"The more pleasure you seek, the more unhappy you get" this really inspired me to stop my addictions. May everybody be free of their addictions Amen

‘The more pleasure you seek, the unhappier you get.’ Amazing. This Basically summed up my entire addiction/ mental health journey.

This is the most important video I've ever watched on the internet. Ever.

As a former vice-principal, you my friend should be teaching in all schools workshops on this !!!!!! To parents and students!!!

This is the prime example of what should be taught to young adults and teenagers instead of some other useless part of the current education system.

This video deserves a million likes, no one has explained this difference so well.

I've watched over 100 videos about serotonin and dopamine, about detoxification and intoxicants, but no one ever explained things in such a nice manner. Someone said there's something about low quality videos, that they provide high quality content. Thanks.

Psilocybin saved my life. I was addicted to heroin for 15 years and after Psilocybin treatment I will be 3 years clean in September. I have zero cravings. This is something that truly needs to be more broadly used in addiction treatment.

When he said pleasure is dopamine and happines is serotonine That made everything clear. Now i understand it better. And the 7 difference was a very good explanation. Thankyou doctor! Very good video!

Just how causally this guy explained one of the most important things for human survival, this is in the the top 10 youtube videos of all time.

“Trauma is personal. It does not disappear if it is not validated. When it is ignored or invalidated the silent screams continue internally heard only by the one held captive. When someone enters the pain and hears the screams healing can begin.” ― Danielle Bernock

What a fantastic explanation. As a recovered addict, I can totally understand why it’s so fun to help others who suffer from addiction. The lengths a recovered addict will go to share a message of recovery and how it works. Love this video.

“There is no such thing as overdosing on too much happiness” *SEROTONIN SYNDROME HAS ENTERED THE CHAT*

7 differences between dopamine (pleasure) and serotonin (happiness). 1. Pleasure is short term like a meal, happiness is long term like a lifetime. 2. Pleasure is visceral you feel it in your body, Happiness is ethereal you feel it above the neck. 3. Pleasure is taking, like from the casino, happiness is giving like habitat for humanity. 4. Pleasure is achieved alone like eating a chocolate cake, Happiness is achieved in social group like in birthday party. 5. Pleasure is achievable with substances like cocaine, heroine, nicotine, alcohol, sugar, some addictive behaviors. happiness is not achievable with substances. 6. The extremes of pleasure, weather it being substances (cocaine) or behaviors like shopping, gambling, social media, internet, gaming, pornography, foody. In the extreme are addictive. There’s holic after every one of those things shopaholic, alcoholic, sexaholic, chocoholic etc but there’s no such thing as being addictive to too much happiness. 7. Pleasure is dopamine and happiness is serotonins. Two different neurotransmitter, areas of the brain, regulatory pathways, mechanism of actions, drivers. Dopamine is an excitatory neurotransmitter. Neurons like to be excited and tickled but they don’t like to be bludgeoned. Chronic overstimulation of any neuron in the body leads to neuronal cell death. Because neurons are so metabolically active so If you keep it up and keep it up that neurons is basically exhaust and die. Even tho you have lots of dopamine molecules you have fewer receptor which means there’s less chance that any molecules will finds the receptor. What that means in human terms is you need more and more to get less and less. That’s the phenomenon we call it tolerance. Dopamine leads to tolerance. And then when those neurons do starts to die that’s called addiction. Serotonin is other neurotransmitter it’s inhibitory. There’s no such things as overdosing on too much happiness but there’s one thing that downregulates a serotonin that’s dopamine. So the more pleasure you seek the more unhappy you get. Differences is Reward and contentment, pleasure and happiness. So Coca Cola does not give you happiness it gives you pleasure. So don’t chase pleasure (dopamine) it will make you unhappier. Some of the ways to boost your serotonin: Diet, Exercise, Bright light, Supplements, Massage, Mood induction, Manage stress, Sleep deprivation.

