Dopamine Addiction Model

[truth seeker]

Not to hijack this thread, but was thinking about you this week Bud and wondering how you were. Nice to "see" you back. :)

 

[Buddy]

Not to hijack this thread, but was thinking about you this week Bud and wondering how you were. Nice to "see" you back. :)

What a nice thing to say. Thanky! In return, I'll share what myself and a few others have been up to lately:

Today, neuroscience is providing a lego of orthodoxies in support of a particular dopamine addiction model that has yet to receive mainstream acceptance. The current model of what happens in the brain calls for specific neuron bundles to be in stimulation (constantly firing) while a person is doing the same behaviors and using the same thinking patterns over and over again. Over an unspecified period of time, this might ordinarily lead to brain damage similar to "phosphor burn" in the old CRT monitors, except for one thing. We have discovered that glutamate is released into the brain under the stress of what is believed to be repetitively firing neuron bundles. In turn, this glutamate stimulates the release of dopamine in the brain, similar to the way a screensaver functions to prevent the old phosphor burn.

Essentially, as long as a person is engaged in repetitive, mechanical behavior and thinking patterns, the associated neuron bundles are steadily firing away while excess, protective dopamine is being constantly squeezed out to protect from brain damage. Undesirable consequences follow from this later in life though, and our research into Early Onset Parkinson's Disease (EOPD) is providing a ton of circumstantial confirmation. The recent passing of my own high school principal is the latest statistic from the realm of highly ritualistic and procedure-oriented (mechanical) occupations.

In fact, we can compare the situation of people trapped in robotic/mechanical behavior with that of people trapped in cocaine addiction. We know that cocaine has its effect on the mind by stimulating dopamine production, and produces a state which looks very different from the outside (where the person seems to be quite unaware of the pressing issues in their lives) and from the inside (where the person feels completely confident and that they have complete mastery of the situation).

Experiment usually confirms that such people have lost the plot, when the repossession crew takes away their belongings. From what we think is the mystics’ point of view, the delusional state caused by massive dopamine production stimulated by cocaine is identical to the delusional state caused by massive dopamine production stimulated by very boring behaviors.

Both are equally delusional and unhealthy. On the other hand, those who see robot-ism (mechanical, rule-following procedural-ism) as inherently healthy have to jump through hoops to square this one. They have to acknowledge that the cocaine addict, talking complete rubbish between chopping up lines and having his possessions taken away has lost the plot, but they also have to claim that the chronically robotized clerical worker who has the same brain chemistry and talks equal rubbish as she fails to produce adequate customer service and her employer goes bust, is inherently healthy simply because she is robotized.

Seems like the desirability of high dopamine levels and the effects they cause becomes a matter of social mores rather than the effects of chemistry. Such hoop jumping can often be seen in people who are led by boredom addiction to think they can always noun their way out of contradictions.

At any rate, this model and most of this information has developed out of the research into AD/HD and by asking different questions and considering the issues from many different perspectives.

For example: what is responsible for the failure to understand what's going on with children labeled 'ADHD' – especially in light of all the related neuroscience literature available and the personal observations of those with the 'condition' - from the 'disorder' as well as from a healthier perspective? Could it be the self-medicated state of the (so-called) 'normal' folks with its somewhat 'numbed' awareness and cognitive fixations? Could the failure to understand also be due to the disinformation from haters who see an opportunity to satisfy their needs and sadistic urges to medicate and 'authoritatively control' others?

From the perspective of the current investigators, there is plenty of reason to answer Yes to both questions. According to the dopamine addiction model that certain engineers have been developing over the years, here’s how it starts for all of us:

There is a behavioral/neurochemical addictive loop that drives itself in each person, once it is started. It takes coercion to start the loop. Everyone seems to be born awake, and resists the unpleasant experience until the dopamine load causes them to forget themselves and accommodating the skewed brain chemistry locks them there as addiction.

How we are demonstrating this is from observation, data gathering and life experiences that allow us to say:

Break an unsuspecting person out of the loop with increased novelty, and they will wake up. This happens quite easily with very young children once they get out of school and transition into "play time". It can also happen to people who have achieved this state due to their own efforts. It can also happen quite easily to people we can call biased immunes – the ones who don’t have the polymorphic DRD4 gene but do clean up their dopamine secretions very quickly. They are the ones (like me before I had any idea what was going on) who flip-flop through life, swapping people and activities in the Boring and Interesting columns after their circumstances change the amount of novelty in their lives. :)



-------------------------------------
Doko ni datte, hito wa tsunagatte iru.
No matter where we are, we are all connected.

 

[truth seeker]

Sounds very interesting!

I decided to split the thread so that your post can foster a separate discussion. :)