IMPORTANCE OF DOPAMINE TESTING EXPLAINED

1. IMPORTANCE OF
DOPAMINE FASTING

2. DOPAMINE
• A neurotransmitter responsible for motivation,
drive, and craving.
• Released when the brain anticipates a
reward, such as food, sex, entertainment,
money, success, etc.

3. THE MOTIVATION MOLECULE
•You’ll feel lazy, unmotivated, and lethargic
when you're in a low dopamine state.
•You’ll feel excited, motivated, and driven to
get some stuff done when you're in a high
dopamine state.
•We need dopamine signals to get into
action to get that reward — which is what
we experience as motivation or as a craving

5. DOPAMINE SPIKE
• Jnk food (200% dopamine spike)
• Drugs (300% — 1000% dopamine spike)
• Nicotine (40% — 100% dopamine spike)
• Alcohol (40% — 200% dopamine spike)
• Gambling (500% — 1000% dopamine spike)
• Social media (100% dopamine spike)
• Porn (250% dopamine spike)
• Netflix or TV (100% dopamine spike)
• Video games (150% dopamine spike)

6. • It’s cheap dopamine. And cheap dopamine will ruin your
life if you’re not careful.
• When we can get maximum mental stimulation with
minimum effort, we’ll quickly turn into couch potatoes

7. The Dark Side of Dopamine
Our dopamine system can easily
be hijacked.
Artificial substances and modern-
day distractions are purposefully
designed to trigger an unnaturally
high dopamine spike

8. Cheap Dopamine
• A “hit” of cheap dopamine takes us to an extreme level of pleasure (like
a drug would), only to come CRASHING DOWN and hate everything
about our lives once the effect wears off.
• All that cheap dopamine floods the brain’s reward system,
destroying our motivation to get things done, be
productive, and pursue long-term goals. In other words,
cheap dopamine makes us numb to earned dopamine.

10. The modern devil is cheap dopamine

11. • Our brains are wired for reward-seeking behavior, and
cheap dopamine gives us an easy way to receive it.
Unfortunately, cheap dopamine is only a short-term fix and
usually leaves us feeling worse when reality sets in.

12. Why Are We Constantly in Pursuit of
Cheap Dopamine?
•We Want to Escape Our Reality
•We Can’t Tolerate Discomfort
•Digital Drugs Are Everywhere
•We Don’t Know We’re Addicted

13. Earned Dopamine
• Earned dopamine is the natural dopamine
release that comes from healthy, more productive
actions:

14. Earned Dopamine
• Working out
• Pursuing a goal
• Working in a flow state
• Improving ourselves
• Making progress on a project
• Learning new skills
• Earned dopamine is a lot less potent than cheap dopamine,
while it does require more effort, energy, and time to
obtain.

16. Dopamine Spike → Dopamine Crash
• Studies have found that, after a dopamine spike, dopamine
levels tend to crash and drop below baseline. And the
stronger the spike, the stronger the crash.
• When dopamine crashes below baseline, you’ll have
practically zero drive to get anything done.
• Remember, dopamine is an essential neurotransmitter for drive
and motivation. When we’re in a low dopamine state, we’re in a
state of low motivation and drive.

17. • Prolonged consumption of high-dopamine substances and
environments eventually lead to a dopamine deficit state.”
• — Anna Lembke (author of Dopamine Nation)

18. TYPICAL DAY
• So, when you start the day flooding the brain
with cheap dopamine (e.g., scrolling through
social media), a dopamine crash will follow
shortly after.
• Now, when it’s time to get to work, your
dopamine levels have already dropped — leaving
you feeling unmotivated to start on your tasks.
• The brain will crave going back to that
dopamine high again

19. • When dopamine drops below baseline, you’ll
not only experience a lack of motivation, but
you’ll also experience a craving for more
instant gratification, as the brain wants to get
that easy dopamine high again.
• And that’s the danger of cheap dopamine; it
triggers our brain to crave more and more of it:

20. • Once you start scrolling through social media,
it’s hard to put your phone away
• When you finish an episode of your favorite
series, you feel the urge to watch ‘one more’
• Once you had that first chocolate chip cookie,
there’s a craving for more, and it becomes hard to
stop

21. Molecule of more
•That’s why dopamine isn’t just called the
‘motivation molecule’, but also the
‘molecule of more’.

22. The Power of Dopamine “Fasting”
• Dopamine fasting is a popular practice in
today’s stimulation-overload world — and it can
help reduce our addiction to cheap dopamine.
• Fasting from dopamine isn’t possible and
something you shouldn’t want (remember,
dopamine is essential for drive & motivation).
• Rather, dopamine fasting is about minimizing
exposure to artificial sources designed to trigger
cheap dopamine.

23. FASTING
• [ ] Why do we fast?
• [ ] Usually fasting is a religious ritual..
• [ ] It has the power to purify..
• [ ] The other benefit is, it will empower us to loosen the
hold of lower instincts on us..
• [ ] So is the mechanism of Dopamine...
• [ ] Brain has its own way of releasing dopamine to different
stimuli...
• [ ] Natural & Artificial...

24. But regulation of release is totally dependent on the
stimulus.. Its intensity and frequency..
[ ] Brain is wired to seek pleasure happiness ecstacy
etc...
[ ] We search for it in anything, everywhere..
[ ] We can never switch off this search..
[ ] We learn or identify various sources of pleasure..
[ ] But fail to discriminate the source which is the
healthy secretion of dopamine..
[ ] Thats why fasting is important...

25. Even simple daily habits
• No social media before noon
• No video games before completing all your tasks
• No Netflix/TV/YouTube before 5:00 pm
• No smartphone for the first 60 minutes of the day
• Go for walks without your phone
• Practice more offline habits (meditation, reading,
journaling, etc.)

26. Dopamine fasting ---in more drastic
ways
• Schedule a phone-free day once a month
• Schedule a technology-free day every three
months
• Go for 30 days without your number one
source of cheap dopamine (e.g., social media,
porn, junk food)

27. •No matter which dopamine “fasting”
method you choose, what matters most
is that you regularly take a break from
cheap dopamine.

28. If you don’t
• your brain’s reward system will become
desensitized to earned dopamine,
destroying your motivation to be productive
and work towards your long-term goals.

30. WHAT TO DO?
• Be a model..
• Walk them through dopamine fasting..
• Give them experiential knowledge..
• Persuade them to discipline after experiencing the
difference
• Identify the triggers and patterns