Mental Health

There is an evolutionary, healthy tension between effort and reward. The most obvious expression of this response is that demonstrated in the Pavlovian experience.

The drivers of effort and reward neurochemistry is the tension between adrenaline and its partner cortisol and in opposing corner dopamine.

Adrenaline, and it’s analogues give us the ability to do more work more quickly. This obviously is very relevant to survival success. In many ways, it drives a more individual centric process and in doing so isolates the individual from unnecessary surrounding input.

Dopamine on the other hand is a chemical of pleasure and reward. As such it is the chemical of addiction inducing repetitive behaviours that where appropriate ensures food and reproductive success.

So what happens when this tension is distorted.

At the extreme, severe mental health issues with perverted personality disorders.

Let's examine narcissistic personality disorder.

These sufferers have excessive focus on self as the epicentre of the universe, often are intensely anxious and hold grandiose and unshakeable beliefs.

The narcissist sufferer almost invariably has a sustained traumatic early background which has heightened and prolonged the flight fight response causing structural changes to the neural response.

Attempts to cope with this anxiety involve trying to find peace and satisfaction.

It is at this point things become undone and weird and so starts the dysfunctional behaviours almost always seen in narcissism. Control of the environment is paramount and the casualties of this include those who they believe need to serve their higher self centric needs. Sadly this includes sexual perversion generating extra dopamine and thereby starting a circle of degenerating behaviours.

Verbal abuse, financial abuse, addiction, denying discussion and free speech decays relationships causing family members to become suffering actors in the theatre of the narcissist.

The tragedy here is that the narcissistic condition includes intransigence and the chance of truely recovering slides as every success confirms their centric view.