The Brain Chemistry of Love

Brain Chemistry for Lovers is a Valentine's Concert that will be presented in Portland February 16th. Look and listen here. A unique collaboration about romantic love, combining OHSU's Brain Awareness Lecture Series, with music, film and neuroscience. Valerie Day and Darrell Grant provide the music, and renowned neuroscientist Dr. Larry Sherman provides the concert lecture.

This concert about the Brain Chemistry of Love was inspired by a National Geographic article about love and the chemicals in the brain, where neuro-scientists are finally crossing into the territory of the poet, the philosopher, the songwriter, (and the comedian!), to explain the feelings associated with Romantic Love.

From the National Geographic Article:

Subjects were studied who had been "madly in love" for an average of seven months. Once inside the MRI machine, subjects were shown two photographs, one neutral, the other of their loved one. When each subject looked at his or her loved one, the parts of the brain linked to reward and pleasure, the ventral tegmental area and the caudate nucleus, lit up. What excited Fisher most was not so much finding a location, an address, for love as tracing its specific chemical pathways. Love lights up the caudate nucleus because it is home to a dense spread of receptors for a neurotransmitter called dopamine, our own endogenous love potion.

In the right proportions, dopamine creates intense energy, exhilaration, focused attention, and motivation to win rewards. This is why, when you are newly in love, you can stay up all night, watch the sun rise, run a race, ski fast down a slope ordinarily too steep for your skill. Love makes you bold, makes you bright, makes you run real risks, which you sometimes survive, and sometimes you don't.

.... and this is why it feels so bad when it is lost.

Brain Chemistry for Lovers combines art and science. "Romantic love has been the inspiration behind mankind's greatest artistic achievements from the Taj Mahal to Tin Pan Alley." Well, I would add much of our great art and scupture, classical music and opera. For music and love, see Club Vivo Per Lei.

LOVE, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage or by removal of the patient from the influences under which he incurred the disorder… It is sometimes fatal, but more frequently to the physician than to the patient. ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1911

BRAIN SCIENCE (EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE) 101

1. First stage: Lust, or physical attraction ("You Give Me Fever"). The least complex stage. Has to do with reptilian brain. The chemicals are testosterone and estrogen.
   
2. Second Stage: Falling in Love. Serotonin (risk-taking, walking on air) It lasts about 18 months.
   
3. Third Stage: You fall deeper in love or "attachment," (oxytocin) or you break up. "Cry Me a River" is a song about breaking up. See my Top Ten Breaking Up Songs.

WE KNOW INNATELY THAT LOVE IS AS ESSENTIAL FOR LIFE AS BREATHING AND EATING.

To learn more about emotional intelligence, the brain chemistry of love, brain chemistry and love, take The EQ Course(tm), on the Internet with email support. Or sign up for coaching. Email me at sdunn@susandunn.cc for more information.

Dealing with Alcoholism during the Holidays (or any time)

Unfortunately many of us will be dealing with alcoholism during the holidays - with family members and relatives. If it's in your family history, or dealing with it will be part of "the holidays" for you, coaching is available, also the DEALING WITH DIFFICULT PEOPLE course. (email me for information, sdunn@susandunn.cc)

And here is a very good summary article written by an addictions therapist.

PREDISPOSITION TO ALCOHOLISM: WHAT'S IN YOUR GENES?

Certainly the popular notion that alcoholism may be inherited from our parents has gained momentum in recent times. This is not a new school of thought by any means, but it has gained creditability as a result of detailed investigations that have been carried out in the name of science these past decades.

There is no question that typically a pattern emerges where a tendency to alcoholism and alcohol related problems do affect siblings and generations within a family. By no means does this conclusively indicate that alcoholism or alcohol related problems will plague you because you inherited the gene from a parent.

On the other hand, there are many genetically inherited characteristics that have been proven to impact on the likelihood of an individual becoming a statistic of alcoholism related concerns. It is understood that the predisposition to alcoholism may be contributed by a number of factors including genetic makeup and social or environmental aspects.

As yet, there has not been a breakthrough in the discovery of a particular alcoholic gene but there have been significant findings in the relationship between some inherited genes that are known to be present in a vast number of alcoholics studied. 5-HTT (the serotonin transporter gene), the gene found in depression sufferers is one example of an inherited gene shared by many alcoholics.

The presence of this gene also does not doom a person to depression. Like alcoholism, social and environmental factors are very evident in the reflection of the condition upon an individual.

Another genetically inherited characteristic that has a relationship to alcoholism is a variation in our liver enzymes that controls the rate that our liver processes alcohol. Alcoholism is considered to be a complex disease as is diabetes, meaning that genetic makeup alone does not automatically lead to alcoholism; social environmental influences contribute to the disease's presence.

We typically learn our social skills from within our families from birth. It is here that we learn right from wrong and acceptable social behavior. If a family get together is learned from our childhood conditioning as being an event that alcohol is consumed for the merriment of all this becomes imprinted in our minds as the nature of social interaction. The same principle applies to all other occasions and daily events. Certainly social conditioning is learned from all that we are exposed to, not just our immediate family. I

ndeed, visual repetitive learning is a valuable and effective teaching tool; unfortunately, it is not so selective as to be able to dismiss the negative influence also.

Environmental factors that often reflect a tendency toward alcoholism do not fall squarely in the home of a family. Habitual behavior and life choices remain the responsibility of an individual. If your mother was an alcoholic, and the family drank to excess at home and socially, this does not absolve an individual of responsibility from the choices they make for themselves.

Science has not finished with alcoholism. Certainly medical communities are diligently pressing on with the hope that one day this disease that destroys mankind from the inside out and devastates entire families and the loved ones of sufferers may one day be completely understood. We do know that genetics does contribute some to the condition of alcoholism, and do know that the presence of the disease is generated from complex factors including genetic and social environment, but there is still much to be learned.

In the mean time, we may be grateful that help and support is available when someone is willing to accept it.

If you need help, please seek it.

About the Author (required to print): Pick up your Free 101 page Addiction Recovery Help Guide just for visiting our site. Bill Urell MA.CAAP-II, is an addictions therapist at a leading treatment center, teaching healthy recovery skills. Visit: http://www.AddictionRecoveryBasics.com .

You may also wish to read Susan' s ebook, EQ and Addiction: the 14th Step - http://www.webstrategies.cc/ebooklibrary.html .

Email for coaching, sdunn@susandunn.cc . I will be working all holidays, nights and weekends.