As of writing, just 10 days and 11 hours remain in our dopamine detox. Currently I sit perched under the shade of the awning attached to our campervan, parked aside the beautiful Coledale beach in a spot we have booked for the weekend. It feels good to leave the city; to not hear the constant traffic, ambulance sirens, disgruntled pedestrians. Just the wash of the ocean soundtracks these few days of respite.

It’s supposed to be 31°C this weekend, clear and sunny. It’s days like this where I am grateful to have a decent camp to protect my fair complexion from the harsh UV rays. When 15 minutes in the aussie sun transforms you from human to lobster, the investment into a good shade so you can enjoy the great outdoors seems like a no-brainer. I’m still learning to relax when the wind really picks up and starts flexing all the anchors of our camp, but after 2 trips testing the new setup in wild weather without it all blowing away, I should probably start to trust my camping chops some more.

I figured I would do a quick stock-take of how things are tracking now that we’ve long cleared the half way point of the cleanse. A lot of friends ask the same question when they find out I’m abstaining from such a number of activities: “What the hell do you do with yourself now?”. It’s often a simple answer, really one of four things: read, write, work or just rest. I’ve come to appreciate the simplicity of this, yet at the same time I can’t say I don’t miss some of the old habits.

The hardest habit of all to drop was surprising to me; after solidifying the archetype of productive stoner for nearing a decade, weed is definitely the one I miss the most, yet it’s not the one thats been hardest to stop, in fact it’s always quite reassuring to me when I take a break, either consciously or due to outstanding circumstances that require me to reprioritise my usage, that I still maintain a significant level of control over my usage and my cognition and emotions are still stable.

The habit that has been the most gripping, and the one that I have actually had minor relapses in within the first 2 weeks, has been social media. Having written about this in the past, it’s no mystery to me as to why it’s been so difficult, it’s a combination of utility and network effect. Because everyone I communicate with is on it and because social media platforms often serve more purpose than just keeping up to date with friends, there is always some valid reason for you to visit again and once you visit again, you’re only one swipe away from using the rest of the platform. Whether it’s shopping for second-hand goods, or looking for info on an event I am attending, there’s always something to get you back on it.

I’m glad I’ve taken another concious break from it, since writing Isolation in the Age of Connectivity I definitely found myself slip back into old patterns. It makes me quite mad that:

• it’s so effective
• it affects so many people
• so many people are oblivious
• so many people aren’t, yet we are all still stuck in the same game.

I’m getting much closer to advocating for deleting your social media accounts entirely as keeping them around just leaves you too close to the problem. Just use Signal and Gumtree, if your mates are really your mates, they will make the effort to keep in touch.

I’ll save the social media rant, and focus on the positives. The detox overall is good, really good. It’s nice to come back to baseline, check in with the sober self and see that things are still alright. I can’t say theres been any revelations during the past few weeks, but it is good to raw-dog reality for a little while at least. It’s also nice to confirm that the mental crash did alleviate over a couple days and now I feel quite normal again. It’s also nice to see that the views I have on life before and after have remained consistent, I still hold a lot of gratitude for this life and the world we live in, dispite what the news says, it’s not so bad.

Give thanks and look after your body, because it’s the only vehicle you have through this life.

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