Stories

My Journey with TherapyKin

I have always been struggling with dopamine imbalance, and I was getting more and more into a loop of procrastination and hunting for instant gratification (coffee, cigarettes, socials, scrolling, starting a million projects and never finishing one, you name it). That left me more and more drained and depressed, while I struggled with work and kept accumulating things I should have taken care of.

There's also some delving into past mistakes and some other stuff stemming from a not-so-ideal relationship with my father, which gave me what I guess you could call an "impostor syndrome".

The conclusion I got to after talking to AI (TherapyKin and ChatGPT) is that the root cause for me was a misalignment with the person I actually wanted to be. So I first defined that as closely as I could, and turned it into a "creed" that I printed out and hanged right in front of me in my studio.

Then I made a tracker where I input any misalignment or other important event I have throughout the day, along with triggers, feelings and potential corrections. That really helps because I actually have to analyze each event in order to write it down, not just "let it happen" and push it in a corner.

I also started very, very slowly changing habits and patterns with small but significant steps (e.g. from wake up > coffee > cigarette to wake up > breakfast > check work emails 5 min > coffee > cigarette), made a 12 weeks plan for a full dopamine reset which will end with me quitting cigarettes and coffee (including some supplements which I think are helping) and started using Pomodoro timer for full-focus work sprints + breaks.

All in all, I have just started, but I already removed some bad habits, I'm getting so much more done, I feel better with myself (a little proud even), and have a ton more energy throughout the day. If someone told me last month, I wouldn't have believed it possible.