Should you be dopamine fasting?

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

I’m seeing dopamine everywhere I turn at the moment. As so often happens when a word reaches peak wellness usage, it starts to be inserted into every conceivable context. 

See: ‘dopamine dressing’, loosely translated to mean wearing bright clothes to boost your mood. Incongruously, it even has its own category on famously human rights-flouting fast fashion brand Shein. Because what says fun fashion like child labour?

And dopamine fasting ticks off two wellness buzz words in one fell swoop. No wonder it’s trending on TikTok.

OK so first of all: what is dopamine? It’s one of the body’s neurotransmitters, and is associated with that rewarding feeling, which can make you feel good after a job well done, or motivate you to do something.

This can obviously be really positive. It’s that feeling after you’ve done a great workout, or handed in a piece of work that took ti…