Get ready for a positive turn of events! In my last blog post, I shared a shocking story. But this time, I’m here to share the opposite: a tale of triumph and transformation. After six weeks of treatment, I’m thrilled to announce that I have overcome depression and launched my Dopamine course to help others do the same. In this article, I’ll share with you the journey of my recovery and how it has catapulted me into a brighter future as we kick off 2023. But first, let me tell you about the changes I experienced within myself on the road to healing.
Why 2022 became a significant obstacle
As I described in earlier blog posts, 2022 wasn’t my best year. Things went down rapidly from January when I had no idea what to do in January, to actively planning to end my life in August. However, the years before were so good. First, I found my inner self. At least, that was what I thought. Then I improved the house that I sold with a considerable profit, learned to trade with cryptocurrencies successfully, sat out the plandamic in luxury hotels on subtropical islands and finally, I built the Van of my dreams to promote the free lifestyle and kickoff Instagram career. But if I write this now, there is one thing that everything after “I found my inner self” has in common.
And that is external distraction or dopamine. And now I know exactly why this happened. From a minimalistic lifestyle, I was in the middle plandemic back in my house in the Netherlands with massive lockdowns, travel restrictions and no income. So the only thing that I did was entertain myself. I wasn’t aware of my dopamine receptors, but I spend many hours on youtube, social media and gaming.
When I finally flipped my house, this continued even faster. I could do things I never did before. So I start flying an FPV racing drone. Expensive, challenging and extremely fast (pure adrenaline and dopamine). I bought new tech like cameras, a tablet, an apple watch, a new iPhone, etc. (dopamine). Travelling in luxury hotels and resorts (dopamine), Almost full-time trading (more like gambling at first), but you guess it (dopamine). And this ended with building the Van of my dreams. After that, there was a big emptiness. I felt terrible, and my inner critical voice gave me sh*t because I didn’t allow myself to complain. Used to blame the outside, I projected a lot on my girlfriend, inevitably leading to a breakup.
When crypto also entered a bear market, all my sources of dopamine stopped. I tried to top it up with daily posts on Instagram, but it didn’t satisfy me. That big emptiness became hard to handle every morning I started questioning the essence of life. I tried so much but didn’t reach anything, or did I? Confusing thoughts and a feeling that nothing made me happy worsened things to a destructive plan I described in earlier posts.
What happened to the less is more in our today’s society?
Just before and especially during my six-week treatment, I discovered that a significant source of feeling unfilled, bored and depressed is because of our dopamine receptors. Of course, many different aspects cause us to distract ourselves. But most of them are related to dopamine.
What is dopamine?
If you don’t know what dopamine is: Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain that cause us to crave something. It is known as the feel-good hormone. But that is incorrect because it motivates us to do things that can give us potential pleasure—for example, eating a delicious meal. But activities don’t have to provide genuine pleasure. Your dopamine receptors don’t care.
A good example is endless scrolling through social media, which is not a genuine pleasure. If you think it is, let me know what it brings you except for wasting your time. Do you feel better afterwards, or do you grab your phone minutes after you put it away because you crave more? Ah, were you inspired? Did you make notes, or did you apply the knowledge shared by your favourite tiktokker? Most addictions, such as smoking or using alcohol or drugs, are fueled by dopamine.
And the more you engage with highly stimulating activities, the more your receptors get used to dopamine. So you need more or stronger stimulations for the same feeling. As a result, complex, challenging and essential tasks become boring. But there is hope. There are numerous techniques to make your brain more sensitive to dopamine. And precisely, that is what I cover in my Dopamine course.
I developed techniques that helped tap into my motivation and included them in my Dopamine course. As a result, my motivation to share these techniques with others soared. I overcame past challenges, started a side hustle selling posters on Etsy, wrote articles again, and finally, I completed the course with eight modules in just a few weeks. I’m incredibly proud of what I accomplished. These techniques can benefit many people in today’s society, just as they helped me to be productive, motivated and, most importantly, happy again.
Stay tuned for more articles about my journey, and feel free to check out my course.