What's your 'go to' happy chemical?

This is an interesting article on some of the 'feel good' chemicals our brain produces.

http://www.glennbeck.com/2014/07/29/are-human-beings-biologically-designed-to-be-good/

“So in our brains, in our bodies, there is a system of chemical rewards so when we do things we get a feeling of doing those things that is designed to reward behavior that is in our best interest.  There’s four chemicals that are mainly responsible for all the good feelings that we would have,” Simon explained. “So any kinds of feelings of happiness, joy, success, friendship, trust, love, loyalty can basically be boiled down to endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin.”

Simon explained, “Dopamine is something you get when you accomplish something you set out do accomplish so that feeling when you get when you cross off something off your to do list the feeling find something on Google or eBay.  Nobody goes to Google and types in things you’re not looking for.  We have something in mind.  We type it in and the feeling of there it is, that’s dopamine.  Dopamine is also the feeling you get when you win the game.  Yes, that sort of fantastic, we did it.  Or when you feel like you’re making progress.  So that’s why they put mile-markers — if you ran a race without mile-markers it’s actually unnerving so dopamine helps us feel like we’re making progress.  It’s the reason we’re achievement machines.”

“The problem with dopamine is it doesn’t last.  It comes in hits,” he said. 

While dopamine doesn’t last and leave people with strong feelings of accomplishment, the chemicals serotonin and oxytocin are what do last and are what Simon calls “social chemicals”.

“This is the importance — what you’re talking about is the solution to the imbalance of dopamine.  Right?  Which is these other beautiful, beautiful chemicals called serotonin and oxytocin.  Broadly speaking these two chemicals are the selfless chemicals.  They are the social chemicals.  These are the chemicals that reward us — it’s the feeling of trust.  It’s the feeling offriendship.  It’s the reason we like spending time with our friends.  It’s the reason we’d rather sit next to someone that we know and we leave a blank space at the movies because we don’t want to sit next to somebody we don’t know.  That feeling of safety.  That comes from these other two beautiful chemicals and the most important thing about those chemicals is they last.  They take a while to build up.  It takes time to build up trust, but they last,” he said. 

“Now the great thing about serotonin — one of the ways in which we get oxytocin — and there’s a whole bunch.  Oxytocin is the warm and fuzzies.  One of the ways we get it is generosity. Acts of kindness.  Giving of your time and energy with no expectation of return.  Money doesn’t count.  Time and energy,” he explained.

Simon explained that if he goes online and donates a $1,000 to charity, he gets a very different feeling than if he spent a whole weekend afternoon painting a school. While a $1,000 may go further than his physical labor, it is a different mental reward.

When we're having a difficult moment, dopamine is a fast, easy treatment, but doesn't last very long. There's nothing wrong with dopamine, but if it becomes the long term strategy for dealing with emotional pain, we'll find ourselves back in the same situation very quickly. Not to mention we're following a pattern that can lead to turning to addictive sources of dopamine (porn, drugs etc).

My dad's best friend growing up was the local pin ball champ of the small town where they were growing up. Old timers didn't like him 'wasting his time' on things like that. They seemed to sense that the level of involvement wasn't healthy, even if they didn't know the science behind it. I suspect he was getting dopamine hits that were helping him deal with issues from his family. Soon it went from pinball into porn, and later to drugs.

Activities that produce dopamine aren't bad, but I think it's helpful to keep in mind what happens if we don't moderate, or if we're using dopamine for emotional comfort. IMHO a better solution, where possible would be to do service and to interact with loved ones. This will lead to closer interpersonal connections and helps keep your prefrontal cortex in charge of your life.