Dopamine Detox

There is an emerging problem in our society, and it is evident in our schools and preschools. Children are so used to having every moment of their lives filled with stimulating activity that they find it near impossible to sit down and participate in normal everyday activities. This behaviour can look very much like ADHD but is often the result of them becoming dependent on the easy rush of dopamine they are getting elsewhere and so not being stimulated enough by the activities of learning and playing.

So how does this come about? Simply by parents wanting their children to be happy and entertained all the time and increasingly using stimulating passive or active means to do this. Activities might include cartoons and television, gaming, toys which make a lot of noise and which they use to fill time, or even eating and drinking sweet things.

It was believed that Dopamine gave us pleasure and could make us happy, but more recent studies show that Dopamine actually triggers desire. You can see this easily when you observe someone engaged in an activity they are really getting very little pleasure out of, yet they persist even though there is so little joy in it. Think poker machine players, or even members of your own family scrolling for hours on the phone. Watch them carefully and you will see little enjoyment, but on the other hand try to stop them and see what happens. They will argue and justify the activity no matter what you say to them. If they are children, they may scream and throw a huge tantrum because the desire to participate in the activity is so great, even though it is not very enjoyable for them, even adults might tantrum if they believe you are depriving them!

Fortunately, we can do something  about it, and it is much easier to do when children are young rather than adolescents or adults. Enrich your child’s life with things other than quick fixes that don’t really require them to put in much effort and don’t really benefit them in other ways. Hobbies, art ,music, craft and so on are all things which require some effort to produce or participate in and give us something of worth to value when we finish. We can think of these things as positive addictions and when we learn to prefer them as options in our life, we may even replace our dopamine induced dependence altogether.