Are Your Serotonin and Dopamine Neurotransmitters in Balance?
Posted: Thursday, February 14, 2008
by Mary Ann Copson
Evenstar Mood & Energy Wellness Center
Neurotransmitters create and reflect your feelings, moods, thoughts, and behaviors. This powerful group of chemicals in the brain is responsible for physiological and psychological changes in how you experience your life. All behavior has a corresponding chemical pattern in the brain.
There are more than a dozen neurotransmitters. Two of them - serotonin and dopamine - play a crucial role in orchestrating your behaviors, thoughts, emotions, and experiences and are commonly out of balance.
Serotonin is considered the feel good, inner peace, well-being neurotransmitter. Optimal serotonin levels are required for all positive affective states and all balanced emotional conditions.
It's rare that your serotonin levels would be too high. When your serotonin levels are low however, you may lapse into a cycle of struggle and hopelessness. Here are ten signs that you serotonin levels are too low:
1. You become reclusive and avoid situations that make you anxious.
2. You believe that you are too weak to handle the strain of conflict and challenge. You feel driven to avoid all conflict and challenge and are fearful of starting new ventures or taking calculated risks.
3. You feel overwhelmed, resentful, and victimized by your circumstances.
4. You have a tendency toward compulsive behaviors, perfectionism, and withdrawal. You worry a lot and see most things in a negative way. You may be extremely vigilant and overly controlling.
5. You are impulsive, have a short attention span, feel blocked and scattered, and easily fly off the handle.
6. You crave sweets and carbohydrates and tend to overeat (especially comfort foods). You tend to eat more in the afternoon and evening.
7. You are compelled to clean and organize things around you. Once you start cleaning you may get "sucked" into the activity and find it hard to stop.
8. You are prone to heat intolerance, panic, phobias, fibromyalgia, and TMJ.
9. You are a night owl, experience insomnia, and have trouble getting to sleep.
10. You feel depressed, hopeless and that you lack personal power. You may feel sad and cry a lot.
Dopamine
Dopamine is your excitatory neurotransmitter. When your dopamine levels are balanced, you experience heightened states of alertness and awareness.
When your dopamine levels are too high, you may be caught in distorted perceptions of reality, dangerous risk taking, and increased aggression. Here are ten signs that your dopamine levels are too high:
1. You have an excessively demanding sex drive.
2. You are an information and news junky.
3. You feel trapped when you do not have something risky and exciting to do. You may engage in dangerous risk taking.
4. You fear being alone and having nothing to do. You cannot tolerate relaxation or calm. Peace and quite bore you.
5. You are prone to violence and aggression. You may deliberately create conflict to get a thrill.
6. You feel a lack intimacy and you do not want to make deep connections with others.
7. You are a junk food junkie.
8. You feel insecure, paranoid and try to control your environment in overt and destructive ways.
9. You are chronically stressed, frustrated, and anxious. You are a workaholic, driven by success, and burned out.
10. You are overly competitive and determined to win at all costs. You are demanding and lack the trust of those around you.
When your dopamine levels are too low you lack a strong vital inner force. Here are 10 signs that your dopamine levels are too low:
1. You lack energy and stamina.
2. You have no drive or motivation.
3. You are not able to concentrate.
4. You lack focus.
5. You are not able to move memories into long term storage.
6. You become depressed and lack the ability to orient toward the future. It will be all you can do to get through the day.
7. You have trouble thinking and keeping your thoughts organized.
8. You are not able to be creative.
9. You are not able to pay attention.
10. You have no adventuresome spirit. You want to avoid making any changes in your life.
Your behaviors and your experience affect your biochemical profile and your biochemical profile affects your behaviors and your experience. By picking up on the yellow flags that tell you when your brain chemistry is out of balance you can take specific steps to put your self back "at choice" and in charge again.
Optimizing you brain chemistry and neurotransmitter profile can produce phenomenal results in improving your well-being, achieving your dreams, and living the successful, healthy and integrated life you deserve.
Copyright (c) 2008 Mary Ann Copson
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Mary Ann Copson is the founder of the Evenstar Mood & Energy Wellness Center for Women and a Brain Chemistry Profile Clinician. Discover more about how to positively affect your neurotransmitter profile at http://evenstaronline.com/brainchemistry
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Top-level comments on this article: (7 total)you are describing my every feeling and action, im only 17 and i need to know how to fix my brain chemicals, please update your page.
jesse.k.j
very useful , thanks a lot, but i wanna know if there is any suplemment witch boost dopamine levels naturaly not by bloking dopamine receptors ,just to pruduce more dopamin?
I think you've just described most of the people on earth, in one way or another. Guess we're all out of balance to some degree- interesting article- learned some things I didn't know.
Thanks- Always- Ella
5hTP is at Walmart and helps raise serotonin and l-Tyrosene helps raise dopamine and is at gnc.
I think this article was good at depicting the personality traits associated with the neurotransmitters. Also, that you can be both a little bit too high and a little bit too low at the same time. It's possible that the dopamine receptors are not receiving the dopamine in the way they should. Due to low dopamine stores, or a lack of receptors. Certain characteristics might be pronounced or reduced.
I've also read that being a specific neurotransmitter type personality ( eg; High norepinephrine type, high dopamine type ) can shape a person's general motivation, behaviour, likes/dislikes and when the neurotransmitter that they use the most is low, they don't 'feel like themselves' .
I don't know enough about the subject and am trying to better understand how it all works. I do believe some people are more susceptible to neurochemical shifts causing an imbalance. Understanding what your body needs as a stabilizing nutrient might help. Magnesium seems to be pointing in the right direction for that. As does a good multivitamin and Omega 3.
I think artificially stimulating neurotransmitters is not really a good idea. This would cause other depletion/receptor problems. Balance is the key when you're too high or too low.
reading this made me realize what is wrong with me.
I got low serotonin and low dopamine, cause when i was younger (16-17) (now im 22) i took way to much extacy in a short amount of time and it made me go crazy when i was on them. (just one time the very last time i took them) I was an emotional fireball then after i came down i just haven't been the same.
my sex drive comes and goes....many goes...its like once a month i really want to have sex.
ive been recently just staying home with no job not really doing anything hating everyone in the outside world....ANYWAYS!!!
JUST WANTED TO LET EVERYONE KNOW BE CAREFUL WITH THE DRUGS!!!
EXTACY @#$%&*ED MY BRAIN UP DONT LET IT HAPPEN TO YOU
I recognize my original self as someone usually driven by dopamine. I haven't been feeling like myself however for over a year now. I've been on antidepressants since 4 years because of panic disorder, but they don't do anything for depression anymore.. probably because they're mostly working on serotonin?
My psychiatrist has also been discussing dopamine with me, it's rather likely that I'm very low on it now, since I'm unmotivated, usually very tired, to the point that I can't make myself do anything to feel any better. I've recently gained some weight and can't get to doing some excercise since I really lack the energy. I get dizzy at work :(
We've tried Wellbrutin (prescription med) for this, but I can't stand it: I flip over the other side, I got hallucinations from it. Had to go to the ER and quit immediately.
Now I was looking for something _natural_ (I'm getting sick of all these prescription meds) that can help boost my energy and help me loose weight and found L-carnitine. I've seen it before in a health shop but never took it because I didn't know what it was. It seems all natural however, after doing some research on the Internet. By coincidence I also found that it may boost dopamine and make me feel better. Does anyone have any experience with this? It could be just what I need to get started again and get my life back?
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