the biology of happiness?

[shleepy]

Hi, everyone!

I am currently finishing up my senior year in high-school (but I will be doing pre-med this fall).

My question is somewhat simple. As a final essay, my AP English teacher decided to assign a rather vague topic - What makes you happy? Instead of doing a typical response, I decided to describe the scientific explanation for happiness.

Please either link me to a very simple explanation or just describe as much as possible about "happiness" and what processes the human body and brain go through. Little things like what medications may be used to induce a feeling of happiness and which parts of the hypothallamus (and other parts of the brain) are involved will be greatly appreciated, but I definitely need info about which neurotransmitter(s) are at work, which chemicals are produced, etc, as well. The essay will only be 1-2 pages, double-spaced size 12, so considering the intro and conclusion do not have to include much useful data, I only need a few average-length paragraphs describing the scientific processes involved.

Thanks a lot for your help! I look forward to reading your answers.

[biostudent84]

Here are some sources I used in a report about depression, the inability to be happy. You might find some information there.

http://www.psychologyinfo.com/depression/

http://my.webmd.com/content/article/10/ ... 5000_00_03

http://www.mentalhealth.com/drug/p30-z02.html

http://www.msu.edu/~rosolmic/

Hope this helps.

Kyle

[shleepy]

bump.

Need more info, please!

[D_Juggz]

http://www.ecsd.com/~rhhedgz1/sex2.html - endorphines - just a basis to further ur search

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/n ... erman.html - ecstacy and how the hormone serotonin creates euphoria

hope this helps.

[shleepy]

Awesome!

That will probably be enough, thank you!

I was thinking I'd go into extensive detail about seratonin, since that's the most common thing I ran across, and that was what I figured would be the "key ingredient", anyway.

[MrMistery]

Do you know that serotonin is secreted by your body and rushes the brain during the sexual act? Funny thing, same thing happens when you eat chocolate

[Poison]

Do you know that serotonin is secreted by your body and rushes the brain during the sexual act? Funny thing, same thing happens when you eat chocolate

chocolate has too much calories...

[mith]

Conclusion: Sex is healthier than calories and should be prescribed as a daily routine by physicians

[Kang1]

Biologically, happiness must be the feeling of being a step better for our propagation. Otherwise, human can not survive long.

The conclusion can be drawn simply by reasoning with the knowledge of a high school student who has learnt the biology and history.

[David George]

Conclusion: Sex is healthier than calories and should be prescribed as a daily routine by physicians

can't accept more

[Nick1254367]

That's a good thing! Recently I had my own shot at defining happiness, which aims to be more “scientific” and “objective” (as much as this is possible for a subjective feeling such as happiness):

“A person can be considered to have experienced a “happy” moment if the person chooses to re-live it as an end in itself if offered at no cost.”

For the detailed derivation of this conclusion please have a look at [link removed]; What do you think about this definition?

Thank you,

Nick