4/18/24, 6:47 PM Dopamine fasting: Yummy, bring it on!

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Dopamine fasting

Delicious, bring it on!

Dopamine fasting is supposed to help you control all kinds of cravings, from chocolate cravings to smartphone addiction. But
does it really help?

From Harro Albrecht

From ZEIT No. 14/2024 [hMps://www.zeit.de/2024/14/index?
wt_zmc=fix.int.zonpme.zeitde.wall_abo.premium.packshot.cover.zei&utm_medium=fix&utm_source=zeitde_zonpme_int&utm_campaign=wall_abo&utm_content=premium_packshot_cover_zei
Updated on March 31, 2024, 12:43 p . m .

9 min. 13 Give away

Chocolate, for example, can lead to a release of dopamine. What happens if you
give it up? © Philotheus Nisch for DIE ZEIT

This article is part of ZEIT AM Wochenende [https://www.zeit.de/we], issue 13/2024.

Susan Chang
2024-04-18 21:44:22
Anyone who gives up chocolate or meat, alcohol or social media is ultimately cutting back on one and--------------------------------------------
the same substance:
dopamine. The hormone is always released when our actions trigger feelings of well-being and pleasure - regardless
pour out - toofpour
whether
out
Susan
we eat a piece of rum and grape nut, collect likes or sip a gin and tonic. So basically, all fasting is a dopamine Chang
brake.
2024-04-18 21:47:52
--------------------------------------------
But as a "dopamine fast", the renunciation of pleasure is now making a career for itself, beyond religious customs. It was started by the
tech elite in Silicon Valley, apparently overwhelmed by the constant digital stimulation. From there, the trend spread to California
jenseit + genitive
and since then to the rest of the world. jenseits von +
But the idea is a little older. Back in 2019, psychologist Cameron Sepah from the University of California dative
in San Francisco wrote
the online guide The Definitive Guide to DOPAMINE Fasting 2.0. By temporarily abstaining from many external beyond,
stimuli,on the othertheside
he promised, of
constant fire of the happiness-giving neurotransmitter in the brain could be steered back into healthy channels. The reward for
exercising restraint: more clarity, more concentration, more motivation and more control over your own life.

Newspapers and lifestyle magazines around the world picked up on the topic, as the neurotransmitter dopamine as a "happiness" or
"reward hormone" was already a topos in pop culture. In his 2011 book Dopamine and Cheesecake, the busy neuroscientist and
psychiatrist Manfred Spitzer explained what pathological eating behavior has to do with increased dopamine release. Books with titles
such as DOPAMINE Detox, Anleitung ZUM Dopamin-Reset and, most recently, Die Dopamin-Nation by US psychiatrist Anna Lembke
were published after Sepah's guide. In it, she claims: After four weeks of fasting, unhealthy cravings subside, mood and sleep improve
and anxiety decreases.

So should doctors prescribe dopamine fasting for addictive behavior? Medscape, an online portal for
doctors, asked this question in January. At first, this seems plausible. After all, dopamine fuels the pursuit
of pleasure, which is not healthy in excess. To stick with chocolate: A first piece stimulates the release of
endorphins in the brain, whereupon a feeling of happiness spreads. The reward center, the nucleus
accumbens, acknowledges this feeling with a surge of dopamine - the biochemical equivalent of a
This article was published in "thumbs up". The next time, the mere sight of a chocolate triggers a dopamine surge and reinforces the
ZEIT No. 14/2024. pleasurable behavior.
you can read the entire issue.
[https://premium.zeit.de/abo/ Cameron Sepah has applied this scientifically well-researched principle to obsessive smartphone use. "I
diezeit/2024/14] have created Dopamine Fasting 2.0 as an antidote for our overstimulated age," writes Sepah. The
renunciation of readily available, seductive activities is intended to make us more receptive again to
behaviors that bring more in the long run: a good conversation, a walk through the
Forest or a run. All of this also releases dopamine, but more slowly and without a kick. Dopamine fasting should help to control behavior
that ultimately has a negative impact on your own life.
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4/18/24, 6:47 PM Dopamine fasting: Yummy, bring it on! | ZEIT
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T H E MA

Addiction

Risk of addiction
The addict - does he really exist?
[hMps://www.zeit.de/gesundheit/2024-03/suchtrisiko-gene-anfaelligkeit-alkohol-drogen-tabak]

Followers of the trend say on Reddit or MEDIUM.COM that they initially felt uncomfortable at the beginning of the fast, then extremely
bored. But their interest soon shifted from intense external stimuli to internal stimuli, to interesting thoughts and observations.
They were more relaxed, more focused and less driven.

While many people simply use dopamine fasting as a new self-optimization method, some dopamine ascetics give up everything that
could bring them pleasure: They barely eat, stop all sport, stop listening to music and only speak the bare minimum. The chemist
and start-up founder James Sinka is even said to have avoided eye contact on the street and brusquely broken off conversations -
because he was fasting.

