DOPAMINE'S DEADLY DANCE OF DESTRUCTION:
SLOW, STEADY, SINUOUS,
SURREPTITIOUS...
sur·rep·ti·tious
adjective
1 1. kept secret,
especially because it would not be approved of.
DARE WE LOOK AT REALITY?
No one would have ever characterized the late Robin Williams as an
ascetic. Quite the contrary, he was the essence of exuberance and manic
enthusiasm, manifested as "boundless energy", among other things. Yet,
it is very clear that his comic gifts were bestowed 'by the powers that be' as
a mystifying double-edged sword. For whatever reason, his ability to make
others laugh also came with the capacity to feel other people's pain...perhaps
too much so. Now if the human brain were simple enough for us to actually understand
it, we'd be so simple [that] we couldn't. What a conundrum! The dopamine tide that
also governs both depression and addiction appears to render some kind folks, those
with intrinsic hearts of gold, into tortured souls. Then there's the little
understood phenomenon of ADHD and severe OCD not naturally cancelling each
other out [when one inherits both] but occasionally culminating into a situation
of uncontrollable verbiage and gestures.
I truly admire the wisdom
of psychiatrists and psychologists pursuant to their clarification of brain
chemistry, especially in the wake of Williams' sudden parting. The
neurotransmitter dopamine is increasingly cited as much more than a bit player
in the genesis of addiction. Perhaps this is knowledge that might be imparted as
early on in grade school as is feasibly acceptable. After all, a deep
acceptance of our natural conditions only makes sense. Knowledge, as the saying
goes, is power.
Dopamine,
at its finest, gives us a sense of significance and wholeness. However, too
much [of this mood enhancer] and an individual may segue into agitation,
restlessness, and full blown hyper-mania. On the other hand, with too little of
this key neurotransmitter, the unlucky recipient will experience feelings of
depression/misery, inertia, and all sorts of cravings; the latter are an
evolutionary brain response to stave the inner emptiness that threatens to behave much as a bell jar (think Sylvia
Plath). It's just that evolution can't do much to prevent so-called
'mis-firings'.
The
cells that produce dopamine occur along three distinct "riverbeds" of
the brain. That said, they are prone to periodic flashfloods, if you will, that
may result in behavior considered [by many] to be at the outer margins of the proverbial
bell curve.
While few of us ever
experience the extreme behavioral symptoms that led Robin Williams to end his
life, it's fair to say that anomalous behavior is difficult to explain. It does
appear that our subconscious thoughts are stronger than we might suppose;
furthermore, our actions may also be influenced by chemically mediated synapses
that transpired only milliseconds before by our completely UNCONSCIOUS
emotional system. In other words, we are truly at the mercy of our unconscious
triggers.
Nature
may still be trying to perfect the inner workings of our evolutionary brain; in
the past, a very trigger-happy limbic system was a key to survival. Now,
the traffic between the cerebral cortex and the limbic system may need to be
adjusted, as a key to our survival in a totally different sense.
We,
as humans, sometimes have a tendency to describe 'being well' entirely in terms
of NOT being 'unwell'. This is partly due to the fact that our emotional
roots are, for the most part, fully unconscious.
Embracing the limitless self is, generally-speaking, a noble
goal; unfortunately, some do it through the use of mood- or mind-altering drugs
or simple alcohol. Even more regrettably, the sense of freedom that alcohol or
mind-altering drugs may impart is only temporary. Hence, one who abuses such
folly is not free at all; they're actually trapped in a vicious cycle.
Still, an increase in our
awareness fosters the ability to change the nature of our unconscious pattern
of behavior.
Remember,
if you should ever fall, look for a great set of wings; moreover, you simply can't
be in continual retreat from this earthly world. And he who has the beauty of a
beloved friend can never forget it: especially when the sophistry of dopamine's
ebb threatens to catapult one into the rabbit-hole of menacing solipsism!
MAHALO
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