What kind of things in our brain makes us satisfied?

I was watching my cats today and they seem so content with their life, even though their life is just basically filled with patterns like: sleep-eat-poo-pee-drink-sleep-sleep-sleep. They can live a life like that their entire life and still they seem happy and they are purring. :D

Anyway, there are some people who are fine with living as a monk or living as a hermit, but then again some people always seem to want more and more, they are never satisfied with their life ... This makes me wonder, that what kind of things in our brains make us satisfied, even if we wouldn't have much content in our lives? Is it again a question of brain chemistry or is this a deeper thing, which has something to do with our genes and DNA - something we can't modify by just popping a couple of pills?

Dopamine

Good question...
dopamine is not the correct answer either. thats just a wisecrack.


I live like a depressed hermit, want more and more... go do drugs, get what I want. repeat cycle. (Along with poopeeeatetc.)

Dopamine release causes satisfaction. As long as your brain is releasing endorphins you could be living on the moon but still be happy as a clam.

I'm assuming that an individual's genetics dictate the extent and frequency of release.

I don't think dopamine has much to do with the higher levels of life satisfaction, such as whether you feel valuable and important. But yes, short term satisfaction is tied up with dopamine.

It's much deeper.

So, what drugs increase the dopamine release?

Everything is a chemical reaction in the brain.

Long term satisfaction comes from a level of release of neurotransmitters correlating to the proper level of re uptake from the proper number of receptors. If you have an imbalance you wind up with deficiencies either inside the cell or outside and that causes problems. Dopamine and Seratonin and others play the primary roles here.

Lots of drugs stimulate release of dopamine and other neurotransmitters but that doesn't mean you'll be happy long. In all likelihood you'll deplete your short term reserves and crash harder later. Other drugs inhibit re uptake of neurotransmitters. SSRIs and others do this. This will try to bring the level of release and re uptake back into balance but that's difficult to do effectively in my experience.

The best route to happiness is a healthy diet with plenty of exercise and some kind of spiritual or intellectual pursuit to stimulate the mind. If you feed your body well and use it properly it responds by being in good health almost 100% of the time. Both physical and mental health are interrelated.

from what i have read, the final reward pathway probably deals with opioid receptors, in the front of the brain

dopamine, on the other hand, is more associated with the motivational pathways. which explains why it is so correlated with satisfaction (you are motivated to repeat satisfying experiences) and addiction

eg: http://opioids.com/mu/mu-regulation.html

if you are interested in this question, here is a small forum devoted to it: http://www.abolitionist-society.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=24

if you want to feel satisfied then take up a hobby and devote time to it and do it well, maybe a few hobby's.. workout, swim, read a book, do an animation or something. then reward yourself with some beers & friends on friday night or something.

if you really wanna feel satisfied and just live like a cat. then ide say your best option would be to take up heroin or something.

From what I've heard, "Satisfaction is the power over everything."