A 'Dopamine Fast' Will Not Save You from Addiction

> Americans aren’t facing an addiction crisis because we get too much dopamine from overabundant cheap thrills. Our problem, instead, is a lack of connection, community and purpose.

First, let me just say: It's complicated. It's also a spectrum. That is, causes and "cures" are not a single silo.

Now to address the quote I pulled above. The irony of connection and community is this: humans naturally conform to the norms around us. Walking down the street and smoking has been replaced with walking down the street face-down-and-palm-up. Human see, human do. Seeing more and more people around you put on weight, normalizes your perception / belief that extra weight is ok. Etc. That is, connection and community *are* a survival advantage, to a fault.

As for purpose (at the individual level), it offers some hope. For the sake of this rant-y I'm going to propose that identity is a proxy for purpose. Or as I like to heuristic it:

Belief drives behavior.

The power of identity is mentioned in Nir Eyal's "Indistractable". It's discussed in one of the Micheal Easter books. Was it "Scarcity Brain" or "The Comfort Crisis", I forget. It's also discussed as a tool in one of Annie Duke's book. "Quit", I think but made it wasn't that one.

In any case, identity can give you "purpose". For example, "I identify as someone who walks after dinner phone-less, instead of doom scrolling on the sofa with a pint of ice cream." Intentional self-declared identity can be a pushback against connection and community. That can snowball, in a good way. Look at smoking. As more people identified as ex-smokers, the more quitting increased. Rinse. Repeat.