A Quick Way To Overcome Addiction

Welcome back to the Tamed Course! We recently came across an idea that has changed the way we look at building habits. This idea makes it easier for you to stick to good habits and avoid bad ones. We call it the "nothing rule." How does it work? Well, when you go to the gym and have an intense workout where you push your body to its limits, you'll probably feel pretty sore for the next couple of days. But when this soreness comes around, you don't feel bad about it; you actually feel kind of good, right? Even though it literally hurts to get out of bed and move, you feel good because you know that you put in a lot of effort during the workout, and now your body is rebuilding itself back stronger. You know that this type of pain is part of the strengthening process.

On the other hand, let's pretend that you're a complete newbie and you didn't know that being sore was part of the process. If you suddenly woke up two days after your first intense leg workout with incredible pain in your thighs, you might be worried. You might think that you did something wrong because you were fine yesterday, and all of a sudden, you can barely walk. This pain might even cause you to take some medication to try and alleviate the symptoms. The only difference is that you don't know that the pain was supposed to be expected and a part of the process. The pain is a good sign.

The reason I'm bringing this up is that pain works in a very similar way when it comes to our addictions, not just our addictions but all of our behaviors. Whenever you indulge in any pleasurable activities, whether it's playing video games, watching videos online, or eating fast food, you're spiking your dopamine to levels much higher than normal. Now, what's interesting is that when you stop these activities, your dopamine doesn't just return to the baseline level that you started at; it actually drops below baseline, directly correlated to how high the spike was. This means that the higher and longer the high you've been chasing, the lower you will drop for longer.

So, what does low levels of dopamine feel like? According to Google, it feels like a lack of motivation, tiredness, inability to focus, anxiety, inability to feel pleasure from previous enjoyable experiences, feeling of hopelessness, trouble sleeping, and more. Essentially, you feel awful. This, in a way, is a type of pain. It's not really the physical pain you get from a hard workout; this is more of a mental thing, a boring, uncomfortable, sad type of pain.

Now, what's interesting is that this pain is actually a good thing, just like how the soreness after working out is a good thing. The only way for your dopamine levels to recover to baseline levels, to the levels it used to be at when you were younger and it was easier to find motivation and pleasure in life, the only way to get closer to that level is to do nothing. This boring, sad, tired feeling you get after taking a break from pleasurable activities is a sign that your dopamine levels are slowly starting to recover. So, instead of reaching for more dopamine-spiking activities to relieve yourself of this pain, do nothing instead, and you will eventually heal with time.

Of course, I don't actually mean literally do nothing all day or stay away from as many pleasurable activities as possible and wait. Your baseline levels will increase, and many things that recently felt boring will start to feel slightly pleasurable again, such as getting some work done or chatting with some friends. Here's your chance to focus on building up these good habits so that you can eventually get a life where turning to your bad habits isn't your way of spiking your dopamine levels; you'll have a healthier alternative that satisfies you.

Speaking of healthier alternatives, having someone to speak to about your issues is always a good idea because it allows you to untangle the mental mess that lives in many of our heads, which is why this episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. BetterHelp is the world's largest therapy service, and it's 100% online. You can message your therapist at any time and schedule live sessions when it's convenient for you. If your therapist isn't the right fit for any reason, you can switch to a new therapist at no additional charge. With BetterHelp, you can get the same professional quality you'd expect from in-office therapy but with a therapist who is custom-picked for you, with more scheduling flexibility and at a more affordable price. BetterHelp has a special offer today where you'll get 10% off your first month. Just go to betterhelp.com/ImprovementPill. Thanks again to BetterHelp for sponsoring this video. Now, back to the topic at hand.

Here's another tip I want to leave with you in regards to dealing with these negative emotions. It's called the "10-minute trick," and I picked it up from the Diary of a CEO podcast. This is something you can use if you feel like the nothing rule isn't effective enough. When you feel a strong negative emotion, such as boredom or stress, where you want to do something to spike your dopamine to help alleviate the pain, such as playing on your phone, you simply tell yourself, "Okay, I'll play on my phone in 10 minutes." This helps relieve some of the pain, for there is the pain of not knowing when you'll be able to relax that causes you to feel even more uncomfortable on top of the already negative emotions you feel during the dopamine recovery process. This is actually a huge source of uncomfortable feelings we have every day: uncertainty.

When you're trying extremely hard to stay away from a bad habit, it will constantly be on your mind. But when you give yourself a time slot to deal with a negative emotion, your brain can relax, knowing that there's already a plan in place for relieving that pain. And that's it! I hope this article trick and the nothing rule are helpful in your habit-building journey.