It's all about the dopamine

"We have believed that dopamine was always engaged in reward and processing the hedonic feeling," Tsien said. "What we have found is that dopamine neurons also are stimulated or respond to negative events."

I love the example they use: "Eating chocolate or falling off a building -- or just the thought of either -- can evoke production of dopamine." Yes, falling off a building would be a negative event. Scientists are so great. The language alone is worth reading white papers.

Anyway, so this could explain addiction. You might not get the great effect from the drug anymore, but your brain gets that dose of dopamine. And that's what it really wants - to be soaked in dopamine. Just in case you missed the millions of times we've talked about dopamine, what it is is a neurotransmitter in the brain, basically bringing the good (or now bad) feelings and increasing heart rate. It's that internal drug that gives you the rush feeling.

Why do we seek out that rush? That soak of dopamine? People do it in drugs and alcohol, sex, food, or even extreme sports. But why? Cause it feels good. It makes you laugh sometimes when you've avoided falling off that building. It makes you feel extra-relaxed after. We seek out things that feel good. And why not?

Eat the Kit Kat

Do these pictures look the same to you? They do to me, too, but the study says there's a radical difference. I'll leave it to the scientists to interpret.

So, "In binge eaters but not ordinary obese subjects, the mere sight or smell of favorite foods triggers a spike in dopamine." That's right, kids, it's back to dopamine! That means when I see those Cadbury Eggs in the freezer my dopamine levels go sky high. I wonder what the normal reaction is when you're just plain hungry. Probably dopamine, too. But those of us who happen to eat too much at one time have a bigger spike in dopamine.

Coffee loves me back

So what's my next addiction I need to handle? Caffeine. I consume about 5 cups of coffee and 3 sodas a day. I know, I know, it'll rot your stomach, etc, etc, but man do I love coffee. Decaf just tastes so gross. I know I could give up soda just fine, because I only really started drinking it when I quit booze. But coffee? Sigh. Why do I love it so?

"Caffeine blocks adenosine reception so you feel alert. It injects adrenaline into the system to give you a boost. And it manipulates dopamine production to make you feel good."

Dopamine! It's always dopamine, isn't it? We've discovered, or you have if you've been following my ramblings, that everything is about dopamine. It is effected by every substance, like coke, booze, nicotine, heroin, and now caffeine. Even mental illness effects your dopamine. So us addicts are really just addicted to dopamine and it's effects, not, perhaps, on specific substances.

Caffeine is just bad for you, too. It causes bone loss, but it's good for something: it reduces memory loss. I know this year isn't the time to give up anything more, especially something that makes me as happy as a cup of coffee. Maybe what I should do is just slow down on the caffeine. Maybe just 3 cups a day, or one cup and one soda.

I feel like I'm addicted to coffee. I have it once I get out of bed, and often drink it till night time. I probably am. I feel like I'm not awake till after the third or fourth cup. Sigh. I love you, dopamine.

I want to shop, now

I can't have a cigarette, I can't have a drink, so the next urge to come to me was to shop. I want to login to my favorite stores and just check out what they've got. Except I'm awful at "window" shopping online. I just put stuff in my cart and buy cause I'm usually getting a really good deal. I wonder what my dad thinks about all the packages I get. At least he knows it's not drugs.

So why shop?"...shopping activates key areas of the brain, boosting our mood and making us feel better — at least for a little while." Like all the other things we're not supposed to do too much of, it does make us happy. And people who have compulsive shopping addictions are just addicts like the rest of us. Why? Of course. "Much of the joy of holiday shopping can be traced to the brain chemical dopamine."

Dopamine really does a number on us addicts. I need to find a better outlet now, since all I have left is shopping and food and neither of those are good ideas. Getting fat again would make me really depressed, and shopping isn't good for my meager bank account. I can't shop the way I want to on unemployment, and where in the hell would I put everything? I already need to go through and give away everything I don't use anymore. I'm sure there's something in there.

We know it's bad for us

"Drug users are well informed about the harms associated with the drugs they use, and perceive alcohol and tobacco to be amongst the most dangerous substances."

