How I BEAT My DOPAMINE ADDICTION

So I've never really talked about my story, about how I beat dopamine addiction between the ages of 16 and 19. I would spend every single second of my day getting my brain stimulated, going on my phone, looking at screens, playing video games, YouTube, listening to music, every single second, getting stimulated.

And if I wasn't in front of a screen getting dopamine, I was bored. Well, I was irritable and I couldn't focus on anything. I couldn't do any of my work and this was painful. Um, I remember going on the first day of university and I instantly knew it wasn't for me. So I wanted to grow my YouTube channel. I wanted to start a business so that I could drop out, but because of this dopamine addiction, I couldn't do anything.

I couldn't do any work. Uh, and this ended up me feeling weak. When I was promising myself, I was going to do something and I didn't do it. It really affected my self esteem. It really affected my productivity. So we want to make a video walking you through my story, how I've dealt with dopamine addiction, how I've moved the com dog.

I mean, addiction in the hope that some of you guys out back we've spent too much time on their phone, find themselves on focus a little bit bored about normal things. Can't really find the fun or the pleasure in day-to-day life. Um, can't stay productive for consistent periods of time can get something of benefit out of this video.

And a quick disclaimer, I've made videos talking about the scientific nature of dopamine, but I just want to make this video about the stimulating nature of modern technology, social media, gaming, porn, weed, drugs, um, YouTube, everything like that, and how that affects operating. So if we go all the way back for story starts in Kyrgyzstan, which is a country in central Asia, where my parents were missionaries.

It's the kind of country that you go to a dog shop and you ask for a good dog. Like my older sister did when she was a lot younger. Um, they're going to give you a dog that box and it's angry. Cause in their mind, a good dogs, dog that protects it's a very, um, sort of a rough country where you need dogs to protect you from your neighbors.

And when I was five, we flew over from Kurdistan over to England where I'm now living. And it was kind of a culture shock because I didn't know a lot of the things that the other kids, my age knew. One example that sticks out to me. I remember a teacher asked me if I wanted some squash. I didn't know what that meant.

And the kids would laugh at me at squashes juice in England, but I'd never heard of it because I grew up in a different place. And I think probably because of that, I was always slightly different. I remember as a grew, slightly older, I would go to school and all the other kids would want to buy sweets when I would be there trying to sell the sweets to everyone.

I remember there's a shop called Tesco where you could buy three suites for one pound through packs of sweets, and then sell each pack of sweets for pound making a hefty profit. And I would do this constantly so much to the point that my mum would sometimes tell me off for selling sweets at a too high of a markup to the other kids.

And I would say, well, if they want to pay for them and I'm happy to supply them, then both people walk away from the transaction happy, but I guess she just wanted me to fit in and she didn't like me doing this different stuff. And because I was selling sweets, some people would now, and then tell me I was going to be an entrepreneur, which obviously excited me a lot.

It sounded cool. It sounded exciting. So I had, in my mind that I was special and I was going to be an entrepreneur and remember lessons, I didn't really have to try too hard. I could just kind of coast by. So I would always end up just messing around because I would always seem so much more exciting to me than actually sitting down and studying, even in exams, I could just kind of coast by and do the bare minimum and yeah.

Get by with okay. Grades. I would just coast. So now we have this interesting mix of being told that I was special and not trying at almost anything. This would cause a lot of problems in later life. And I now call it the curse of the gifted child, which we'll talk about more later, but this resulted in me building my identity around someone who would effortlessly do well.

I cared a lot about appearing, special appearing, bright. But I also cared a lot about appearing as if I wasn't trying too hard. So it was always trying to act as if I was doing really well without trying. And I remember that every single holiday, my parents would bring me Hill walking in the Hills of Scotland.

Uh, if a mountains over 3000 feet in Scotland, they call it a Monroe. And there's around 280 or so, and Rose my dad's client, most of them, but this is pretty much what we did. Every single holiday. The reason I'm telling you this is because every single time I would climb those mountains with my parents, I would instantly become incredibly angry.

I'd become incredibly frustrated and I would always moan again and again and again, saying that I was bored. Now, back then, I didn't really understand why I was doing this, but now I realize I was doing something difficult and I wasn't getting my brain stimulated. I spent most of my day on my phone.

Watching YouTube playing around, just messing around. And as soon as that stimulation was taken away, I came in incredibly irritable, incredibly bored. This was the start of a dopamine addiction. And as time went on, I found it increasingly more difficult to do any sort of work without being bored. I would always walk around with music, seek in my ears to constantly get stimulated.

If I was waiting for a friend for even a minute or two, I would bring up my phone and I'd be on Reddit or I'd be on social media. Just anything that could stimulate my brain. And I almost went every single day for a long period of my life. Where I didn't have a single moment by myself where I could sit and think all the way down to the second before I turned off my eyes or not turn off my eyes, turn off the lights and shut my eyes before sleep.

I was getting stimulated and this happened for ages all the way up until I came to university. And obviously it's an interesting point for me all my life. I had followed the normal path. I think that people wanted me to do. And I remember at my school going to university was the highest thing. If you got to university, you were doing well, there was even a plaque on the wall with all the names of the kids who had gone to Cambridge or Oxford transcribed them to this wall because it was just everything that everyone wanted to do.

