Gemma Speck

Now, of course, when we're depressed, when we're in a rut, when we're just like stuck and pessimistic about life, a dopamine deficiency definitely may play into this because we can't motivate ourselves to do or to want anything.

including the things we know may help.

We can't motivate ourselves to strive.

We don't have any ambition.

We don't have any vision that we could change, that life could get better.

So it does definitely play a role in unhappiness in that if we don't have enough dopamine, right?

If our dopamine levels are depleted, it's going to feel difficult to want or desire or anticipate anything.

But a lack of dopamine alone

is not why we are unhappy on a deep level dopamine is not it's not about it's not the happiness hormone it's not the happiness chemical it's the motivational chemical so here's the second function that dopamine is heavily responsible for and it's probably one you don't hear much about online or in discussions about dopamine like on tiktok or instagram or wherever

It's movement.

Dopamine acts on the basal ganglia, again, deep in our brain.

Deep in our brain, that's where a lot of our dopamine producing cells are.

Dopamine acts on the basal ganglia to stimulate movement, to help us direct our muscles, to control our nerve cells, our body.

The reason we know it's so vital just for our body's ability to move itself is because of diseases like Parkinson's.

The progressive neurological disorder, you probably know it from Michael J. Fox.

It causes tremors, muscle stiffness, confusion.

Dopamine and Parkinson's have a long history.

And we now know that a lot of the reason why the Parkinson's symptoms show up is because of a lack of dopamine.

Basically, Parkinson's is caused by the progressive death of dopamine-producing cells in the substantia nigra.

Deep in the brain.