Anna Lembke

And I was surprised, right?

Because I, first of all, didn't think there would be a huge physiologic or even psychological response, but I experienced withdrawal, the same kind of withdrawal that my patients described.

I had a very difficult time putting myself to sleep.

And so it was extremely difficult.

I lay awake for several hours and finally was able to put myself to sleep.

And that went on for about 10 to 14 days.

So in fact, it was the process of trying to give it up that really brought home to me how addicted I had become.

What happened at the end of the month on that?

I felt much better.

And I thought to myself, I'm good.

Now I'm going to go back to reading romance novels now and then in a very rational and tempered way.

And we're all going to be fine here.

And so I went and I got some book and I completely binged.

I spent the whole weekend reading all day, every day, and late into the night on Sunday, went to work bleary-eyed on Monday, and I realized, wow, that was a complete mess.

And it's clear that whatever those circuits are that have been kindled in my brain, they're still kindled, and that a month is not sufficient, and I need to recommit to a longer period of abstinence, and that's what I did.

I recommitted to a year of abstinence from romance novels, erotica of any sort,

Well, the dopamine fast is a little bit of a misnomer in the sense that we're not actually ingesting dopamine.

In fact, what we're doing is using substances and behaviors that trigger the release or increase in firing in dopamine that we make in our brain.

What the dopamine fast refers to is to abstain from the substance or behavior for long enough for our brain to get the memo, oh, wait a minute.

i'm not getting this external source anymore it's time for me to start to make more of my own endogenous or innate dopamine to up regulate our own dopamine receptors and increase dopamine transmission because in response to substances and behaviors that release a lot of dopamine in our brain this fire hose of dopamine what our brains essentially do is down regulate dopamine transmission not just a baseline