Introducing: The Serotonin Slot Machine
People know about dopamine. Slot machines, social media. Dopamine machine. Wheee! Keep pushing the social media random algorithm slot machine button.
So we know how to get dopamine, but dopamine is not the only feel-good neurotransmitter that exists. What about endorphins? Those heroin-esque painkillers from working out? What about oxytocin? That feeling of affectionate warmth when you pet a cat in the street? What about serotonin? That feeling of contentment from being where you need to be?
Yes indeed, what about serotonin? Why isn’t there a serotonin slot machine?
I wish I could sign up to have a large man with medium-length dark hair stand there and yell at me, “What have you done today such that you are WINNING ALREADY?” and then I am stressed and have to provide him with answers.
Dopamine is like waiting and seeing what you get, getting something good, and getting that dopamine hit.
Serotonin is like the opposite of humiliation. It is the opposite of being defeated in a fight. It is the opposite of feeling low-status and that there is no way out.
Lobsters feel these feelings too. It is a primitive system!
Imagine starting off the day making a phone call, and on the other line, exactly what you wanted to happen, ended up happening.
Maybe this is what having a certain kind of assistant is like. The point is not just to get tasks done but also to start off your day feeling high status by being able to tell somebody to do something. Then this serotonin boost lets you do other tasks during the day in an a better way.
Serotonin helps with general emotional stability, and mental flexibility. It is a good neurotransmitter to have!
Building IKEA furniture increases serotonin.
Honestly if you’re over 30 and still alive that’s pretty good. Pretty high status already.
Serotonin is usually increased in the long-game. Usually you have to do a hard task that increases your social status to feel a serotonin increase. But if you are low in serotonin, then doing those tasks feels really hard.
Just as there are dopamine slot machines everywhere with social media, there are anti-serotonin slot machines everywhere. Getting an email that something you didn’t want automatically renewed is automatically renewed and you just lost some money and certainly can’t get a refund because it was in the terms that you signed that it will renew automatically and there is nothing that you can do about it is a kind of humiliation that can deplete some of your hard-won serotonin just by checking your email in the morning.
And so serotonin is easily lost and hard-won.
One potential hack here is that serotonin increases when you remember ways that you are already winning. The memories count. Also repetitive outdoor chores.
A Serotonin Slot Machine would probably end up having to work like a dopamine slot machine. Imagine a sparkly shiny journal. You go there and you write down your wins. But it tricks you! It would have pretty pictures and pretty prompts, and so you would get that dopamine hit. It would hijack your dopamine system. But it would hijack your dopamine system to then give you serotonin, which you can use to then do other serotonin things.