Dopamine Fasting

Cameron Sepah, a clinical professor of psychiatry at UCSF School of Medicine, coined the term ‘dopamine fasting’ and it has since become a buzz word on social media and throughout the wellness community. Mostly, people discount it as a Silicon Valley trend or treating is as a lifestyle cleanse: restricting screen time and pleasurable activities such as listening to music, reading, eating, socialising, in an attempt to reduce dopamine levels in the brain so that they experience more joy when reengaging with those activities.

However, we cannot fast from dopamine. Dopamine is a naturally occurring neurotransmitter that is constantly functioning in the brain. Dopamine fasting should be treated as a cognitive behavioural therapy-based approach, designed to assist you in becoming aware of and effectively reducing addictive or impulsive behaviours. We’ve all felt that familiar cyclical pull to reach for our phone when we wake up, pour that glass of wine after a challenging day or binge watch 8 hours of Netflix when we’re feeling extra depleted on a Friday. These are all forms of addictive or impulsive behaviours and ones that aren’t necessarily beneficial or healthy.

Sepah outlined six categories of behaviours that he’s found to be the most prone to addiction:

1. Excessive Internet Use

2. Emotional Eating

3. Gambling or Shopping

4. Porn or Masturbation

5. Thrill or novelty seeking behaviours

6. Recreational drug use

Sepah created a fasting schedule - a suggested plan for when to abstain from your impulsive behaviour. He suggests fasting times when wanting to reduce these tendencies, without cutting them out completely: one - four hours before bed depending on work, one day per weekend, one week per year. He even recommends a feasting time - when you schedule to do the impulsive behaviour for 5-30 minutes 1-3 times a day.

For me, his approach is appealing, in that instead of shaming the impulse behaviours, his methods place awareness on and boundaries around them. Dopamine fasting could also be terms as a mental break or stepping outside your habitual tendencies, replacing them with healthier ones. Whatever you call it, it’s a way to create space within your days, weeks, months, years instead of constantly being sucked in by the enticing impulses that we’re all inundated with.

However you choose to fill your time, dopamine fasting encourages you to do it