Brainrot Explained: Why You Can't Stop Watching

In this video, we learn why our brains are addicted to consuming shallow, dopamine-inducing content, how it impacts our motivation, and practical steps to break free from this cycle.

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▼ Timestamps ▼
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00:00 - Why do we have brains?
04:30 - Abusing evolutionary systems
07:24 - Why is brain rot a problem?
09:22 - Dopamine
12:55 - Relationships and socialisation
19:45 - Physical consequences
24:09 - What do we do about it?
30:15 - Conclusion

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All guests of Healthy Gamer are informed of the public, non-medical nature of the content and have expressly agreed to share their story.

Learn more about the research that goes into making our videos:

[plixplop]

Pro tip: when you're going for a walk, leave the Bluetooth headphones at home. You don't need music or a podcast to walk. Give your brain some time to cool off, it is a much different experience. I often find that after a quiet walk, my brain magically comes up with a solution to some work problem that I'd been stumped on for the past couple hours.

[abutalhaalam]

I started engaging with digital minimalism and deleted most of my social media. it's surprising how quickly I got mental clarity after doing it. I'm now spending all my free time reading and writing and I'm so much happier and better for it since.

[lynx]

Brain hormone management should be taught to kids before they ever even touch tech. Being able to self diagnose feelings/urges would help a lot of people not only avoid addictions, but be able to do the things they want to do.

[ZapatosVibes]

Sleep well to fill your mana bar fully. Do the right activities first thing of the day when their mana cost is at their lowest, before their mana cost scales exponentially. Got it.

[anyama]

These videos addressing brain rot are ahead of their time because we are feeling the effects but the average person doesn’t understand where these effects are derived from. Thank you for your professional explanation to such an important and under represented issue.

[ivanljujic]

5:12 whoever edited and left the cough in made me chuckle 😂

[Violet_wave]

There few things that helped me overcome my brainrot per se is

No phone in - bed, washroom, food

Sleep - easier said than don

Morning walk-1hour.

And no phones for first 15 mins of waking up

Journelling.


Iam not anywhere in my goals.. But this helped a lot.

[arthurmaghanoy]

I started to commute to my university without listening to podcasts or music, it made me much more happier and at peace.

[DankBobRoss]

I genuinely hate this need for stimulation that companies are capitalizing on, I try to delete the apps that give me access to it but I end up just using a mobile browser anyways (where I’m currently watching this) I want to completely stop using it and focus on the real problems in front of me but it feelss like it’s this impossible task, I may change the content into better, more self improving content but I am still feel bound to my phone. I want to swap to a flip phone so I won’t have the ability to consume more content but it also feels like I’d be isolating myself from the rest of the world.

[KrystalKeeper-en]

11:04 This actually explains pretty well why i don't have the motivation to do anything I had planned after going on youtube or playing a video game. It just doesn't really feel worh it when there are more entertaining things I could do, even though i'm logically aware that it's not worth my time and im better off doing the producive task.

[Quantum_Bluntz]

0:25 “If I squeeze it very hard when I wake up in the morning, all of the juice runs out..” - Dr. K

[yashmjj]

Speaking of constant stimulus, I see people going for a walk with their headphones or their earphones on, i see people driving / riding a motorcycle with their earphones on and it always ALWAYS blows my mind at just how much stimulus you need even while something as sensitive as driving

[Keenan.]

LETS GO the timing is perfect
my adhd ass is completely brainrotted by social media rn

[sabrepilot]

Man, I was just thinking "I should watch Dr. K's video on brainrot" and here you are making a new one

[kuroexmachina]

bless dr.K. mans singlehandedly saving me from myself

[Jazzmaster]

Content is like food, it can always be over consumed, no matter what it's about.

[Mich-jkze]

I think it really is these damn phones that are responsible for the struggle of so many young people nowadays.
There is something so unique about this era in which you can be bored out of your mind while watching dopamine evoking content for hours at a time. I personally struggle with Youtube and snap chat.
I find myself absolutely bored out of my mind still watching the same mind-numbing content for hours at a time. I feel so empty after it and once I do so, I cannot fix my mood and I will be crashed out for the rest of the day.
I think if you just cut it our entirely one day at a time and journaled about what you felt, you'd begin to see improve once you forced yourself outside and dealt with those feelings of anxiety and fear vs the void that is doomscrolling and where it leaves you.

[Vishfeast]

It’s also really important to touch up about the body wellness (diet, sleep and exercise). It’s important to realize that you can have a series of negative days due to sleep deprivation, starvation, headaches (I’ve never not cured a headache with water/electrolytes, only when sick) and dehydration which all can make our internal systems run sub optimal. Which alone sets up way less space for other stressors in life like your job or relationships, etc. next day you feeling peppy, really put focus what happened the day before. Did you get good sleep, did you eat good and take note. Cause then you can start to find out the patterns to make you tick!

[ksparkles]

I deleted tiktok a little while ago now and already feel motivation to do the things I want to do again. The first two weeks were the worst because I was hit by this onslaught of boredom that made everything feel unbearable.

[Schollyy]

As someone with PCOS and as a lifetime gamer, this video was so incredibly helpful. I've been struggling with inflammation and insulin resistance for years and never thought about the fact, that playing video games might increase my symptoms, the sedentary lifestyle aspect aside.
So thank you for this informative video and I will try and use your advice to further reduce my symptoms and improve my health♥