I have run two 30-day protocols and spoken with a dozen Fellows who completed theirs. The pattern is consistent: days 4–7 are the hardest. The restlessness, the reflexive reaching for the phone, the low-grade irritability. By day 10 it subsides. By day 14 the new default has formed.
If you are in week 1, this information is useful: the difficulty curve is front-loaded. The protocol does not get harder. You are in the hardest part now.
Standing Δ is not the point of a dopamine fast. The point is reclaiming the baseline attention span that algorithmic content eroded. Standing Δ improvements are a side effect of having a functional attention span.