MSS #121: Are You Burned Out... or Just in Dopamine Withdrawal?

MSS #121: Are You Burned Out… or Just in Dopamine Withdrawal?

3 May, 2025

🕒Read time: 3.4 minutes

🚀In a hurry? Cut straight to the heading  “The Dopamine Reset Plan” - reduced read time 1.7 minutes

Burnout.

It’s the word we reach for when we feel exhausted, unmotivated and like we’ve got nothing left to give.

But what if you’re not burned out at all?

What if your brain has simply run out of dopamine?

Burnout isn’t always about working too hard. It can also come from overstimulating your brain—without giving it time to recover.

If you’ve spent months or years running on quick dopamine hits, your brain has adapted to expect them.

📱 Endless scrolling—social media, news, YouTube
📩 Constant notifications—emails, messages, Slack pings
🔄 Task-hopping—switching between ten things at once
🎮 Fast entertainment—gaming, binge-watching, junk food

Now, when you try to focus, slow down, or do something meaningful, it feels like pushing through mud.

Not because you’re exhausted.

But because your brain is craving its usual quick dopamine fixes—and isn’t getting them.

Let’s fix that.

Dopamine Overload: Why Everything Feels Dull

Dopamine is the brain’s motivation and reward chemical.

It pushes us to chase goals, seek pleasure and push through effort.

Dopamine is released in anticipation of achievement, not the achievement itself, something that is often misunderstood.

But modern life has overloaded us with fast, effortless dopamine—notifications, social media, and constant stimulation.

Here’s the issue:

🔄 The more quick dopamine you consume, the less sensitive your brain becomes to it.

This is why a short Instagram scroll feels rewarding, but reading a book feels impossible.

📉 Too much stimulation lowers your baseline dopamine levels.

Your brain adapts by producing less dopamine naturally.

The result?

• Lack of motivation

• Brain fog

• Restlessness

• Boredom, even when you have things to do

This is not burnout.

It’s dopamine withdrawal.

The Dopamine Reset Plan

To fix this issue, you don’t need more rest (although that’s always good to build in for other reasons).

You need to rebalance your dopamine system—by reducing quick dopamine hits and replacing them with deeper, more sustainable sources.

Here’s how.

Step 1: Cut Out Quick Dopamine Hits (Give Your Brain a Break)

To reset your dopamine system, you need to lower artificial stimulation.

🎯 Reduce multitasking. Each time you switch tasks your brain gets a tiny dopamine hit. Instead, work in deep-focus blocks.

📵 Phone-free mornings. Give yourself at least 30 minutes after waking up before checking your phone.

🔕 Turn off non-essential notifications. Every ping pulls you back into short-term dopamine mode.

📺 Reduce passive entertainment. Scrolling or binge-watching doesn’t actually make you feel better—it just keeps your brain on standby for the next hit.

Small changes. Big impact.

Step 2: Build Up Deep Dopamine (Make Boredom Useful Again)

Once you’ve stopped overstimulating your brain, you need to retrain it to enjoy effort and patience.

This is where deep dopamine comes in—the kind that comes from doing, creating, and progressing, rather than consuming.

🏃‍♂️ Move your body. Even a short walk resets your dopamine system. Exercise releases sustained dopamine rather than quick bursts.

📚 Engage in focused work. Any task that requires concentration—writing, reading, problem-solving—helps your brain get used to effort again.

🎵 Create instead of consume. Playing an instrument, cooking, or writing forces your brain to produce dopamine through effort, rather than passive stimulation.

🌿 Go outside. Nature is one of the best ways to regulate dopamine levels. 15 minutes of fresh air does more for your focus than an hour of scrolling ever will.

Your brain needs to be trained to enjoy these again.

The more you do them, the better you’ll feel.

Step 3: Delay Gratification (Teach Your Brain to Enjoy Effort Again)

Your dopamine system works on anticipation.

This means that if you delay a reward, your brain releases more dopamine leading up to it.

The longer the delay, the bigger the dopamine response.

Here’s how to use this to your advantage:

⏳ Use the "10-minute rule."

Whenever you feel the urge to check your phone, eat something unhealthy, or do a quick dopamine activity—wait 10 minutes.

Often, the craving disappears.

📆 Earn your dopamine.

Instead of checking social media randomly, set a rule: No scrolling until you’ve completed a task.

Over time, your brain starts to associate effort with reward again.

🛠️ Make effort the reward.

Instead of focusing on finishing a task, focus on the process of doing it.

Dopamine is strongest when we are in pursuit of something—not when we get the reward.

Summary

If you’re feeling drained, unmotivated, or unable to focus—it might not be burnout.

It might be dopamine withdrawal.

To reset your brain:

✔ Reduce cheap dopamine. Stop overstimulating your brain with fast, easy rewards.
✔ Increase deep dopamine. Move, create, and focus on meaningful effort.
✔ Delay gratification. Teach your brain to enjoy effort, not just quick wins.

Your brain isn’t broken.

It’s just adapted to the world we live in.

Give it the reset it needs.

💬 Tried a dopamine detox before? Let me know how it went!

See you next week. One more thought 👇

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That's it for this week. Thanks for reading, really hope this helped. Contact me if you think I can help you further at [email protected].

Happy thinking.