I recently read an article about Viktor Frankl 1905-1997 the Austrian psychiatrist and best selling author of the “Man’s Search for Meaning.” He was an Auschwitz survivor who wrote this book after the war in 1946 to set down his ideas about the important subject of finding meaning in our lives. He meant to write it anonymously but at the last moment decided to put his name on it and it became the best seller of the year and for many years after. He concluded that a great many people were hungry for more meaning in their lives. He set down a simple formula—three rules that he felt could be important for improving many lives.
1.Find meaningful work or interests,
2.Put love in your life
3 Have courage to face life’s challenges
With so many wise people with expertise and insight like Viktor Frankl to show us a path toward a better life, why is it still so hard for so many of us to find our way to this more meaningful life? The simple answer to this difficult question is that even just following these three simple directions is really very hard.
The quest to find meaningful work or interests might take many years. We first have to know ourselves well enough to know what is meaningful to us and then to figure out how to find that and fit it into our lives.
- The existence of factors that we cannot control, such as personal, medical, economic conditions, as well as negative events and daily experiences along with various threats that increase the secretion of the stress hormones. A genetic predisposition toward depression is also an important factor. We find it very difficult to navigate ourselves in a manner that will help the happiness and tranquility hormones overcome the stress hormones.
- The happiness hormones often play a double role and, under some circumstances, may be damaging instead of being beneficial. There is a kind of “thermostat” that regulates the proper level of the happiness hormones. Being above or below it, may be damaging. A deviation from the proper balance between them (in which the happiness hormones have the upper hand) might be detrimental. An excess of Serotonin can cause Serotonin Syndrome, whose symptoms include increased heart rate and hypertension as a reaction to overstimulation of the Serotonin receptors in the central nervous system. A study conducted in June 2015 found that people suffering from social anxiety have high levels of Serotonin in their brains. Many successful celebrities, whose sweeping success and popularity pumps high levels of happiness hormones into their bodies and brains, suffer from anxiety attacks. Patients suffering from schizophrenia and various psychoses were found to have high levels of Dopamine. A study conducted at the University of Pisa in 2018, found that Oxytocin levels increased in people suffering from OCD in correlation of the disorder’s intensity.
- People who have successfully produced a good amount of the happiness hormone, through a certain experience or event, do not always know when to stop. Many tend to repeat the same experience over and over again, even causing an addiction (to drugs, alcohol, sex, work, cigarettes, medication, computer games, shopping, eating and more). The addiction itself leads to physical damage and causes people to neglect other important matters. This, in turn, elevates the stress hormones. Furthermore, the more the fun experience is repeated and rendered a habit, the fewer the happiness hormones that it generates, causing a need to increase the dosage.
- It is important to remember that it is not the happiness hormones that make us happy. What makes us happy is the positive experience, thought or feeling which instructed the brain to pump our bodies with the happiness hormones. The happiness hormones, in themselves, do not cause happiness, but they are very important as they fill the body and mind with a sense of tranquility and, being neurotransmitters, they return to the brain, which ordered their transmission, and contribute to the prevention of depression and anxiety. That is why drugs that enhance these hormones can prevent depression and anxiety, but do not lead to happiness.
The Asymmetry between Depression and Happiness
If we consider happiness and depression as two phenomena on the two ends of a scale, we will discover an asymmetry between the two. Depression can be very deep, major, and chronic. It might be very difficult and sometimes impossible to come out of it. True state of happiness cannot be constant and continuous. Even a minor negative incident can cloud happiness and drastically reduce it. The happiness hormones secreted into the body do not remain there and they gradually fade away. Happiness must be maintained by daily activities that contribute to the generation of happiness hormones. The level of happiness tends to decline over time, even with a routine upkeep. The more accustomed we get to it, the more effort it takes to maintain it at the same level. If we attain a goal from which we derive happiness, we might experience failure while attempting the achievement of a loftier goal.
This asymmetry is so inherent in us, that it is manifested through the hormonal behavior of our bodies. High Cortisol levels can cause permanent damage. They are life shortening, as they raise the risk for a metabolic syndrome, diabetes, cardiac and neurological diseases. On the other hand, excessive high levels of happiness hormones might reduce the level of happiness.
Happiness hormones are secreted upon the command of the nervous system and brain, which act upon a pattern that is dominated by the self-realization instinct. We are programmed to realize ourselves by constantly and continuously striving for happiness. Happiness is a goal that continuously eludes us. There is no symmetry between depression and happiness because, had there been one, anyone who achieved permanent happiness wouldn’t lose it so easily and would have no motivation to continue reaching additional achievements. The tricky and elusive happiness is the “carrot” that motivates us to keep moving forward.
Self-Managing Happiness