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by Jen Idziorek
"Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable."
--Woody Allen
While most of us don't have such a bleak outlook on life, we all think that our lives could be happier. What makes people happy? Millions of people have spent billions of dollars trying to answer this question for ages, yet no definitive answer has emerged. Or if someone has found the answer, they've cleverly kept it to themselves.
People are still proposing solutions to this age-old question. Some of the better-known answers include money, power, virtue and, the old standard, sex, drugs and rock'n roll. Others think sugar, ignorance, material possessions, and love are the secret to contentment. Let's take a look at the credibility of some of these options.
Ignorance is the most amusing option on the list, Would we all be happy if we didn't know there were better cars and warm tropical islands? Would we attack other countries if we didn't know they had things that we wanted? You couldn't want something if you didn't know it existed. Jealousy is the cause of many tumultuous events. Avoiding jealousy could stop many of the world's ills. Knowledge has made many wonderful things possible, but it has also created the nuclear arms race and impoverishment. Most people wouldn't want to go through life in ignorance, but what if we didn't know any better?
Money and power go hand in hand. If you've got a lot of money, you've probably got a considerable amount of influence. Do these things cause happiness? Maybe. Hugh Heffner, a playboy millionaire with considerable influence, seems to be a happy man, but is his polar opposite, the Pope, happy? Is the president happy? How about the Queen of England? Of course they're all happy occasionally, most people are. But are these rich and powerful people happier than your next-door neighbor? Maybe they're not. All that money and influence has a price. A lot of people depend on the powerful. They have a lot of responsibility. All that responsibility causes anxiety. What does your next-door neighbor have to worry about---the future of his coffeehouse band?
Hugh has a lot of money, but he doesn't seem to be responsible for anything that affects the lives of millions. He must be as happy as a child. Children laugh up to 25 times a day more than adults. They worry about very little. Could irresponsibility be the answer to it all?
Virtue might create happiness, but do any of us possess it? Who is virtuous? Religious leaders? Just read the paper. There are fewer and fewer virtuous religious leaders every year. The monks of Tibet tell us that peace comes from within. Perhaps they're on to something.
A large portion of the economy is geared towards making people happy or at least making their lives easier and more enjoyable. Candy bars exist so that you can relish their taste. Jaguars were made so that those who ride in them could feel an adrenaline rush from driving such a beautiful machine. Yet not everyone who is riding in a Jaguar is happy. Candy bars become tiring. When the population tires of one experience, Madison Avenue creates a new one. We are not interested in experiencing the same things over and over again (well, with a few exceptions). We're only interested in it if it's new and exciting. Variety is the spice of life and we'd like extra, please.
And you might as well face the truth. Your significant other doesn't always make you happy. Your family is great, but sometimes they are whiners, nags, and jerks. Best friends can stab you in the back, and your buddy can let you down. But despite their faults, friends and family can make you happier more consistently than the other 10,000 people you walk by in a given day. They help you deal with your problems and provide a constant source of entertainment. Their hugs and kisses can make you feel better, and get you through hard times.
So what will make us happy? Money, power, fame? Actually, there is only one thing that will make us happy --drugs. No, not those kinds of drugs. The natural hormones of the body trigger the release of the neurotransmitters that communicate information from nerve cell to nerve cell. These neurotransmitters are responsible for happiness and prevent unhappiness.
The most prominent of these natural drugs is seratonin. Seratonin is regularly released into the central nervous system and causes a normal, healthy human to feel content. Low levels of seratonin can cause depression, insomnia, and fatigue. Since it produces an opiate-like high during periods of elation and eases short-term tension most anti-depressant drugs contain seratonin.
There are other natural drugs we can't do without. Dopamine regulates movement (a deficiency in dopamine causes Parkinson's disease), controls emotional states, and helps the body cope with stress. Epinephrine, known as the "runner's high" neurotransmitter or adrenaline, helps protect our body. It is responsible for our "fight or flight" response and also acts as a powerful painkiller. It is three times more potent than morphine. Who needs the fake stuff when the most potent stuff is homegrown?
Neurotransmitters leap into action before we know it. They fight stress caused by jealousy, responsibility, and trauma. It's seratonin that fights the aggravation you feel when your neighbor plays his music too loud or the anger you experience when your manager explains something you already understand for the third time. Dopamine doles out its healing power when stress attacks, and epinephrine provides surges of energy during new experiences or extremely pleasurable ones.
Is happiness the ultimate purpose in life? There's no immediate way of knowing, unless you're an atheist and then hopefully the answer is yes. Here are some of the overriding factors that have been discovered in the course of this article: ignorance may not be bliss, but irresponsibility might be; being entertained makes us happy, but only if it's new; happiness may come from within, but only if you want it to. And all of this is fueled by the release of the body's natural drugs from excitement, personal joy and lack of stress.
But there are still many other questions to ponder: Does laughter cause happiness or is it the other way around? Is it possible that we are constantly in pain and "happiness" is just when we experience less pain? Did all of the people who discovered true happiness also discover that each person defines their own reality, and now exist on another plane of life? Is innocence the root of "bliss," not ignorance? Can we choose to make ourselves happy?
Who knows? Maybe Woody Allen has the answer.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
www.csuchico.edu/psy/BioPsych/neurotransmission.html
www.micro.magnet.fsu.edu/micro/gallery/neurotrans/neurotrans.html
