported phenomenon.
Everyday we are influenced by different types of media. In this talk, Khun Punsikorn shared with us about her 1 week social detox journey and what she has rediscovered during that time.
Punsikorn Tiyakorn, known as a part of musical artist group BNK48, she was seen as the ‘top members’ of BNK48, and Pun has one of the highest social media following in BNK48.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
How to Detox From Social Media Without Quitting Cold Turkey
by LAUREN LEVINSON facebook pinterest email Favorite
PHOTO: LUMINA/STOCKSY
It’s 9 p.m. on a Friday night, and I’m psyched because I have no plans. “Me” time starts now. My Diptyque candle is lit. Cozy cashmere sweats are on, and I’m curled up under my furry throw blanket. I cue up the latest juicy episode of Riverdale (ready to swoon over Cole Sprouse’s sultry stare) or Unreal (Shiri Appleby really knows how to bring on the crazy).
By 9:45 p.m., I realize I haven’t made it past the first 10 minutes of the show. I’ve been sucked into the social media vortex. It started out innocently enough: I just wanted to check Instagram while the credits were rolling. I saw that a work buddy went on a dreamy vacation to Rome. Oh, her friend was there, too? Let me pop over to that feed next. What an adorable baby. And this wedding hashtag is ah-mazing! Before I know it, I am deep in friends’, acquaintances’, and even strangers’ lives. I’ve spent 45 minutes watching other people rather than the show I’ve been looking forward to seeing all week.
Social media is undoubtedly addictive. In fact, experts have compared phones to slot machines. “It’s a popular addiction right now, one of the still socially acceptable ones,” says Laurie Gerber, an expert life coach of the Handel Group. “We’ve only been in the Information Age for how many years? Our brains are not adjusted to the amount of interesting input that’s possible to take in. You could spend all day on social media and not really get bored. And the smarter the programs get at giving you what they think you want, the harder it will ever be to stop.”
PHOTO: @KRISTENGRACELAM
By now, many writers have shared the head-clearing results of deleting Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and the like from their lives. I’m sure it feels amazing to be living IRL all of the time. But what if you don’t want to quit cold turkey?
While social media can make me feel crappy at times, especially when I can’t get through a TV episode without opening it or envy someone else’s flawlessly curated life, it’s also entertaining and plain-old fun. I enjoy sharing my travel experiences and getting recommendations from other jet-setters. It’s informative to learn which beauty products and spa treatments those with glowing skin use. And who doesn’t want to know (and shop!) every piece of clothing Aimee Song has on?
If you fall into the camp of people who want to reform their social media habits without deleting the whole damn thing, I’m here to let you know it’s possible. I’ve spent the past two months reforming my digital sharing usage and found methods that actually work.
Here, I’m sharing my chat with some experts and also my own personal journey toward learning how to detox from social media without leaving the virtual world. But first, put down your phone. I need your full attention…
TRACK YOUR HABITS
PHOTO: LEONARDO DE LA CUESTA/GETTY IMAGES
In order to fix a problem, you have to admit you have one. Step one of your social media rehab is checking in with yourself and being honest about what’s not working for you right now.
“The problem is people don’t really understand the consequences of their choices,” says Gerber. “People really don’t understand how good they’d feel if they didn’t drink the night before or stay up late on social media—until they try cold turkey. So I would give everybody the job of, at least, going cold turkey for one week.”
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Try tracking your social media habits for one week, as is. Use it as much or little as you normally would. Then, quit for one week and note how you feel while being detached from it. “Do an experiment with nothing just to see what it brings up, to feel the addiction, to see what the triggers are, to see what you replace it with,” she explains. “Everybody can go a certain amount of time with none.”
Whether you track your observations in a thought log (read about how to do that here), use a traditional journal, or do it on a note-taking app, make sure you’re putting your thoughts on paper. That way, you can study them later and notice how you felt both logged in and out. If being offline conjured up positive feelings, channel that when you return to social as motivation for powering off at times.
