About MJ Calloway
MJ Calloway is the author of Close the Opening: 27 Psychological Tricks People Use on You (Without You Realizing) and The Digital Dopamine Detox: A 30-Day Protocol to Break Phone Addiction Without Going Offline.
Both books came from the same place: noticing patterns that run on autopilot in people's lives and figuring out how to make them visible. In one case, the pattern is a pressure tactic someone uses in conversation without you catching it in time. In the other, it's a neurochemical loop your phone triggers before you've consciously decided to pick it up.
The question behind both books is the same. Not "why does this keep happening?" but "where does it keep entering?" That shift from content to structure is what the frameworks are built on.
This is not therapy, coaching, or diagnosis. It's pattern recognition, made explicit.
Close the Opening
Close The Opening started with a simple observation: pressure almost always enters through the same door.
In some people, it enters through their need to explain. In others, through their need to keep the peace, to be helpful, or to prove themselves. The specific door varies, but the mechanics don't. Once someone learns to use that door, they'll use it every time.
The framework identifies seven of these doors, called Entry Points, and maps which of the 27 tactics in the book target each one. The goal isn't to win conversations. It's to see the pattern while it's happening, not two hours later in the shower.
The seven Entry Points are: The Explainer, The Nice One, The Fixer, The Performer, The Avoider, The Loyal One, and The Rationalizer.
Not sure which one is yours? The free assessment identifies your primary opening in about four minutes.
The Digital Dopamine Detox
The Digital Dopamine Detox started the way most phone addiction stories start: knowing the problem was real and not being able to fix it anyway.
Every book on the subject either ignored the science, oversimplified the solution, or assumed you could just opt out of using technology. None of them addressed the central problem: you cannot go offline. You have a job. You have responsibilities. You live in a world where "just use a flip phone" is about as practical as moving to a monastery.
The protocol in the book was built for that reality. It's a 30-day, four-week structure that goes after your dopamine baseline instead of your willpower. It includes specific modifications for ADHD brains, a relapse framework for when you slip, and a chapter dedicated to people whose mortgage depends on Zoom.
It's not perfect and it's not magic. But it works for people who can't just delete everything and disappear.