I am well aware of the consequences of drugs on my mind and body. I always knew when I was taking drugs that I was in harm's way, and could have had a heart attack or died. I knew it. I also knew that alcohol was harming my liver, especially since my meds work through the same system. I know smoking is bad for me. I know it's blackened my lungs and made me more likely to get dementia or COPD. I understand the risks. And yet, why do we do it anyway?

Dopamine! We get such "joy" from the substances. They socially lubricate us, they make us feel on top of the world, they take us out of our bodies, or we just believe all those things. But dopamine is released when you use these substances, and dopamine makes you feel good.

So do I think that putting pictures of lungs on cigarette packages is going to work (which they do in Canada and I think they're going to start doing here)? Maybe. Seeing the consequences every day might do it, but getting one pack when I was in Canada kind of made me laugh. It's just so obscene. Will I stop smoking when I start seeing that kind of thing? Well, hopefully I'll have quit by then.

Why SSRI?

So if dopamine has all this stuff to do with mental illness, why target serotonin in your medication? "Most antidepressant treatments do not directly enhance dopamine neurotransmission, which may contribute to residual symptoms, including impaired motivation, concentration, and pleasure." Why the hell not?

First, what is an SSRI (that's probably what you're taking if you're on meds). It is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. What does that mean?

"SSRIs seem to relieve symptoms of depression by blocking the reabsorption (reuptake) of serotonin by certain nerve cells in the brain. This leaves more serotonin available in the brain. Increased serotonin enhances neurotransmission — the sending of nerve impulses — and improves mood. SSRIs are called selective because they seem to affect only serotonin, not other neurotransmitters."

So they give your brain more serotonin. When we have more dopamine, we respond with elated feelings, like when we have sex, take drugs, etc. What about serotonin? How does it work?

"A normal level of serotonin promotes feelings of happiness, but at times, the body becomes overly stressed and will begin to use higher levels of serotonin to compensate for being overwhelmed. Because of the increased stress level, the body will not be able to produce more serotonin to replace the amount that was taken from the reserve. The body will suffer a recession, so to speak, which can lead to a mild to moderate case of depression. The lower the level of serotonin in the brain, the deeper the depression."

So a lot like dopamine. They're both neurotransmitters that work to make you feel better. So which one is the cure for depression? Do we treat both? A new group of drugs does: SNDRI's.

"A serotonin–norepinephrine–dopamine reuptake inhibitor (SNDRI), or triple reuptake inhibitor (TRI), is a drug that acts simultaneously as a reuptake inhibitor for the monoamine neurotransmitters, serotonin, norepinephrine (noradrenaline) and dopamine, by blocking the action of the serotonin transporter (SERT), norepinephrine transporter (NET), and dopamine transporter (DAT), respectively. This, in turn, leads to increased extracellular concentrations of these neurotransmitters and, therefore, an increase in serotonergic, noradrenergic or adrenergic, and dopaminergic neurotransmission." A long explanation for "it works on both."

Some of the new ones like Effexor and Cymbalta work like this. I wonder if they'll get more popular? Of course, they're uppers, really, so bipolar folks would have to take a mood stabilizer as well.

What is dopamine?

They're messing with mice again. This time, they're screwing with their genetic dopamine receptors. "This study shows that the effects of chronic alcohol consumption on brain chemistry are critically influenced by an individual's pre-existing genetic makeup." Proving once again that your genes are what ails you.

We talk about dopamine here a lot. Well, what is dopamine? It's a neurotransmitter, which means it is the something that goes between the neurons in your brain and makes them talk to each other. Imagine neurons as the little pieces of the different lobes of your brain. We're talking microscopic, here.

So, "Dopamine has many functions in the brain, including important roles in behavior and cognition, voluntary movement, motivation, punishment and reward, inhibition of prolactin production (involved in lactation and sexual gratification), sleep, mood, attention, working memory, and learning." Which is why we see it in the addiction and bipolar articles all the time. "Amphetamines are similar in structure to dopamine."

(One with neat little drawings.)

So dopamine is an important part of the brain's systems, and the part that vexes us alcoholics and mentally ill folks the most. Now you know who your friend/enemy is. You can't get rid of it, but you can mess with your serotonin to help with mental illness. Why serotonin? What the hell does that have to do with dopamine?