by mamaluigi007
Mayoclinic describes the following symptoms for alcohol addiction:
- Being unable to limit the amount of alcohol you drink
- Wanting to cut down on how much you drink or making unsuccessful attempts to do so
- Spending a lot of time drinking, getting alcohol or recovering from alcohol use
- Feeling a strong craving or urge to drink alcohol
- Failing to fulfill major obligations at work, school or home due to repeated alcohol use
- Continuing to drink alcohol even though you know it’s causing physical, social or interpersonal problems
- Giving up or reducing social and work activities and hobbies
- Using alcohol in situations where it’s not safe, such as when driving or swimming
- Developing a tolerance to alcohol so you need more to feel its effect or you have a reduced effect from the same amount
- Experiencing withdrawal symptoms — such as nausea, sweating and shaking — when you don’t drink, or drinking to avoid these symptoms
Now replace “drink alcohol” with “using your phone”. The symptoms still make sense.
I have a feeling most of us, if not all, have a sever dopamine addiction caused by overuse of social media, news media, porn, video games, television, etc. Here is a really good video that describes this: youtu.be/NMq_MyOFtW8
This causes us all to feel lonely, isolated, unfulfilled, depressed, and anxious. The solutions that are fed to us via advertising through media is to take medication to become happy again, or play a new game, watch porn, purchase a product, or post a new picture on social media to get a shot of dopamine via “likes”. The “cure” is the very thing that keeps us addicted and coming back for more.
Doing “hard” things isn’t fun and we avoid them, like starting a business or learning a new talent. Basically anything that isn’t an easy, fast, reward. Today I am going to start a dopamine detox: youtu.be/9QiE-M1LrZk
I will report back in a couple weeks to let you know how it goes and if my mood or life improves in any way. My plans are to:
- Only use my phone for direct communication such as messaging, calling someone, music, or Googling something like a recipe or tutorial for a home project
- No social media of any kind, including reddit
- Leave my phone at home when I go out unless I am going somewhere new (for maps)
- No video games or TV
Let’s see what happens.