CREATE BOUNDARIES
PHOTO: @EMMAHOAREAU
I have two rules I follow every day: I am not allowed to open any social media apps until I’ve woken up, had a cup of coffee, and filled out my daily Panda Planner (a hybrid of a to-do list and a gratitude journal). In the evenings, I am not allowed on social after 10 p.m. Creating these boundaries for myself has helped me to be wildly successful with limiting my social media habits. Before making these rules, I often missed gym classes in the morning watching Instagram Stories and was kept up at night after being stimulated from my blue-lit screen.
Once you have studied your social media habits, create boundaries that make sense for you. “You can either design the time you do it or the time you don’t do it—it just depends on your issue,” Gerber explains. “You could go, ‘I’m allowed to go on Instagram but not Snapchat.’ Some people might go, ‘I only do it on weekends.’ Whatever. It’s so individual—you have to nail your own actual issues.”
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CHANGE THE WAY YOU VIEW SOCIAL
PHOTO: @ALESSANDRAGL
Since I have to “earn” my social media time, as Gerber describes, I see it as a privilege more than an entitlement. This makes me appreciate my time on the sites more. I can relish in responding to messages on Instagram, uploading videos I’ve saved for Instagram Stories, or reading the comments in my favorite Facebook groups.
“Use it as a reward that you earn by doing the other things that make you proud,” Gerber explains. “If you cast it that way, use it that way, and are disciplined, not only will you enjoy the reward more, but you will also enjoy that you are fulfilling your more heartfelt dreams by doing what you wish you’d do before giving yourself the reward.”
INVEST IN A TIMER
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Another tool to invest in is a timer to alert you when you’ve gone over your allotted time.
Lindsay Tulchin, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist with a degree in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), advises setting aside a certain amount of time every day for social media and literally timing it.
“Don’t do anything other than social media during those times,” she says. “Get it all out there. Get bored of it. Then, any other time you have the urge to go on social media, say to yourself, ‘This can wait until my next session.’ That way you don’t feel as if you are depleting yourself of the time on the apps, but you are more purposeful about when you are doing it.”
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USE OTHER APPS TO LIMIT YOUR TIME
PHOTO: NOMAD/GETTY IMAGES
Every expert agrees: If you can’t shut the social sites on your own, download an app that will help you.
Hitha Palepu, millennial mother, author of How to Pack, and creator of her own lifestyle site that often features time-saving strategies, swears by Moment, an app that limits your time on designated apps.
“Moment has been a game changer for breaking my iPhone addiction,” Palepu notes. “I adjusted my setting to exclude Otto Radio (my app for audiobooks), Google Maps, and Evernote, and to set my on-screen time to just three hours. The first day I used it, I hit my limit before noon, which was slightly terrifying. The app has helped me break my mindless Instagram scrolling and email refreshing, allowing me to be far more productive and mindful with my time.” (By the way, Palepu still maintains a community of over 43K Instagram followers, even while cutting back on her time on the ‘gram.)
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Other apps to try include Flipd (locks you out of your phone for a certain amount of time), Offtime (blocks you from distracting apps), and StayOnTask (checks in to make sure you have not gone off task and started playing on social).
HAVE A DESIGNATED DETOX DAY
PHOTO: @EGGCANVAS
Deleting Instagram on Sundays has been hugely head-clearing for me. I don’t do it every week, but I know it’s a plan I can return to when I’m feeling virtually oversaturated. Plus, it makes Mondays more exciting since I can read up on how my social community spent the tail end of their weekends.
“If you add another step between your thumb and Instagram (i.e., going to the app store to re-download), you have more time to ask yourself, ‘Is this really what I want to be doing right now, or is this just a habit when I’m bored?'” offers Tulchin, who is a fan of one-day breaks. “Most people end up mindlessly scrolling because the act of clicking the app is a learned habitual behavior, meaning it’s not always totally conscious! If you set up your environment to make scrolling a conscious decision, you set yourself up to be more successful in detoxing.”
