I don't see it that way, simply because when you take extasy for example, you release all serotonin your body can produce. It doesn't makes you happy...so I don't see it as a contradiction since it's a momentum that gives you a high....the days after you are totally depressed for the lack of serotonin you have used....
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Yeah agree, which is why I highlighted that taking substances externally doesn’t make you happy. Was being a little pedantic purely based on the argument that serotonin is a substance too.
It's a monoamine neurotransmitter not a substance... however, substances can be used to activate these transmitters. It's different.
I know. My background is in biology. However, “substance” is a very general term - it can be of organic or inorganic chemical structure and that includes all neurotransmitters, hormones, etc. In this case, he is using the term substance to refer to pleasure drugs but it’s also completely valid to refer to dopamine and serotonin as substances too.
Ok, thank you for the clarification! The analogy he makes for me is very well done and points to some addiction problems we face in our society. For me, happiness is a choice I made along the way. The use of substances are irrelevant. I choose not to. I rather be in a state of contentment by my own "internal" work.
Yeah it’s a great analogy and I like it - thank you for sharing it. 🙏🏼 I was just being somewhat pedantic over the terminology. And yes, totally agree with you - we don’t need to use external substances to invoke happiness nor does it work for that. It’s similar to buying stuff. It really doesn’t make one happy. It’s a short-lived dopamine hit - a bit of pleasure with owning/using the new thing, then that feeling just fades away.
And like he says that dopamine hit, interferes with the serotonin release and hence unhappiness strikes...
Yep 👍🏼
What a wonderful conversation! Thank you, thank you. I learned a little bit more about how our human body works. Still I do believe in something more, besides our human form. We can and have power in how we respond and make those neurotransmitters work.
Indeed. Not always easy online too. Some are too easily triggered, others who can only articulate their ranting through verbal abuse from the get go, and worse, those so caught up in their own conspiracies backed by very little first-hand experience that they can’t separate basic reason from nonsense. Having said that, yes, we know quite a lot but also so very little. That’s why we humans naturally hypothesise, test, repeat, challenge, hypothesise, test, repeat, challenge in the never-ending pursuit of knowledge and that must always be conducted with an open a mind.