Yomi Denzel did his own “dopamine detox” in Iceland. A distant and desert island, what better way to try the purge of the moment, said this very popular personal development coach on YouTube. Like the young man, known for his tutorials to become a billionaire in five steps, more and more influencers are extolling the alleged merits of this dry diet, popular on social networks in recent months.
The idea: deprive yourself of any form of immediate pleasure, to “rebalance” your brain and ultimately improve your performance. As soon as he arrives at the hotel, the person disconnects from Netflix, deletes Instagram, gives up “unhealthy” food and pornography. Even music and reading fall by the wayside. Enough, for sure, to find his “motivation”, his “energy”, his “inspiration”, he explains to his fans, in a summary video, published in 2022.
On the social network TikTok alone, the hashtag #dopaminedetox has been viewed more than 100 million times. Statistics worthy of a blockbuster. From video to video, Internet users give their advice: you should deprive yourself “for more than a month”, some say. “We can afford a few deviations,” qualify others. The height of irony is that companies attracted by possible profits have even developed applications to help monitor the progress of the treatment.
Drowned in dopamine
A sort of modern spiritual retreat, “dopamine detox” is presented as a remedy against the “abundance of the modern Western world”, considered too luxuriant for our primitive brains. We would be “captive”, “addicted” to this dopamine. The hormone associated with reward would be delivered too easily by social networks, X-rated films, sugar, fat or even shopping, explains for example Grégoire Dossier, another videographer to have tested the practice (160,000 subscribers on YouTube) : it would “flood” our brains.
The trend was born in Silicon Valley, in the United States, at the end of the 2010s. In the cradle of tech stars, close to science faculties and obsessed with performance, we have long followed discoveries on systems neuronal. Work dating from the previous decade attracts particular attention. They highlight a curious phenomenon: certain stimulations can, it seems, release more dopamine if we optimize them – at least in animals.
Is it possible to extrapolate? To apply the results of these studies to humans? No, neuroscientists judge. No matter: in addition to taking inspiration from it to design their products, some enthusiasts of new technologies are convinced that “surplus” must be avoided in daily life. He then told himself that to maintain his motivation in the face of long or difficult tasks, he would have to cut himself off from all stimulation from time to time. A bit like a fast.
One of these entrepreneurs, Cameron Sepha, a trained psychiatrist, decided to recount his little personal experiments on the subject, in a post published on the social network LinkedIn, in 2019. His thing is total deprivation: he goes so far as to avoid people’s gaze, because the simple fact of seeing them gives him pleasure, he says. Cameron Sepha even counts his words to nip in the bud a possible discussion that would shake him out of his ascetic torpor.
“Without this molecule, we would be bedridden”
The major American media seized on the story, and popularized the practice somewhat in spite of themselves. To the great dismay of scientists: “Doing a dopamine detox makes no sense, it’s a sophistry, ready-made thinking. We make them say everything and its opposite to these unfortunate reward systems”, grumbles Professor Pierre-Marie Lledo, director of the neuroscience department at the Institut Pasteur and director of research at the CNRS, annoyed by the mass of false information circulating on this subject.
Fortunately, none of these “dopamine detoxes”, however radical they may be, are likely to reduce the quantity of neurotransmitters released in the brain. Only powerful drugs would allow this. And even if it worked, such a shortage would then amount to voluntarily putting oneself into depression, to making oneself schizophrenic or Parkinson’s disease. “Without this molecule, we would be bedridden, dejected, impassive. It would be very bad, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” insists the researcher.
The entrepreneur who helped popularize the cure, Cameron Sepha, was aware of these mechanisms, which are much more complex than they appear. He had also provided the details to a journalist from the American daily New York Times. But the businessman still kept this misleading name of “dopamine detox” to describe his protocol. He found it “catchy”. Proof that his method works, according to him: when he comes out of his lethargy, everything seems more intense and he is better able to concentrate on boring tasks.
Addicted to dopamine? An “extrapolation”
Even if it is only a simple feeling, individual and therefore anecdotal, Cameron Sepha is not the only one to defend the approach. Still in the United States, Anna Lembke, addictologist, head of department at the Stanford clinic, has made it her hobby horse. In 2021, this renowned scientist published “Dopamine Nation”, a bestseller (which has just been published in France*), in which she offers her own “dopamine detox”, based on the withdrawal protocols she gives to her heroin or alcoholic patients. The work, often cited online, defends deprivation. According to her, this would be the most effective method to put an end to behavior deemed problematic.
According to Anna Lembke, scrolling, checking your notifications, letting yourself watch all kinds of videos at random, would in some way amount to injecting yourself with drugs, in small doses. An extrapolation which has never been supported by scientific studies, and for good reason: “In humans, dopamine measurements are much less precise, which slows down research on these questions”, explains Jérémie Naudé, neurobiologist, specialist dopamine.
Perhaps science will one day prove Anna Lembke’s thesis right. But in the meantime, most brain specialists consider it to be of little credibility. “The digital activities targeted by “dopamine detox” are designed to maximize satisfaction, that’s a fact. But in these situations, no substance is added and the pleasure, the quantity of hormone released, is tiny compared to the euphoria induced by narcotics,” continues scientist Jérémie Naudé.
The myth of abundance
Especially since the brain is capable of regulating itself in the face of abundance. It adapts, depending on the context, contrary to what spa guests indicate. “Cavemen certainly didn’t have the opportunity to lounge in front of a screen, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t marvel at the sunsets and vistas before them.” laughs neurologist Pierre-Marie Lledo. It’s impossible to truly deny your pleasure: deprive yourself of entertainment and new ones will appear.
So, for the moment, only video and gambling games are officially considered addictive. Partly because of the risk and randomness on which they are based, two elements which favor addiction: chance and stress help to stimulate the release of dopamine, as much or more than the simple presence of a pleasant stimulus. Some will argue that social networks exploit a similar mechanism. “It’s true, but the gains and the stimulation seem, in these cases, much weaker,” recalls Jérémie Naudé.
And here again, even if we could move beyond this specialist debate on the exact nature of what certain activities cause in the brain, a simple ascetic retreat would not be enough to get rid of behaviors that we consider harmful. If taking a break can help in general, “it is better to think about alternatives to what is disturbing and to train yourself to resist”, recommends Pierre-Marie Lledo. Otherwise, bad habits come rushing back. “I took them back immediately,” says Yomi Denzel, at the end of her video.
* Dopamine Nation, Editions Eyrolles, 298 pages, 22 euros.
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