kranerman23123
Luminary
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- Oct 16, 2022
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This will read as cope but its true cope. Literally and factually happiness is just a specific balance of chemicals in a healthy brain with a functioning reward system. The brutal reality is that no amount of money or women or materialism can fix this system if it's broken. And if its working, the reality is that materialism isnt going to make it work better. Your brain only can release so much dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin etc at a time. Having more and more and more cool things happen to you doesn't suddenly make your brain release more dopamine than it's physically capable of, and if anything, it makes it harder to receive dopamine from things which are more mundane. This is why you see so many celebrities become drug addicts, because the only way they can feel the same highs they did in their prime is through exogenous substances as their brain no longer rewards them for mundane tasks. This is also the same reason who promiscuous people have a difficult time pair bonding, because they have ruined their reward system and can no longer be satisfied long term by a single partner. Humans can only reach a certain level of happiness, and there's no becoming "more happy" than that. Most people are able to achieve this state of happiness with very little. Financial security, a partner who they are attracted to and who loves them, and a community is genuinely the best it gets, adding more on top of this doesn't actually do anything neurological speaking, and if anything it is worse for your reward system.