Why the Media Lies to You about Dopamine Fasting

How Mocking Silicon Valley Trumps Sharing Science

In August 2019, I popularized dopamine fasting 2.0, when my evidence-based guide got over 100,000 views in <24 hours. Since then, the media has made it go viral worldwide, including news coverage on ABC TV and prominent papers in the US, UK, Australia, France, Japan, India, Turkey, & The Middle East. This has been a wonderful opportunity to teach people a behavioral therapy technique to manage impulsive behaviors (like excessive internet/gaming) by purposefully withdrawing from them for periods of time at the end of each day, week, quarter, and year. Unfortunately, some clickbait journalists and those with an agenda have used it as a way of mocking Silicon Valley and its men.

In my guide, I was careful to clarify what dopamine fasting IS NOT: an avoidance of dopamine, anything stimulating, or a silent meditation retreat in which you’re not allowed to do anything or talk to anyone. However, the confusion began when a tweet went viral about one guy who refused to talk to a woman due to being on a supposed dopamine fast, despite this being the exact opposite of what I recommend. My protocol specifically suggests socializing/bonding during a dopamine fast, and I have repeatedly told journalists that this is not what my clients and followers do in Silicon Valley.

This was a juicy opportunity for Nellie Bowles, a male-bashing activist writer for New York Times, who is notorious for writing “disgusting hit pieces” on other psychologist/professors, which have been described as “Dishonest, Malicious Crap”. She purposefully published a mocking article, incorrectly claiming that “a dopamine fast is basically a fast of everything”, and featured this guy and his two colleagues, in order to mock them as examples of Silicon Valley male excess. You can see this “tech bro” contempt in other clickbait or ‘listicle’ stories like “7 health trends Silicon Valley tech bros are obsessed with, from dopamine fasting to the keto diet” and this fine example of a high-integrity headline: “ARE THE TECH BROS WHO ‘DOPAMINE FAST’ FULL OF SHIT?”. Even the NYT Styles section slyly mock tweeted: “Men did it again” with a ridiculous profile of a man meditating.

Here’s the truth: female clients in my practice dopamine fast as well, and for good reason…