Every so often, I'll notice that some activity I’ve been doing a lot has lost its thrill. You probably know the feeling: a TV show or an online game goes from feeling engaging to time-sucking. Dr. Anna Lembke, a psychiatrist who wrote a book about the neurotransmitter dopamine, says that this happens when we’ve become over-reliant on some source that delivers dopamine quickly to our reward pathways. "We need to keep engaging in these behaviors," she says, "not to feel good and happy, but just to feel normal."

One way to break this cycle is an exercise called a dopamine detox, which has recently become popular online. The term is a misnomer, since you can’t actually detox from such an important neurochemical, but the idea behind it—cutting out your most addictive stimuli to give your brain a bit of a break—is a good one. As long as you’re honest with yourself about how different activities make you feel, even the shortest breaks from harmful ones can teach you a lot.

These two tips can help you design your own digital detox:

• Remember that there’s no shame in using firm barriers, like software that locks you out of certain websites, to help you through an intentional break. Lembke approves of these tools.
• Want to be able to cook dinner without the TV on in the background, or to feel calm when you leave the house without your headphones? Try enlisting a friend in your experiment. Any challenge is easier with a buddy.

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