Mindset Neuroscience Podcast Season 3 Episode 7 – Danger, Attachment and Navigating our Neurochemicals with Loretta Breuning
Happy Chemicals Motivate Action
- Our happy chemicals are not designed to flow all the time naturally.
- Their job is to motivate action at appropriate times for survival and well-being.
Different Social Neurochemicals
- Oxytocin promotes feelings of social support and safety within groups.
- Serotonin drives our urge for social dominance and status, distinct from support.
Dopamine and Social Hierarchy
- Dopamine spikes motivate us to seek increased social rewards, like more likes.
- Social comparison is constant and sparks cortisol when we perceive lower status.
Danger - and how it is dealt with - is the central theme of attachment - and therefore human interaction. Who we turn to and who we have around us during times of uncertainty and threat affect our abilities for information processing and preparing and responding to future events.
The concept of how we regulate ourselves and with others, and how we deal with social danger, rejection, status, comparison, the need for acceptance, and how we diversify our abilities to navigate our neurochemicals are topics we cover in this Episode of the Mindset Neuroscience Podcast, where I interview Loretta Breuning of the Inner Mammal Institute.
In our interview, we explore:
-The neurochemicals associated with how it feels to have social support - and how this differs from social dominance
-The fluctuations of neurochemicals, feelings and behaviors tied to threat, rejection, and constantly seeking external rewards and short-term gratification
-Being more realistic about the ups and downs of all of our neurochemical states, rather than believing we should feel good all the time.
-The biological purposes to the fluctuations and varieties of states we experience and why it’s helpful for us to understand this so we can get better a-t making choices that are good for our mental and physical health
-The life-threatening feelings people experience when it comes to social rejection, and social comparison
-How our brain and body store information about threats, and how this can significantly influence our current reactions to people
-The idea of ‘dopamine droop’ and our constant urge to seek reward and avoid discomfort
"We have inherited a brain that compares itself to others to promote its survival. It creates has a sense of urgency about how it measures up. If you don’t know you are creating this feeling yourself, you think the world is doing it to you. You feel bitter, resentful, and victimized. Instead, you can accept that the people around you are mammals, and you are a mammal too." -Loretta Breuning, Inner Mammal Institute
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