Originally posted on day 1375

Stage 1 – Honeymoon

Initial commitment and excitement to engage in tasks. For example, when you first start your journey in a new activism group.

Stage 2 – Onset of stress

Common symptoms of stress start being felt, such as fatigue, lower productivity and sleep disturbances.

Stage 3 – Chronic Stress

Lack of motivation + more intense symptoms felt on a very frequent basis. At this stage, bad habits such as smoking, drinking etc may begin

Stage 4 – Burnout

Difficulty even to cope with the minimum of daily tasks. Everything seems dull and ugly, and the person starts feeling either numb or else always overwhelmed.

Stage 5 – Habitual burnout

Symptoms of burnout become incorporated into normal life and person experiences chronic fatigue, depression and apathy.

The Resource: https://commonslibrary.org/activist-burnout-guide-with-videos/

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Instead of trying to get rid of dopamine, focus on stepping away from habits and behaviors that no longer serve you.

Read the Harvard Article on Dopamine Fasting here.

Read the Cleveland Clinic's: Dopamine Detoxes Don’t Work: Here’s What To Do Instead

Read Can the ‘Dopamine Detox’ Trend Break a Digital Addiction?

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How to stop scrolling.

• Start from where you are.
• Recognize what is a systemic issue.
• Practice "deciding" with intention when scrolling.
• Practice staying focused and catching yourself when you get distracted on your phone.
• Decouple your association of "dopamine" with "scrolling.
• Practice the standard addiction coping strategies: Make the desired habits more accessible + attractive. Make the habit you'd like to change less attractive + accessible.
• Practice mindful breathing work while you scroll.
• Practice ENGAGING with what you consume, instead of mindlessly consuming.
• Remember problem isn't the dopamine, it's typically the source... so make the sources you'd rather engage with more accessible + attractive for yourself.

You don't have to climb out of the hole today - but you can celebrate the fact that you finally stopped digging.

Watch the Newel of Knowledge video "

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Why would you want to disconnect from your joy, when trying to restore your sense of joy?

You can't go on a T-break for pleasure. Instead, focus on the modifying the way you get your pleasure, instead of eliminating the pleasure itself.

Dopamine is just one neurotransmitter responsible for our sense of pleasure + joy. We can't and shouldn't want to detox our dopamine levels. Dopamine is essential to motivating us to do everything from moving our bodies, to sleeping properly. This is why people with dopamine issues, depression, ADHD, etc. often struggle with physical and executive functioning.

The problem isn't the dopamine, it's typically the source.

Read The Cleveland clinic's Dopamine Detox Article.

Read NPR's article on Dopamine Detoxing.

Read The Cleveland Clinic's description of Anhedonia.

Read the Anhedonia Coping Tips from UCI Health.

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I've been working on my relationship with my phone, on and off, for years. Sometimes, I use it as a tool. Sometimes, it feels like it's using me as a tool.

Genuine + deeply rooted ad fatigue, traumatic events sprung upon me, most content is some form of engagement/rage/anxiety/fear bait, brain rot + ai slop, trolls + bot accounts. Misinformation + disinformation campaigns financed by literal government entities.

It's disheartening to feel like I am the tool being used, and I think I am finally ready to confront this toxic relationship.

Read The Cleveland Clinic's description of Anhedonia.

Read the Anhedonia Coping Tips from UCI Health.

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People associate the feeling of feeling the most alive when they’re laughing and playing and goofing off. People feel the most connected with their purpose and life and future and desire to make the world a better place, when they are connected to joy + their ability to have fun once in a while. 

But for some reason, as we get older - we make less and less time for play. We find it frivolous and silly and a waste of time... but that means some us have lost our joie de vivre because we forgot how to play.

Read The Cleveland Clinic's description of Anhedonia.

Read the Anhedonia Coping Tips from UCI Health.

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I overthink things that don't require second thought. I suck the fun out of joyful activities by worrying about doing it "correctly" or "perfectly" or performing "well enough to not embarrass myself" yet...

even when there is no audience, I find myself performing.

The expectations take away the true joy that comes from "creating" and "play" and "love" and "fun" and I'm trying to pay attention to this tendency so I can sit with the discomfort of not knowing if I will do a good job or not, but committing anyway.

Watch the Junk Journaling video that I referenced here.

Play the video game: Life is Strange.

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We love answers. We love conclusions. We tend to steer clear of open ended problems and tasks, because of this.

But there are so many things that leave us with open ended problems that we will never be able to solve. 

Learning to tolerate that discomfort is an important skill to practice.

The "right" answers don't exist. Let go of your "need" to know. Embrace the wholeness of the human experience; which means, we must learn to embrace the discomfort of wondering.

Listen to the "I Hate Mysteries" episode of This American Life.

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have been trying to stop thinking of every single decision I make as some deep moral test. Every time I stay in the shower a little too long, or support a shitty company, or buy a product wrapped in single use plastic, isn’t a condemnation of all of my character. I am not going to hell. I am not broken. I am not a piece of shit. I am a human being, set up to fail, but doing my best any-damn-way. 

It’s not your job to save the world, but don’t let yourself forget how fulfilling and important it can be to inconvenience yourself, on behalf of love, when the time is right. 

I try to only focus on doing the next, right thing. Which, naturally, will be based on the context, the situation, the energy, the capacity of everyone involved, etc. 

The key is balance and discretion, which I will call: alignment. 

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I have complex feelings about our personal responsibility. As we know the richest 1% cause more climate damage than over half of humanity. 57 companies are linked to 80% of greenhouse emissions, but our society has pushed us into the thinking its ALL our personal responsibility OR it's not at all. But all or nothing thinking is counter-productive and self-defeating.

Instead think of every single imperfect (but inspired) action as a slice of swiss cheese.

Sure, some harms may still make their way through the holes. But the more slices you stack on top of each other, the less those holes line up. And eventually, you create a pretty impenetrable block of actions that remind you that the holes were not a problem to begin with.

Imperfect action > no action.

Read the Inner Self Article on How to Make the World a Better Place.

Read about the Swiss Cheese Method.

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The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

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