As someone who used to abuse methamphetamine, this video tells so many truths with just so few words. Wow! The best time for me to have heard this video was 15 years ago. The second best time for me to have heard this was today. I haven't seen or heard anything this enlightening since when I found Dr Gabor Maté.

As someone who's recovered from many different kinds of addiction, i approve this message. Spread the word

"The more pleasure you seek, the more unhappy you get." Science catching up with what mystics have been saying all along. Happiness is your nature. It doesn't need to be sought. It only needs to be realized.

This is so true. I have a dysfunctional prefrontal cortex- I never have thought about future/long term consequences. At age 41 the consequences have started showing up. A lifetime seeking pleasure in the pursuit of happiness led to hatred of myself. Happiness is peace of mind and having people to share your life with. Great video. It’s so sad to me that we have all been duped for so long. They make too much money off of us being sick and unhappy

We need to protect this man! 🙏 i can't express myself so incredible!

Mind blown. As an adrenaline junkie w adhd, i always chased the dopamine rush. Now i understand why living life with your hair on fire was “fun” (pleasure) but not “satisfying” (contentment). It also explains why a weekend of dropping waterfalls in a kayak and feeling on top of the world, was often followed by a noticeable little crash of mild gloominess (mild depression) on the ride home or the next day. I figured it was just a hangover. 😂Years ago i remember reading about that little emotional crash after a weekend adventure in an Outdoor magazine. They only went so far as to note the phenomenon but they did not explain the mechanism.

No one has ever explained the difference in such a simple way like he did, absolutely very easy to understand and also now it's easy to differentiate whether what I'm doing is a temporary dopamine kick or a serotonin happiness!

I wish I was taught this in my formative years. Schools should teach this to teens in highschool.

I had no idea about such clear distinction between pleasure and happiness, it never came to my mind that they stem from absolutely different mechanisms. I heard about dopamine and serotonin before but nobody whom I listened to had provided such clear explanation. Thank you, I finally got the point.

It's like Pleasure is from outside to inside And Happiness is from inside to outside. 🙂 Beautifully explained 👏🌷 Thanks 🙏

This music is unnecessary but the information is very valuable

As an extrovert with mostly introvert friends, and who has experienced addiction, I needed to watch this video ❤

This dopamine and serotonin things that makes me always curious about myself in every human conditions

Wow this really saved me from a period of depression I’ve been in. It’s funny because I was actually thinking that I could be feeling this way because of how much I’ve been stimulating the brain with things lately

I felt so attacked when he said, "Its 5 oclock somewhere" Edit: Idk how I ended up here, but I loved the video. They way he speaks is actually sooo nice. Not to mention how well he communicated this information. This isn't easy to explain 😅 Not to mention the absolute criticality of the topic. COVID messed up sooo many of our brains due to stress and isolation.

this blew my mind. As someone who has personally struggled with perscription stimulants and alchohol use , THIS made so much sense as to why I feel the way i do. THANK YOU. truly

Knowledge at its best. Its not merely a medical advice but a life lesson in its pure form. I always struggled quiting smoking addiction but never dodged it by psychological reasonings. Today I feel something new, some knowledge working as a medicine. So the power of knowledge and awareness seems to defeat ignorance. Thanks Sir, i dont know your name, I still have to subscribe you. For me, you spoke like an angel. God bless you, wish i could ever see you.

What a fantastic overview of how this works. It would explain why after getting diagnosed and treated for ADHD I am now seeking less buzz from pleasure and less stress (which I used to cause and thrive on) and now seeking a more stable and content existence.

This is fabulous. I am a Biology teacher and I was looking for a way to approach neurochemicals and this was perfect. I learned so much myself and I am excited to share this video and underlining concepts with my students.

Wow. I am definitely a dopamine guy. Not proud of it but it is a fact. I am trying to get out of this loophole but I always fail. I hope I may be able to get myself on track someday. An example I personally experienced about what was mentioned in this video is mental clarity I felt after I quit smoking for a week. I was so happy to see the trees around me. I noticed everyday things around me that I wouldn't normally notice when I got all the quick pleasure episodes from nicotine intake. I strongly suggest people to let go of dopamine activating activities for around a month and see the change for yourself. A month in your whole life isn't much, but you will definitely feel a huge transformation during this experiment. Good day everyone!

