Comment with one of your worst dopamine hijackers; something which takes over and hogs your dopamine system, and on New Years Day I’ll go through the comments and rank the top ten on how many upvotes they get and edit this post with the results as well as make a new post. Maybe even make a New Years Resolution based on it!
If there are any duplicates only the one with the most upvotes will be counted. Any comments/replies which are chat or reactions will obviously be disregarded from the final count.
Results:
- Scrolling
- Someone is wrong on the Internet
- Phone notifications
- Video games
- Maladaptive daydreaming
- Unfinished projects that should be quick to finish
- Sleep-deprivation-induced mania
- Alcohol
- Reading internet to drown out own thoughts
- Expensive hobbies
Most of mine are taken but I will say https://marple.itch.io/orb-of-creation
Also on steam.
Hey @oeuf@slrpnk.net , it’s new years. Now get to it.
If you do it, I’ll do it for my recent post as well.
My phone. Please send help.
Scrolling
Someone is wrong on the Internet.
Being banned from reddit was one of the best things to ever happen to me. So, I second.
I finally became more aware of this and realise mid-response that this is nonsense. But by then I’m invested.
My solution: A file “nobody-cares.txt” where I can paste it, which feels easier than just closing the tab.
Therapist says this is a fine first idea, but by doing so, I still attribute value to this nonsense. So next step is to just discard everything I had typed. Actually feels good sometimes.
I am doing this immediately. Thanks for sharing.
Deciding not to do something mid-way through can really be a relieve, but i also have to make an active decision to disregard it. Usually the thought that pushes me from ‘i really have to do this’ to ‘i don’t have to do this really’ is along the lines of ‘i deserve my time of energy for something better then this’. As you say, the words only seem valuable because i attributed value to it in the first place.
Post the file
ESPECIALLY if they’re wrong about something I am obsessed with.
Never thought of this but it so is!
Phone notifications.
I pick up my phone to look up that guy who was in the thing with the blonde dude, turn the phone on, and there’s a notification. “Better check it now since I might forget it after I look this up.”
Forty-three minutes later, I finally put the phone down.
A few minutes later I remember I was going to look up that guy who was in the thing with the blonde dude. “Fucking hell.” I turn the phone on, and there’s a notification. “Better check it now since I might forget it after I look this up.”
Eighty-two minutes later, I finally put the phone down.
A few minutes later I remember I was going to look up that guy who was in the thing with the blonde dude. “Fucking hell.” I turn the phone on, and there’s a notification. “Better check it now since I might forget it after I look this up.”
Video games
My experience from my side of the fence (I’m dual class), is that some games will charge me and entertain me to a degree and in 30 to 60 mins I’ll be done and ready to do something else.
However the Rimworlds, Minecrafts, Factorios of this world will chain me and when I realize it six hours have passed by.
Stellaris is like this for me.
Oh yes, and Civilization.
Reading internet to drown out own thoughts
Maladaptive Daydreaming. It’s very hard to stop once a dramatic or interesting storyline/plot has started to form.
For anyone else who might have these, adderall seems to help. Idk why, but I seem much less likely to have them or compulsively keep them going when I’ve taken my meds
It’s wild that there’s so much more research and knowledge about the things my ADHD brain experienced growing up. I’m in my 30s now and don’t daydream quite as much, but when I was a kid I would daydream for hours. Car rides I’d pretend I was a skater kid jumping over all the obstacles. I’d lie awake for hours at night daydreaming about my crush, going on dates, etc.
Of course I didn’t know it was ADHD then, but man I sure feel validated.
on New Years Day I’ll go through the comments
and rank the top ten on how many upvotes they get
and edit this post with the results
as well as make a new post.
Maybe even make a New Years Resolution based on it!
Sure bud. Just like how I’ll save this post and definitely remember to go back and look at it.
To answer the question, and sure it counts, but on Vvaynce it’s cleaning. I feel like I understand the meth heads now. Except why do they never end up with a clean place.
Sure bud. Just like how I’ll save this post and definitely remember to go back and look at it.
The great thing about over-promising here is that nobody will remember to hold me accountable for it.
What’s a jib?
It’s any unfinished project that I can probably finish in about 20 minutes. Just 20 more minutes. Don’t worry, I’m almost done.
This is a weird one maybe but not sleeping. There is a sort of mania that comes from sleep deprevation which can be so satisfying but this isn’t exactly hijacking my dopamine system in the way I think you mean. More close to what you were wanting is short form content like tiktok. I just don’t use them anymore because of it.
Alcohol
Going through pages and pages of nexusmods creating a build of a game I don’t even think I like anymore but never seem to run out of work I can do on it
World building for the game I run.
Instead of, you know, actually preparing enemy NPC stat blocks, or maps, or writing dialogue, or making sure combat will be balanced and not a TPK.
World building is fun
Omg same!! I used to call it D&D brain, literally sends me into a timewarp for hours at a time
One of my messages to the group was essentially: “I set aside time today to write dialogue and plot points. Here is a detailed map of the city I made instead”
“Hey y’all I didn’t prep combat but here’s a 4,000 word document about a city in a continent you’re never going to visit.”
