I tried dopamine fasting to break a bad habit. Here’s what happened.
I’ll get right to it: I’m addicted to doom-scrolling on my phone first thing in the morning.
Initially, I tried to justify my behavior by checking my business email. Ninety-five percent of my clients and audience were based in the U.S., and since I lived in Germany at the time, I could have received a message while I was sleeping.
After checking that there weren’t any emails, messages, or notifications to respond to, I would then scroll through the news. That was depressing so I popped over to YouTube, and got stuck there for way too long.
Little did I know that doom-scrolling was giving me a quick hit of dopamine, and if my day didn’t keep providing highs, I crashed. I felt sluggish the rest of the day like I ate an entire bag of Doritos for breakfast. There were frequent mood swings, mainly low, but I had no idea why at the time.
This worsened during the COVID-19 quarantine when I shifted to being a full-time creator. There were a few busy periods but most of the time, my days were quiet. In my previous job, my attention was constantly in demand.
