How Cold Water Therapy Transformed Me As An Addict – Matt Willis

now I first heard about cold water therapy years ago I think it was Tim Ferris who first talked about having cold showers and I tried it I was like n mate this is this is horrendous you know there's something about turning that shower to cold which never feels good you know it's um it's it's it's awful it's it's it's a horrible experience you know at the beginning I was lasting 15 seconds you know then I built up to 30 seconds now I can do 2 minutes in a shower you know with the water on cold and I do it pretty much every day you know um and it's incredible you know I can feel fantastic after that experience which is um which is new to me you know um I really really find it really really powerful State change you know it changes my state changes my mood you know I've then invested in a cold plunge which I go in most days you know and I do you know two to three minutes you know and I go and I submerge myself up to my neck and it's horrible like it's never nice I don't enjoy this I dread getting in every day it doesn't change I hate going in this thing but my god do I feel incredible when I get out you know it's a funny thing man like if you get if you if you ever done cold water submersion you will try being cross when you get out you know try going in there with something that's annoying you and then getting out and still feeling that way you know it's impossible you know I can't think of anything else when I'm in there but wanting to get out and um and then trying to kind of regulate myself so I feel okay in there then that will hit another wall of pain and I want to get out then you know so um so it's kind of a constant kind of like agonizing Journey but um when I get out of there I feel absolutely incredible you know they talk about the world of recovery we we hear a lot about dopamine and um and addicts love a dopamine I love me a bit of dopamine you know and I'll get it wherever I can you know and I try to get it in ways which don't destroy my life and the people I love these days you know so um uh I find this really powerful for that and the science is out there you know I don't really know much about the science I also don't do it for those benefits there's loads of science about like Muscle Recovery and workout recovery to do with um cold water submersion there's loads to do with dopamine and and what happens when you when you get out of that water you know like for instance a cigarette increases your dopamine two times base level so when we like a cigarette like I love nicotine I've got Litin pouching right now don't tell anyone you know and um and I love that you know and it increases your dopamine two times alcohol releases your dopamine I can't remember the exact number but cocaine increases your base dopamine level a 100 times but it lasts 10 minutes 10 15 minutes and then you crash right but dopamine is a sea Sal right right so one side of one side is pain and one side is pleasure right if you think of those two that like dopamine is kind of reward and kind of like feeling good right so if you go bang and bring up your dopamine pain goes down that's why I think if you're experiencing some kind of trauma or you've got like some some kind of like internal pain in your life we seek out these reward systems which which make us feel better you know and release this dopamine you know in the terms of drugs shopping porn whatever it is you know your drug of choice you know we find these ways of increasing dopamine you know and but unfortunately your body wants to hit homeostasis it wants to hit natural levels so it will bring you crashing down but when you come down it doesn't get a base level unfortunately it comes much below base level so when dopamine comes down pain goes up that's what craving is you know that's what that's what a what a hangover is that's what that's what a craving for more drugs is that's what a craving for a cigarette is you don't feel calm after a cigarette you know there's this kind of myth that you kind of smoke and it calms you down no it just relieves the craving for another cigarette because your body's in a pain State rather than a dopamine state so it wants that kind of like hit of dopamine you know and you know it's the same as with Heroin chasing the dragon all these kind of things you know the same kind of term you know the the second hit is Never As Good As the First but cold water you know cold water immersion releases four times your base rate of dopamine but it lasts for four hours so you can feel that that is that is unbelievable so if you think of cigarettes one time right so four times your base rate of dopamine and it's a sustained level for 4 hours long so you can start your day feeling pretty great and it will last four hours and it doesn't just drop off a cliff it kind of tapers off which is really great you know so um I find that really powerful you know obviously no one not everyone has the ability to go into a cold plunge every day I get that but I get a cold shower whenever I can you know um most days recently I've been getting in the cold shower because I need to clean my cold plunge out and I can't be asked so the last couple of weeks just been up in a cold shower every morning cuz I'm lazy and um and it's been giving me the same kind of feeling you know so you can get this from a cold shower it's much harder and it's the science isn't out there in cold showers but um but I feel good after one you know so if you want to try out start slow you know try and get to 30 seconds then a minute you know if you can build up to 2 minutes then you're going to start feeling real benefits from it even after 30 seconds I feel benefit you know so I hope you enjoy it try some some cold water in much