But when I got to uni very quickly, I realized that it wasn't for me. And the very first day I realized this wasn't taking me on the path that I wanted to get on all my life. I was told that I was special, but I was on the normal path. I was on the path to a life that I didn't want to live. And I realized that very quickly.

But instead of actually doing something about the pain that I felt instead, I would just run away and go onto YouTube or gaming. I remember I would watch people like Allie law who would climb cranes and do crazy stuff. Or I'd watch YouTubers like Vic star or Casey Neistat. Just anything like good. To numb the pain that I was feeling about the path that my life was on.

But one day I was on one of these YouTube binges. I stumbled across some personal development, YouTube videos. This was really interesting to me. I'd never heard anything of the sort, but I fell into the rabbit hole and I would watch these videos again and again and again. And all that I would do with my time now was watching YouTube videos because at least when I was watching these personal development, productivity, YouTube videos, I felt like I was being productive.

It felt like I was making progress. It felt like I was doing something. When in reality it was also just another form of procrastination, not to say that these things aren't good. In fact, they acted as the opening. The thing that made me realize that I wasn't doing the thing that I should be doing, and they made me realize that my potential so much higher than I was currently living.

It made me realize I could do so much more, that I could be so much more, but I wasn't in that place. So these personal development videos, first of all, opened my eyes and made me realize that I wasn't doing what I should be doing, which was incredibly motivating, but it was also incredibly painful because I can no longer deny that I wasn't on that path that I wanted to be on.

It made me realize the huge gap. Between where I was and where I could be, it was incredibly painful. And that led me onto a long phase of my life that I like to call the roller coaster existence. This is pretty much productive periods, followed by unproductive periods, followed by productive periods. I would get incredibly motivated.

I would promise myself tomorrow was going to be different. I was going to do all of these incredible things. Outbuilding habit trackers for myself. I would write down all these plans about how I was going to use my time and I would stick to it. For a short period of time. And then I would slip straight back into old habits and I would be productive and the cycle repeat again and again, and again, it was incredibly painful because when I was productive, I knew it was going to end and I knew it wasn't going to last.

And the interesting thing was when I was going through these periods of productivity and unproductivity areas of my life would follow in sync. So when I was being productive, I was feeling good about myself. My relationships were doing well. I was eating while I was exercising. Everything was going well.

And when I would slip back into my old habits, like confidence would be shattered. All of my habits would slip up and my whole life was in a rut. And I wasn't doing anything that I should be doing. And no matter how aware I was of the situation, no matter how much I knew what was happening for whatever reason, I couldn't break out of it.

And this would eat me up from the inside, knowing I wasn't consistent, knowing that couldn't control myself, knowing I was more. Addicted to stimulation, instant gratification and dopamine that I was to achieve. And my goals broke me, uh, after promising myself that I was going to do something and I didn't do it.

I'd lost all confidence in myself. I couldn't trust myself. Think about it. If someone lies to you again and again and again, you don't trust them. And when you lie to yourself again and again, and again, you don't trust yourself. And when you have that inner lack of trust, it spills over and affects everything to the point that when I would meet my friends, I was like, Acting I was putting on a personality because I was scared about who I really was.

I had no form of inner confidence and this led to me doing some pretty crazy stuff. When I was at my lows, I would climb cranes inspired by some of the YouTubers that I would watch. And I would climb these Queens I'd break into these places. They shouldn't be, I would walk up them. I would walk across on the end of the crane.

And there was times that I even held my hands and dangled off of a crane. Doing all of this crazy stuff in these ruts that I was in, it was really quite scary all because I was just chasing the thrill chasing stimulation. And the crazy thing is this is a massive problem. That's widespread in society.

It's a disease that people don't even realize is a disease. And it's only going to get worse. Some of the smartest minds on this planet are getting together and brainstorming how they can get you to come on their platform, their social media platform, and stay on that platform for as long as possible as warfare for your attention.

And you are the victim of it, and the reason it's so stimulating, it's all of these things, give you a shortcut to fulfill a primal desire of yourself, porn actors, your primal desire for mating, and because of that, and because you can tap into it effortlessly, it fills your brain with stimulation, YouTube.

It fills your desire with socializing. It's the same thing as social media, your desire to be recognized, you desire to be approved. That's what the like buttons for all of these things are based upon our natural human desires and those things to give us an endless amount of stimulation. Right. Simply by pressing a button and it's only going to get worse.

And I remember as I was going through this rollercoaster, this up and down this painful cycle, I stumbled across a mentor of mine called sunny tea. If I was a skinny white kid, let's just say he was the opposite of that Fisher. I said, And one of the things that he urged me to do was start the YouTube channel.

He told me to stop procrastinating and just get it done. So I did, I got rid of all my fears. I just acted heavily influenced by him. And I made my first YouTube video frame. Now, funnily enough, looking back at his YouTube video. One of my habits of trying to effortlessly do well was still there because actually the very first YouTube video uploaded on this channel, he's a straight rip off of Ryan holiday's work.

