(I'd like first to take the opportunity to thank you very much for writing and publishing the Wave. It has been exactly what I’ve been searching for when launching my quest for understanding, few years ago. I found it was explained in the best possible way. Thank you.)
From Chapter 70 :
I wonder about some little other possibilities lurking behind the following segment.
The subject has probably already been discussed and developed since the publication. I haven’t found a related thread, you may be able to redirect me.
[emphasis mine]
Now, I have not been able to find any studies which suggest that the more dopamine secretion a person experiences from the body’s own chemicals in the normal way, that the number of receptors diminishes. However, the very fact that the high of cocaine is the body’s own chemical might suggest that this is so.
The high of cocaine being
unnaturally induced, wouldn’t it be possible that the number of receptors diminishes merely because there is too much dopamine
compared to what’s required – possibly also being a signal of lower chemical incoming ?
By the same token, when a natural set up sends more of it, in a normal way, can’t we imagine that receptors will increase accordingly to the need ?
This means that each time a person succeeds in some way in attaining that feel good moment – no matter how it is achieved – the more will be required to experience that same level of feeling again.
What if this was then occurring only when
unnatural – when it’s too much for the healthy development pace of the individual ?
(Too much too soon maybe ? And the receptors’ reduction searching to balance back to normal ?)
This may be why love states will so rapidly diminish and turn into battles to produce threat of loss so that it can be averted and thereby produce the rush of dopamine.
Obviously, this would be illustrative of what
looks like love but actually isn’t – because there would supposedly be no need for battles when real, as a pervasive feeling of connection ?
So can we understand in :
That is to say: the more that is experienced, the less it can be experienced; so it becomes a physiological and psychological carrot on a stick.
...that "the more ‘an unnatural/unhealthy rush’ is experienced, the less it can be experienced" ?
But, there is something very curious about this: it seems that with repeated use of cocaine, heroin or morphine, the fake endorphin that binds with the opiate receptor and sends a signal into the cell body to release more dopamine, the body reacts by reducing the number of receptors.
These ones are again unnaturally induced, not having been required by the body.
The bottom line seems to be: if it feels good, you will want to do it again and again and more and better. And if you do you will be less and less able to do it at all; and in the end the imbalances will lead to more pain and suffering and feelings of inadequacy. And we know what all that is: lunch!
A point of the chapter is that we are
addict to our own chemicals,
by default. We became STS by going for self-pleasuring, so it’s in our nature to long for it. But a difference seems to reside in how we go for it.
There seems to be the implication of
effort put in a task, to distinguish the STO candidate path.
In this discussion with J.B. Peterson, Dr. Huberman explains (1:28:00) that the
dopamine system is a positive feedback loop when a goal, even small, has been achieved : dopamine is released, which releases adrenaline, which gives energy and motivation to achieve goals, and an upward spiral is set.
The behavior acted for dopamine release is the one that is developed and reinforced by it.
Huberman :
There is a slow system associated with achieving wins, even small wins. And that slow system is in the form of hormonal control, that then translates to genes control.
Two hormones in particular, testosterone and estrogen […] are both secreted when the dopamine system is activated. […] The[se] steroid hormones are so called lipophilic and they can cross from the outside of a cell through the cell membrane to actually enter the nucleus of a cell and control gene expression. So when we achieve wins repeatedly - and once again it doesn’t matter if you’re a male of female – testosterone is the molecule that eventually […] goes into the nucleus of those cells and controls their gene expression.
I don’t think we need to be entirely afraid of pursuing or engaging in things that release dopamine ; obviously, healthy sexual behavior, food that we love, social engagement… all of this things can be dopaminergic. It’s big pics in dopamine that are not associated in any prior effort or organisation of self, that are particularly dangerous for the human being.
Therefore, the importance would not much dwell on the ‘
What’ (the longing to feel good, inherent to us), but more on the ‘
How’ (the way chosen to achieve it), in determining if
pain or happiness will be experienced in the long run.
Can it, then, be conjectured that
repeated effortless short-term gratifications are unnatural to the normal/healthy development of an individual (addiction to pleasuring the self ; i.e. STS++), and
are those
reducing indeed the number of receptors - leading to more suffering ?
While
long-term gratifications (which demand effort by definition), AND
effortful short-term gratifications, allow to build up an
ascending spiral crescendo,
proportional to the magnitude of the goals, that would (who knows?)
increase the chemical receptivity potential toward transmutation ?
I’ve seen references to a book called
The Molecule of More, yet to be read…
Thanks for allowing the discussion.