PUT YOUR PHONE AWAY
PHOTO: @CLAIRE_MOST
Palepu swears by keeping her phone in another room when she is spending time with her son or doing anything else that needs her full attention. I’ve recently adopted this method and found it much easier to finish tasks (like writing this story!), eat dinner with my husband, or, yes, watch Riverdale.
“It’s hard to fathom being more than an arm’s length away from your phone, but it can actually be super liberating!” says Tulchin. “Designate a couple hours either at night or on a weekend to put your phone as far away from you as physically possible. Turn it on Do Not Disturb mode and turn your full attention toward something else. Whether it’s watching a show, talking with a friend/partner (in person), reading, taking a bath, or doing a face mask, you will be amazed by how much more fulfilling these activities will feel without having the distraction of your phone nearby.”
BE PICKY ABOUT WHO YOU FOLLOW
PHOTO: LUMINA/STOCKSY
If you’re going to limit your time on social, then make sure you’re actually enjoying what you consume. “My across-the-board rule for my clients is do not consume any media that doesn’t make you feel good. Period,” notes Gerber. “But you have to be present enough and honest enough that you know how you feel and you tell the truth about how you feel to yourself.”
One way I have monitored this is to unfollow more people on social. Has that caused more people to unfollow me? Yes. But I am generally happier engaging with an edited audience on the apps than a mass one, so it’s worth it. Facebook and Instagram also both have “snooze” functions, which offer the ability to mute profiles without unfriending or unfollowing them (and potentially offending someone).
“If you end up skipping someone’s Stories because you are uninterested in what they are posting, unfollow!” instructs Tulchin. “Only follow people who you truly care about or provide you with real inspiration (e.g., fashion, exercise, food, work, etc.).” This advice seems obvious, but often we forget to filter our thousands of “friends” in addition to our photos.
HAVE A CONSEQUENCE
PHOTO: J LEE / THE/THIRTY
Let’s say you go over your designated scrolling session, ignore your tracking app, or use it outside of your set time online. Make sure there is a repercussion for your actions.
Gerber offers ideas for your consequence: losing your coffee or social media (entirely) the next day, having to put your favorite pair of shoes out on the street (harsh), or wearing your hair in silly pigtails. “It should be something annoying but not punitive that will remind you to stick the new idea that you thought would be good for you,” she explains.
She also recommends finding a buddy to hold you accountable. “You have to be accountable to someone,” Gerber notes. “And it’s more fun if you have a buddy or a group. Everybody wants to break a bad habit—everyone on the planet! So don’t tell me there isn’t a buddy for you.” My husband is my buddy, and he will be quick to tell me when I’m zoning out scrolling.
KNOW THAT THE POWER TO POWER DOWN IS ALL YOURS
PHOTO: @THATCURLYTOP
At the end of the day, it’s up to you to ensure you’re living your real life—instead of your virtual one. Taking control of your time on social media will empower you.
“You learn that you’re a person who can make those choices,” says Gerber. “You’re teaching yourself that you have that type of authorship over your own hand. That is the best benefit of all—you’re proving to yourself, moment by moment, about your own power.”
Addiction impacts the brain on many levels. The chemical compounds in stimulants, nicotine, opioids, alcohol, and sedatives enter the brain and bloodstream upon use. Once a chemical enters the brain, it can cause people to lose control of their impulses or crave a harmful substance.
When someone develops an addiction, the brain craves the reward of the substance. This is due to the intense stimulation of the brain’s reward system. In response, many continue use of the substance, unlocking a host of euphoric feelings and strange behavioural traits. Long-term addiction can have severe outcomes, such as brain damage, and can even result in death.