Dopamine is not a happiness hormone

However, these stories are probably just as exaggerated as the tale of the dopamine-driven "cell phone addiction". Constantly using
a smartphone is not a real addiction, says Dutch neuroscientist Lieneke Janssen from Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg.
Addictive drugs such as cocaine have been proven to directly increase the concentration of dopamine at the transmission points
between the nerves, says Janssen. And not just a little, but so massively that structural changes also occur in the reward system. In
contrast, there is a lack of evidence for such physiological changes in behaviours that are sometimes referred to as addictions, with
one exception: "Gambling addiction is the only recognized, non-substance-related addiction."

T H E MA

Dopamine

Anna Lembke
"It's an addiction to narcissistic recognition"
[hMps://www.zeit.de/arbeit/2021-10/anna-lembke-smartphone-sucht-dopamin-nation-verhaltenssucht]

Dopamine
Lovesick? Channel your inner vole
[hMps://www.zeit.de/wissen/2024-01/dopamin-praeriewuehlmaus-liebe-hirnforschung-glueck]

Dopamine dressing
"Wearing pyjamas can reinforce bad feelings"
[hMps://www.zeit.de/campus/2022/05/dopamine-dressing-dawnn-karen-modetrend-interview]

The normal release of dopamine is not a cocaine kick, and it has not been proven that abstaining from stimuli such as chocolate and social
media "normalizes" dopamine levels. For Janssen, the compulsive reach for the cell phone is therefore still a habit, possibly a bad one.

Also, dopamine is by no means a happiness hormone, but rather a reward hormone. The media, mindfulness gurus and self-
promoting scientists have spread very simplistic equations of various neurotransmitters with certain behaviors. However, serotonin
is not the "happiness hormone", but regulates sleep, hunger and sex drive; testosterone is not just the "aggression hormone", but also
Susananxiety
strengthens the social streak; oxytocin is not just the "cuddle hormone", it also defuses aggression and reduces Changand stress. And
2024-04-18 22:16:53
22:15:23
22:16:12
dopamine is a substance that influences how we learn, how well we can concentrate and how motivated we are.
--------------------------------------------
Susan Chang
Four years ago, neuroscientist Lieneke Janssen tested what happens when the amino acids required for2024-04-18
indopamine
reward
mindfullness
no way
Susan production
Chang22:20:32 are
missing from the diet with 31 test subjects: Their ability to concentrate suffered, as did their working memory, in which
--------------------------------------------
2024-04-18 22:18:50
--------------------------------------------
information is temporarily stored. These were subtle changes, but they can become dramatic if the production
Mode of
of the
behavior, behavior
neurotransmitter is permanently disrupted, for example in Parkinson's disease. Almost half of Parkinson's patients
artery, suffer
vein, not only
core
from motor impairments, but also from depression, for which the lack of dopamine is probably partly responsible.

In short: completely dispensing with dopamine would not be a healthy option.

Cameron Sepah knows this too. Back in 2019, the psychologist admitted in the New York Times that the term "dopamine fasting" was
misleading: "Dopamine is a good example to explain how addictions are reinforced. It is also suitable for a

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catchy headline. You shouldn't take it all too literally." In his online guide, Sepah praises two abstinence methods for home use that have
actually long been established. One is stimulus control, which involves regulating access to the objects of craving (not buying chocolate
in the first place or storing it in a place that is difficult to reach). On the other hand, breaking through conditioning, in which you expose
yourself to the stimulus without engaging in the corresponding reaction (buying chocolate but not eating it) - until the craving subsides.
The result: impulsive behavior is curbed.

Sepah's practice of dopamine fasting was therefore much less radical than many of his disciples later practiced: simply not picking
up a smartphone for one to four hours or going without it at the weekend or for one week a year.

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This is nothing new. "Ever since humans have existed, there has been a tendency to withdraw in order to regain a sense of self," says
addiction researcher Falk Kiefer from the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim. Normally, the dopamine system constantly
monitors whether there are interesting stimuli in the environment that are worth reacting to. "If I want to listen to myself and be
creative, then I have to close the breeches." The addiction researcher doesn't think it's a bad thing that this practice is now causing a
stir under a new banner. "You always need a reason to revisit old topics."

Temporarily giving up habits can therefore help you to reflect on your own behavior - and possibly change it. It becomes problematic
when the technique is applied to real addictions. Drugs can lead to unpredictable withdrawal symptoms. In addition, there is a risk of
a rebound effect after a long period of abstinence: those affected will then use even more, for example with alcohol. And there can be
a shift in cravings. For example, they smoke less and consume more sweets. The conclusion is clear: it is not enough to give up an
unhealthy lifestyle, positive behaviors must fill the gap. As Falk Kiefer puts it: "Withdrawal and abstinence do not lead to reconditioning,
but only to a break."

The struggle for a doping balance remains a constant challenge. After all, almost everything can be practiced excessively. Even
dopamine fasting.

More knowledge

Dopamine also makes us feel good after exercise, researchers from the University of Portsmouth have discovered. The conscious
command to the body to move causes the release to rise sharply.

Links to the sources of the topics in this issue of WISSEN can be found at www.zeit.de/wq/2024-14 [hMps://www.zeit.de/wq/2024-14].

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