I often wondered why some people go truly out of control when success, money, and power go to their heads until one day I read this: “Money doesn’t make you an asshole. Money just makes you care less if people know you’re an asshole”… How true.
So why does this happen?
Is it because the feeling of power has been found to have a similar effect on the brain to cocaine by increasing the levels of testosterone and its by-product 3-androstanediol which in turn leads to raised levels of dopamine, the brain’s reward system, which is very addictive?
One theory suggests indeed it’s the same way we behave when we are on drugs or craving for drugs. We have tricked our brains long back in the history of our evolution to seek an excess of dopamine rewards (the pleasure chemical). Naturally, sex releases the highest amount of dopamine, followed by food. But when we’re on drugs, the levels increase far more and over time our brains alter the neural circuitry to get dopamine levels back to normal. But in the process food, sex and so many beautiful things lose their ability to give us pleasure. Hence, to escape withdrawal, we need more drugs……..Read More