The Biochemistry of Addiction
The brain responds to addiction based on a number of factors, such as the type and number of drugs used, the frequency, and the stage of addiction. For example, if someone uses cocaine, they will notice a feeling of euphoria. This occurs because cocaine is psychoactive and impacts the area of the brain that controls pleasure and motivation. Therefore, there is a short, but powerful burst of dopamine—the chemical that causes many to feel euphoric. This feeling can be so intense that a strong desire to continue using may form.
The more someone abuses a drug, the more they may continue using it, unless they get help overcoming a life-threatening addiction. Once the chemical has affected the brain, individuals can feel physical symptoms, as well as the impact of the chemical throughout their nervous system. These can include a rapid heartbeat, paranoia, nausea, hallucinations, and other disturbing sensations the individual has little control over. He or she may become consumed with abusing the substance to maintain their habit, no matter the cost. As a result of this powerful grip of substance abuse, individuals can begin acting in unrecognizable ways, concerning friends and family.
Rewarding The Brain: How Addictions Develop
The brain regulates temperature, emotions, decision-making, breathing and coordination. This major organ in the body also impacts physical sensations in the body, emotions, cravings, compulsions and habits. Under the influence of a powerful, but harmful chemical, individuals abusing substances like benzodiazepines or heroin can alter the function of their brain.
Drugs interact with the limbic system in the brain to release strong feel-good emotions, affecting the individual’s body and mind. Our brains reward us when we do something that brings us pleasure. To illustrate, individuals continue taking drugs to support the intense feel good emotions the brain releases, thus creating a cycle of drug use and intense highs. Eventually, they take the drug just to feel normal.
The Brain, Addiction, and Withdrawal
As a consequence of drug addiction, the brain rewards the brain. It encourages drug addiction, keeping the individual in a cycle of highs and lows, on an emotional roller-coaster, feeling desperation and depression without it. Once someone suddenly stops, there are harsh mental, physical, and emotional results. Individuals may experience distressing symptoms they cannot ignore for some substances, withdrawal symptoms are generally stronger for some substances than others.
At the point of withdrawal, someone who stop using heroin feels intense cravings, depression, anxiety and sweating. Much of this is due to the rewiring of the brain after extended heroin use. In this stage, the individual may not have a full-blown addiction, but may have developed a tolerance or dependency. Over time, the high volume of chemicals floods the brain, causing it to adapt to the mental effects of the substance. The brain then reduces its production of neurotransmitters, or chemical messengers in the brain. Withdrawal symptoms often need professional treatment, which can significantly help reduce the chance of relapse and the risks of stroke or heart attacks.
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Brain Therapies for Addiction
When someone battling addiction enters a facility, they receive medication and have access to innovative treatments. A common treatment to stabilize and soothe the brain after addiction is biofeedback therapy. This allows a professional to monitors the brain. They can figure out how to improve brain activity, reducing the effects of addiction and unhealthy impulses. Two common types include neurofeedback and biofeedback.
Biofeedback uses what is called Electroencephalograms (EEG). EEGs are typically used to help individuals who have suffered traumatic brain injuries and can be helpful to individuals with obsessive compulsive disorders and other brain disorders. Biofeedback reduces stress and reduces involuntary functions, as a professional monitor the brain with electric sensors on the individual’s skin. This therapy includes meditation, guided imagery and muscle relaxation.
When this is combined with therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), or dialectical behavioral therapy, biofeedback both improves the individual’s involuntary functions, like heartbeat, blood pressure, and muscle contraction. Neurofeedback, or EEQ therapy, is a type of biofeedback. This therapy is a brain training treatment which improves its function. In the case of addiction, this therapy monitors the brain’s activity like biofeedback does. It helps patients to reduce stress and anxiety and can treat compulsions. The end result of both therapies is the administrator rewarding the brain to recover how it functions.
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Struggling with addiction has devastating and complicated long-term effects. The best way to overcome substance use disorders is to get professional treatment. This allows individuals to get unique treatment, physical and psychological help, and a deeper understanding of their addiction. Get treatment done the correct way and contact a dedicated provider for your options.
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