What Is Happiness?

The “G-Spot” in the Brain

Whether sensory perceptions, behaviors, experiences, or drugs give us feelings of happiness — without the neuronal reward systems in our brain, nothing works. Their existence was discovered as early as 1954 by American neuroscientists James Olds and Peter Milner.

They implanted small electrodes into the brains of rats and electrically stimulated them. The stimulation was so pleasant for the animals that they constantly stayed in the places where the scientists usually switched on the stimulation. They quickly learned to press a lever to administer their own doses of happiness. Soon the rats discovered that the more often they pressed the switch, the more portions of happiness they received.

The addiction memory had been found.

The Experiments

The scientists went two steps further:

1. They placed an electrified grid between the rat and its happiness button. Any normal rat refused to cross the grid because the electric shocks were extremely painful. Not so the rat with the electrode in the reward system. It willingly endured the torment of painful electric shocks to reach its beloved switch.

2. In the third step, the scientists implanted such an electrode into the reward center of a female test subject (with her consent). This patient was severely depressed. Upon the first stimulation, the patient began to laugh. But similar to the rats, the patient then demanded increasingly frequent and longer stimulation and became aggressive when denied.

The Reward System

The reward system essentially consists of three elements:

• The nucleus accumbens — part of the limbic system responsible for emotions
• The ventral tegmental area in the midbrain
• The prefrontal regions of the cerebral cortex (located behind the forehead)

The nucleus accumbens plays a key role. It could be described as the central switching station of the reward system. It contains nerve cells that use the neurotransmitter dopamine for signal transmission.

This substance is primarily responsible for making us repeatedly seek situations that produce feelings of happiness. Dopamine thus represents a kind of chemical master switch of desire and an important element in the development of addiction.

Addictive Substances

Addictive substances such as cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, and opiates release increased amounts of dopamine in the reward system.

Other Neurotransmitters

The dopamine system receives assistance from other neurotransmitters: the body’s own opioids and cannabinoids.

Opioids and Endorphins

Both opiate drugs like opium or morphine and the body’s own opioids such as endorphins bind to opioid receptors in the nucleus accumbens. In the cerebral cortex, opioids produce feelings of pleasure up to intoxication.

Studies on bungee jumpers showed that the feeling of happiness during and immediately after the jump was accompanied by a 200-fold increase in beta-endorphins.

Cannabinoids

The body’s own cannabinoid system was discovered only a few years ago. Cannabinoids are the active substances (THC) in hashish and marijuana. They dock onto specific receptor molecules and thus lead to increased release of dopamine in the reward system.

Like opioid receptors, cannabinoid receptors also bind the body’s own substances. These are so-called anandamides — unsaturated fatty acids released from the cell membranes of neurons. Researchers discovered that these substances play a crucial role in forgetting traumatic experiences.

Addiction and Relationships

After taking chemical drugs, happiness is usually only short-lived. As soon as the effect of the substance wears off, mood drops rapidly. The user then feels dejected, profoundly sad, and experiences emotional pain — which leads to reaching for the drug again.

With long-term drug abuse, however, the neuronal circuits of the reward system become increasingly dulled, requiring ever higher doses to achieve the desired euphoric effect. At some point, drug use only serves to avoid the often severe physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms.

Borderline Relationship

The same applies to borderline relationships. At some point, the partner reaches the point of trying to consume this “drug” called the person with borderline — which is destroying them — in order to escape the tormenting psychological pain (which is also experienced physically).

Reward and Conditioning

Reward — that is, the reward system’s recording of the reward (formation of neuronal networks) — possesses a decisive moment of original motivation. Once the association between the conditioned stimulus and response is established, repetition of the reward creates a reinforcement of the conditioned response (conditioning). Its absence over a certain period of time, however, leads to extinction.

Two Types of Happiness

The American-Austrian psychoanalyst and student of Freud, Helene Deutsch, believed that the pursuit of happiness always springs from a lack of satisfaction.

There are two types of happiness:

1. Fateful happiness — given by chance (English: luck, French: fortune)
2. Inner happiness — which we feel independently of external circumstances (English: happiness, French: bonheur)

Fateful happiness, like winning the lottery, cannot be forced and is rarely lasting. The other kind, inner happiness, can actually be influenced and even learned.

The Flow Theory

Happiness researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, psychology professor at the University of Chicago, developed one of the most important current theories about achieving happiness: the flow theory.

According to his decades of observation, all people most reliably experience happiness when they become fully absorbed in an activity. He called this state of self-forgetting activity: Flow.

When we are in flow, feeling, willing, and thinking come into harmony. Typical for this state is:

• We forget time
• We don’t question what we’re doing
• We feel no compulsion or pressure
• We stop ruminating and forget everything around us
• The activity requires concentration but is accompanied by a sense of effortlessness

People also experience flow at work when they love what they do. But they most easily enter this state of happiness when playing, exercising, gardening, or pursuing a hobby.

What does this mean in practice? Start playing again, pursuing your hobbies. Be a child again.

Thought Patterns and Happiness

All people develop thought patterns with which they evaluate their lives. Therein lie the roots of happiness and unhappiness.

Three Examples

1. Unhappy people view difficult periods of life as fundamentally permanent (“I’m finished, I can’t go on”). When pleasant events occur, pessimists see them at best as lucky coincidences. Happy people feel confirmed in their optimistic attitude.

2. Unhappy people generalize failures in their lives (“I have no luck in love”). Happy people say “I had no luck with this woman/man.”

3. Pessimists fundamentally blame themselves when something goes wrong. Optimists first look for the reasons for failures in the circumstances that led to the setback, in order to then be able to correct them.

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Therefore: Through my inner attitude, through my thoughts (the power of thoughts), I determine to a very large extent my biochemical “happiness” metabolism. I determine my attitude toward a matter and whether I seek externally influenced (fateful) happiness or find the lasting happiness within myself.