Book Excerpt: How to Feel Nothing

The real guys, trying. (Photo credit: NYT)

A 2019 article in the New York Times, “How to Feel Nothing Now, in Order to Feel More Later,” is the account of two entrepreneurs trying to get as close as possible to the point of feeling nothing, which they believed would hasten the restoration of dopamine sensitivity. “We’re addicted to dopamine,” one said. “And because we’re getting so much of it all the time, we end up just wanting more and more, so activities that used to be pleasurable now aren’t. Frequent stimulation of dopamine gets the brain’s baseline higher.”

On dopamine-fasting days, the entrepreneurs held to strict rules: no eating, no looking at screens, no listening to music, no exercise, no touching another person’s body (not even a handshake), no work, no eye contact, and no talking unless “absolutely necessary.” The photographer who took their picture for the article wasn’t allowed to use a flash because the two were afraid the sudden change in light might stimulate dopamine.

Some of this was a good idea, but most of it was useless, even counterproductive.

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They were on the right track when they eliminated work. Work is typically future oriented: we invest our time and resources today for income, recognition, or power tomorrow. That’s dopamine-driven activity. Avoiding screentime also made sense. Much of what we do on computers and cell phones is planning and abstraction, so screens are a dopamine stimulant, and we can turn them off. The rest of their approach mostly replaced precise choices with blunt force. This took away more than dopamine, and that was costly.

But when they deprived themselves of dopaminergic stimulation, they cut themselves off from the pleasures of the H&N system too. As they pushed away the often-empty anticipatory excitement of dopamine, they also pushed away the thing that has to take its place. To begin with, they cut themselves off from social interaction. Sometimes we interact with others for a future purpose, but more often it’s simply for the enjoyment of being with people, a powerful pleasure delivered in part by the H&N neurotransmitter oxytocin. Consider something as simple as a smile. Researchers at Hewlett-Packard used a brain scanner and heart rate monitor to measure “mood-boosting values” for various stimuli. They estimated that a smile was as pleasurable and stimulating as getting 2,000 bars of chocolate or $25,000. (I'd take the cash over the smile any day. - ML) If we smile to help create a better future—to initiate a new relationship, to make ourselves more attractive to a potential employer, or to put a potential client at ease—then the activity is almost entirely dopaminergic. But how often do you present a calculated smile? Most of the time you’re just happy. Or consider the stimulation of the exercise they set aside. A runner’s high feels so intense that you might assume it’s a dopamine-driven experience, but it’s not. Runner’s high is from endorphin, another H&N neurotransmitter. It creates a feeling of fulfillment and satisfaction, which is the opposite of the urge for more that dopamine delivers.

The combination of all this avoidance denied the entrepreneurs yet another benefit. Dopamine and H&Ns can suppress one another. When you’re at dinner, deeply engaged in discussing plans for tomorrow, you’re not much engaged with the tastes, smells, and textures of the meal you’re eating. Conversely, when you’re appreciating the mouthfeel of pasta or the smoky-sweet taste of the cumin in the dish in front of you, debating how to write tomorrow’s TPS report is far from top of mind. In this way H&N pleasures can help lower dopamine activity and promote resensitization.

A dopamine fast has to be accompanied by purposeful H&N stimulation, which creates enormous pleasure that doesn’t lead to craving. Besides the intrinsic value of in-the-moment enjoyment, and the importance of shifting toward the senses and away from anticipation, the H&N experience reinforces what we need to remember in order to live better: great pleasure is possible somewhere other than the dopamine treadmill. Many wonderful, valuable things are satisfying in the moment and that’s enough. By depriving themselves of a wealth of here-and-now pleasures, the entrepreneurs made their “fast” more difficult to maintain, and they missed out on building the habits and experience base they were going to need to permanently lower their attraction to dopamine.

Finally, the entrepreneurs mistakenly tried to modify their brains through an occasional intense day of heroic deprivation. Some bodily systems can change fast. When it’s too dark to see, the iris reacts immediately, but brain systems such as dopamine circuits change slowly. Consider how long it takes to learn a new language or master a new skill. An occasional full day of practice isn’t going to do it. Success depends on long-term commitment and frequent repetition. Upregulation is literally the restoration of dopamine receptors at the cellular level. They don’t pop up like mushrooms after a rainstorm.