The most successful human evolution is the brain.
With powerful brains, humans are at the top of the food chain.
But things often have both sides, and the human brain is sometimes crazy, which will make people crazy...
(Image source: soogif.com)
There is a region of the human brain called the parapocampus, which is responsible for secreting dopamine, which can help the brain better direct muscle movements and improve human coordination, so that humans can do more refined exercises, such as writing and making tools.
But dopamine also has another role - to make the brain produce pleasure, so some people call dopamine a happy hormone.
(Image source: soogif.com)
Many things can stimulate the production of dopamine and bring pleasure to the brain. For example, gourmet food, sexual pleasure, extreme adventure, and fame all promote the production of dopamine.
In a way, the brain's quest for pleasure has advanced human civilization.
In primitive societies, the stimulating pleasure of sweetness and meat on the brain prompted primitive people to find foods rich in these elements to eat, which played a huge role in storing energy, strengthening the physique, and promoting brain development.
(Image source: soogif.com)
After meeting the basic needs of the human body, the brain's pursuit of pleasure began to prompt humans to do things that animals could not do, such as helping others, exploring the unknown, making tools...
These detailed changes, after thousands of years, have gradually promoted the social system and opened a new chapter in human civilization.
Many substances in nature stimulate the brain to produce pleasure, such as peppers, honey, fruits, etc., which can make the brain easily obtain pleasure. Since there is no need to work hard, this pleasure can quickly become cheap in the brain.
(Image source: soogif.com)
Simple and easy stimulation will make dopamine secretion less and less, so people often do not cherish what is easily obtained. Similarly, repeated stimulation can cause dopamine to secrete less and less. Therefore, it is easy for human beings to like the new and dislike the old.
The brain is more and more demanding and intense in the stimulation that produces pleasure, and humans have to look for more violent stimuli.
(Image source: soogif.com)
While searching in nature, humans have also learned to make more violent stimuli themselves. The ancients chanted poems against each other, fighting wine and gold, and modern people surfed the Internet and played in the palm of their hands. The invention of wine, poetry, the Internet, games, etc., is the achievement of the brain in the constant search for pleasure.
The stimuli they produce allow the brain to experience more impactful pleasures, motivating humans to find and create stimuli.
The stimuli that make the brain produce pleasure are not necessarily good, and many stimuli are harmful to the human body, and human tissues and organs will use pain or other sensations to remind the brain not to do this.
But in order to experience those pleasures, the brain ignores these reminders[1]. For example, tobacco and alcohol stimulation will bring pleasure to the brain, but tobacco will hurt the respiratory tract, and alcohol will hurt the digestive tract. Although the respiratory tract and digestive tract are sounding alarms, many people's brains will still choose tobacco and alcohol without hesitation.
(Image source: soogif.com)
In addition, people are autonomous. Everyone knows that smoking and drinking is not good for the body, but why do people still smoke and drink? The reason is also in the brain.
The brain influences the behavior of this part of the population. Smoking and drinking will not cause immediate harm, then "get the pleasure first, and wait until the harm really comes."
As a result, these people swallow clouds and vomit in the self-deception of the brain, indulge in binge drinking, and human health gradually disintegrates in the immersion of tobacco and alcohol over the years.
Drugs are the substances that can make the human brain produce the most intense pleasure.
Drugs stimulate the production of large amounts of dopamine, allowing the brain to experience unparalleled pleasure that no previous stimulus can experience. This pleasure is strongly remembered by the brain, which is the beginning of addiction.
(Image source: soogif.com)
After being baptized with drugs, the brain loses interest in other stimuli. As long as it is not stimulated by drugs, it will refuse to produce dopamine, or only produce a small amount of dopamine [2].
As a result, this part of the population can only experience this ultimate pleasure repeatedly through drugs. The brain is completely kidnapped by drugs.
However, drugs can also damage the brain and other organs of the body while bringing pleasure to the brain. Long-term drug users not only have a sudden personality, but also deteriorate in physical health.
(Image source: soogif.com)
This ultimate pleasure also develops tolerance over time, and as mentioned above, repeated stimulation can cause dopamine to secrete less and less. It is necessary to continuously increase the amount of drugs used in order for the brain to get the same pleasure, so the amount of drug use by addicts will become larger and larger.
Eventually, during the last use of excessive drugs, the heart couldn't stand it, stopped beating, and the brain fell into a state of hypoxia.
In the hallucinogenic state of lack of oxygen, the brain finally tasted the last trace of pleasure. But this pleasure lasted only a few seconds, and the brain was permanently plunged into darkness...
Some people have embarked on the path of death in pursuit of brain pleasure. But most people can still use reason to regulate their behavior.
After the brain pleasure prompted humans to solve basic physiological needs, they also created various ideas, sciences, technologies, and cultures. So we had philosophy, life sciences, networks, computers, landing on the moon, unlocking artificial intelligence...
It can be said that the pursuit of pleasure has greatly promoted the development of human science and technology and civilization, and this development is still escalating.
(Image source: soogif.com)
But the mental stimuli needed by human beings are getting bigger and bigger, and the desires are getting stronger and stronger. Now we can't understand the ancients who didn't have mobile phones hundreds of years ago, and they can enjoy themselves with only a few volumes of poetry; in the same way, the ancients hundreds of years ago can't understand the primitive people who drank blood millions of years ago, and they were ecstatic when they only ate meat that was accidentally roasted by thunder.
So in the future, what will we use to satisfy the brain's endless pleasure demand?
Review expert: Song Chongsheng | Deputy Chief Physician of the Department of Psychiatry, Beijing Huilongguan Hospital
bibliography
[1] Di Chiara G. Role of dopamine in the behavioural actions of nicotine related to addiction. Eur J Pharmacol. 2000;393(1-3):295-314. doi:10.1016/s0014-2999(00)00122-9
[2] Diana M. The dopamine hypothesis of drug addiction and its potential therapeutic value. Front Psychiatry. 2011;2:64. Published 2011 Nov 29. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2011.00064
*The content of this article is a popularization of health knowledge and cannot be used as a specific diagnosis and treatment recommendation, nor is it a substitute for face-to-face consultation by a practicing physician, for reference only.
*The copyright of this article belongs to Tencent Medical Code, unauthorized media reprinting is prohibited, and illegal reprinting will be investigated for legal responsibility according to law. Individuals are welcome to forward to the circle of friends.