Literally. I copied his articles word for word. And I spoke to them out in the YouTube videos. Ryan, if you're watching this, I deeply apologize, but that was all I did. I just wanted to make the YouTube videos was effortlessly as possible. It's still up on this channel. So I just blatantly copied someone.

And as I was going through the cycle of trying to grow a business that I could drop out of uni, I was plagued by doubt. I remember messaging the mentor, Tony T just telling him, I don't know if I can do it. I don't know if it's possible. I felt so weak. I had no confidence that I didn't even think it was possible for me to achieve any of my goals.

And when you don't believe something's possible, of course, you're not going to take the action to do it because you think it's going to be wasted action. But then what thought had happening is over time as I started to go through the cycle again and again and again, I started to notice cause and effect previously, I thought the cycle was something that was completely out of my control, but then I started to realize, hold on a second, if I think this.

If I hold this belief, or if I take this action, then a certain time period later, the effect of this action manifest the effect of this actual, this belief comes about in the real world. So we started to identify, hold on a second. If I take action, X, Y, and Z, and the effect of that action is a, B and C. And I started to be able to predict the cycle and I started to be able to control the cycle.

And as soon as I got that deep understanding of reality and why this cycle was happening in my life, I could start to manipulate it. I could start to make the highs of the cycle even longer. And the lows of the cycle, even shorter over time with the mentors. Things that I was learning. I started to get an understanding of the cycle and what I could do to break out of it.

And as I started doing this, what happens is momentum starts getting built up. So if you're in this period of procrastination and everything's incredibly difficult for you, the first action you take is the most difficult action. It's like, you've got a massive Boulder and trying to push it up a Hill.

It's incredibly slow. It's incredibly, incredibly painful. It's difficult. You're trying to break all of your bad habits. And implement a bunch of new habits. It's so painful, but over time as I continue to push this Boulder for months after months of the months of the months, I did it, the old fashioned, the brute fashioned way.

There's a way to build momentum quicker, but I just did it through pure sweat and grit and pain. And eventually what started happening is the ball started moving by itself. The mentum started to be built. My habits started to change. I was able to slow down slightly and not. Constantly need the stimulation.

And as that happened, I started to do more and more and more work. The YouTube channel started growing. I remember the first time that one of the videos went viral as mock releases morning routine. And there was people that would recognize me on the streets. It was absolutely madness. And as soon as I had that proof that I could do it and that I was on the right path, everything became so much easier.

I remember the day that I got my first sale, it was $7 and I was so happy. I was so proud of myself for actually making a result happen. He's so excited, man. Just because he's been working so hard to getting that right. He's so excited to get that first sale on his website. Right. Are you going to do that?

And as soon as I found something I actually enjoy doing, and I did the work necessary to remove my fear and anxiety associated about those actions. Procrastination started to go at the end of the day. All humans are doing is moving towards pleasure and away from pain. So you can make the things you should be doing more pleasurable and remove the pain associated with those events.

Remove the fear of failure, remove the fear of judgment, remove all of these things. That action becomes effortless. Most people try and use motivation to overcome behavior change, but as you saw it results in highs and lows because motivation doesn't last and people try and use willpower. But the problem with willpower is it's finite.

So it may work for a short period of time, but then it's going to slip up when people try and use time management. But the problem with time management is it's logical. You're logically trying to determine how you spend your time, but in reality, your behavior is determined by the emotional part of your brain, the limbic system, not the prefrontal cortex, which is the logical part of your brain.

So time management is good, but by no means, is it the thing that's going to help you overcome procrastination? The way you do that is to pleasure and pain. And as I started building this confidence, the more and more I told them, so I'm going to do this thing. And I did do it. That's when my confidence started getting rebuilt and I felt more in control of myself and more in control of the actions I could take.

And as a result, I felt more in control of the world and getting the things that I wanted to get, because now we could set bigger and bigger and bigger goals for myself, but actually have the confidence that I was going to do. What's necessary to reach those goals that I was going to put in the causes that leads to.

Effect of the attainment of those goals and it felt incredible. It still feels incredible. And I don't want to say that everything's perfect. I still have the desire for stimulation. I still spend time on YouTube, but it's got to the point that it's such a small part of my life, that it really doesn't impact me.

It doesn't impact my mental health. It doesn't impact my achievement of goals. So if you're in this cycle or you feel like you spend too much time on screens, no. That when you. Beat this you're going to be so grateful that you went through that period, because if I didn't go through all of that period, I wouldn't have learned the lessons I will learn now.

And I wouldn't be able to help other people beat procrastination and get consistent productivity through time theory. It was because of what I learned through that period that I can now help other people. So you yourself and the challenges you go through, chances are later on, you're going to be grateful that you went through those challenges and that's pretty much how I beat dopamine addiction.

You have questions for me. Leave them down in the comments and I'm happy to answer them and subscribe. If you two want to beat dopamine addiction. I hope this was insightful. I hope it was beneficial. It's a bit of a different video, but if you enjoyed it, I'll see you in the next video.