We just discovered the new wellness trend 'dopamine fasting' and we have so many questions.

No.

There’s a new wellness trend on the horizon and it sounds… ridiculous.

From intermittent fasting to vagina steaming and ‘butthole sunning’ (yes, you read that right), the wellness industry just keeps coming up with bizarre new ways to make us feel like we’re not doing enough to ~take care of ourselves~.

But this new trend… well, it’s different.

You see, ‘dopamine fasting’ doesn’t involve much effort at all.

In fact, it pretty much involves doing absolutely nothing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Here’s a few ‘wellness’ options that don’t require giving up… everything. Post continues after video.

In November 2018, full-time life coach Richard, who runs the YouTube channel ImprovementPill, shared an instructional video on dopamine fasting. (You’ll soon discover the hilarious irony of this).

In the video titled ‘How To Get Your Life Back Together’, Richard explained that dopamine fasting involves a consistent period of doing absolutely nothing for 24 hours or more.

“In order for this to work, you have to treat it like a sort of holiday – this is an entire event that takes place from the moment you wake up until the moment you fall asleep,” he explained.

But don’t be fooled, it’s not exactly a fun holiday.

In fact, according to Richard, the purpose of dopamine fasting is to have “as little fun as possible”.

During the fasting period, participants are forced to abstain from all sorts of things, including but not limited to: food, internet, social media, television, Netflix, YouTube, substances including drugs and alcohol, games, music, books, masturbating, talking, and seeing friends. (We’re already screaming internally at the thought of this, to be honest).

On the other hand, however, you’re apparently able to drink water, walk outside, meditate, write using a pen and paper and participate in light exercise.

Sir, no.

We have… so many questions.

1. Just… why?

Erm, why the heck would anyone want to give up precisely everything that is good in the world?

Well, according to Richard, the point of dopamine fasting is to “starve your body and mind” by giving it as little stimulation as possible.

Basically, it forces you to become so bored… that boring stuff becomes fun again.

After spending an entire day doing nothing, there’s no doubt you’ll probably find it much easier (and more enjoyable) to convince yourself to read a book, go to the gym, or even go to work.

“It’s kind of like a reset button,” Richard said.

“You end up doing all the things you ‘should’ be doing. Since you just spent a whole day doing nothing, anything sounds good.”

In an instance of the Bay Area being very Bay Area: today was my first day in SF since moving here, and I ran into someone from my YC batch who told me he was on a “dopamine fast” and thus had to cut our convo short (lest he acquire too much dopamine)

— Janey Muñoz (@jnymnz) October 1, 2019

Likewise, in an article shared on LinkedIn, psychologist and professor Dr Cameron Sepah claimed that dopamine fasting allows “our brain to recover and restore itself”.

Except… the claims haven’t exactly been verified.

Right.

2. Erm, wait. Why is exercise still allowed?

Okay, this is the part that really doesn’t make sense.

If dopamine fasting means depriving yourself of all forms of dopamine… then why the heck is exercise still allowed?! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE.

If I’m doing nothing, there’s no way I’m going to be exercising…

Meditation:
– feminine
– new age
– hippies sitting in trees

Dopamine fasting:
– sciency
– self-optimization
– works with start-up overworking ethics. pic.twitter.com/Y9bM7wFTZw

— Node Of Network (@NodeOfNet) November 7, 2019

3. But… what if we don’t want to stop binging on dopamine?

Look, we get it.

We live in very stimulating times. There’s always something to watch and we’re basically spoilt for choice.

Sorry, but we’d rather not give up our nightly Netflix binge, pls.

4. WHY?

Just… why?

WHY?

It sounds like our worst nightmare.

For more on this topic:

• We just discovered people are ‘butthole sunning’ and we have many, many questions.

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