Why I don’t trust biohacking to save you…
Biohacking is having a cultural moment
Scroll through social media and you’ll see people plunging into ice baths at dawn, obsessively tracking sleep metrics, micro-dosing for “clarity,” and supplementing their way through existential dread. The promise is seductive: optimise your biology and your life will finally begin to make sense. Longevity! Resilience! Discipline! A system to outrun the feeling of being fundamentally unwell inside your own life.
But as a therapist, I’ve learned that the body doesn’t need more hacks - the person does. And no powdered NMN, cryotherapy chamber, or dopamine-reset protocol can substitute for emotional maturity, relational repair, and meaning.
This isn’t an anti-science stance.
It’s a reality check.
1. Biohacking is often a mood-management system for people who don’t want to feel
Cold plunges, breathwork shocks, fasting stressors - they all trigger a short-term catecholamine spike. Norepinephrine rises 200–300% within minutes of cold exposure, producing a temporary sense of clarity and drive.
That feels good.
It also masks whatever emotional state lives beneath it.
Most of the people who reach for biohacking tools aren’t trying to live longer.
They’re trying to escape the present.
Instead of learning how to sit with loneliness, grief, confusion, or anxiety, they reach for a biological reset button.
But biology isn’t the problem.
Avoidance is.
2. You cannot optimise your way out of trauma
Epigenetic research is clear: stressful environments and adverse childhood experiences reshape gene expression, immune function, and long-term health far more than isolated supplements ever could.
But rather than addressing the root - attachment wounds, shame, relational patterns - biohacking culture sells the fantasy that you can out-supplement your emotional reality.
You can’t.
Your nervous system remembers what your mind refuses to face.
3. The data behind biohacks is far thinner than the marketing
Let’s be clinically honest:
Cold Exposure
Pros: short-term mood elevation, decreased inflammation, metabolic benefits.
Cons: research on long-term health outcomes is weak; emotional numbing can be misread as “clarity.”
Reality: Good for resilience training, not a substitute for inner work.
NMN / NR / Longevity Supplements
Pros: promising in rodent models for mitochondrial support.
Cons: human trials are limited, small, and inconsistent; FDA does not recognise NMN as a proven longevity agent.
Reality: May support energy. Won’t fix existential emptiness.
Biohacking “Protocols”
Tracking, stacking, fasting - most are borrowed from clinical science but applied like religion, with no long-term evidence that they actually extend life.
Meanwhile, the most reliable predictors of longevity are:
secure relationships
emotional regulation
stable lifestyle
purpose
low chronic stress.
The things biohackers avoid.
4. You cannot “improve” a life you refuse to inhabit
When someone is:
drinking heavily
avoiding emotional intimacy
stuck in validation loops
living in fight-or-flight
terrified of standing still
No supplement can bring peace.
Because peace isn’t a biological state - it’s a psychological one.
People often chase optimisation when what they actually need is orientation.
They want a protocol because they lack a blueprint.
What I see clinically is this:
Biohacking becomes an armour for people who can’t tolerate their internal world.
It’s performance masquerading as growth.
Until you address the relational patterns, the attachment wounds, the shame stories, and the internal chaos - the hacks will always fail.
5. Real resilience isn’t manufactured. It’s grown
Your nervous system doesn’t want to be “hacked.”
It wants to feel safe.
It wants connection.
It wants meaning.
It wants consistency.
It wants you to stop chasing fixes and finally turn inward.
Biohacking sells shortcuts.
Therapy teaches you how to build a life you don’t need shortcuts from.
And that is what truly changes your biology.
6. If you really want longevity, do this instead
Science consistently shows the strongest predictors of long, healthy life are:
Secure attachment
Emotional regulation
Low chronic stress
Stable routines
Healthy relationships
A sense of purpose
Healthy sleep
A lifestyle you enjoy rather than endure
These are not hacks.
They’re foundations.
And unlike supplements, they actually work.
7. The truth I wish biohackers knew
No one is coming to save you.
Not NMN.
Not cold plunges.
Not dopamine detoxes.
Not wearable trackers.
If you cannot face your life, your biology will eventually collapse under the weight of everything you refuse to feel.
But if you turn toward your inner world - slowly, courageously, consistently - your body will follow.
Biohacking promises optimisation.
Healing offers transformation.
And only one of them can save you.