Reminded me of our Pathology Professor who didn’t use any illustrations or power points even then we would sit and listen to his lecture and could actually remember that after the class… I appreciate it 🙏🏽

I'd love to hear this exact same video, but directed at someone with ADHD, and thus dopamine disregulation. A lot of the explanation of what both serotonin and dopamine do and provide made sense for me in my life, but the behavioural explanations made me wonder if this applies to ADHD brains as well. Oftentimes, neurotypical explanations don't fully apply to neurodivergent people, and that's why a lot of neurodivergent people feel lost, frustrated, and unsure of why the things neurotypicals tell us to do, don't work.

This is a really nice take on these neurotransmitters, but it's not as simple as he explained. He made it sound as though dopamine is a villain, and serotonin is the true happy-maker. What he forgot to mention is that serotonin, being the inhibitory neurotransmitter that it is, is also responsible for heightened fear during an aversive stimulus and for default passivity during prolonged inescapable aversive stimuli (aka learned helplessness). What he also didn't include is how the endogenous opioid system as well as oxytocin play a role in all of this. Then, there is the aspect of the location of receptors, which also affects the function of neurotransmitters. Again, while this is really nicely done and explained, I wish he would have limited himself to talking about excitatory and inhibitory neurons rather than specific neurotransmitters. Furthermore, through modern neuroscience, we now know that there is no such thing as a reward center; and dopamine isn't about reward but about motivation to pursue a reward, it's about anticipation of something beneficial, it's about expectancy ... not abbot the reward itself. Just my 2 cents.

Thank you Dr Lustig! Finally someone explains the importance of Happiness over Pleasure and Serotonin over Dopamine in such a concise and beneficial way!

Jeez... this is by far the most detailed explanation on UKposts, of how the brain neurotransmitters work, simple and clear, this guy needs to have over 5M subscribers and views. I hope many people find this.

Short time pleasure leads to unhappiness Short time Suffering leads to happiness

This is an eye opening video..... This proves that being materialistic doesn't make us happier. Thank you sir 😊😊

This presentation should be mandatory in all health and science education programs. It’s one of the most leveling forms of information that can help people self-correct (or correct through support and awareness). The information is very well laid out and the science is inspiring and like a treasure trove for those who are willing to dig a little.

Im 25 yo now I’m happy i learned these now. Thank you so much❤

This is what continues to impress me, amazingly talented persons who can simply bring a very complicated piece of information in such easy and well described manner. 👏👏

NOTE: It's come to our attention that the background music is too loud for some. Please accept our apologies. It's unable to be changed. If you'd like to listen without the background music go to 8:36 in this video of the full conversation with Dr. Lustig: ukposts.info/have/v-deo/sXR_lWOYemyoo3U.html

As an addict in recovery this man makes complete sense to me . Bless you for posting this man …. The music didn’t bother me . I was too emerged in what the dude was saying . Peace out ✌️

This is outstanding. I'm trying to share it everywhere. So many of my friends, and myself, live with depression and all we ever hear is 'talk therapy' but I think this is such an important piece, its just pivotable to understanding and treating addiction and depression.

Why hasn't this video attracted a million views already? Pretty clear explanation.

Thank you sir ,for a brilliant presentation of these facts. This subject should be taught and explained to children at school and should be regarded as being as important as maths or reading . As humans we are being led to an awful place by the greed of big business . There is addiction everywhere in many diverse forms . People - please spend time with your kids and explain this to them, else the future looks pretty grim. Many thanks again from a seventy year old Englishman . Goodwill to all .

Love Dr. Lustig. He is a giant in the area of public health and works very hard to educate people.

I've shared your video about stoicism to so many people. Keep it up man, you're doing something special and extremely valuable!

❤ This is so simple I can play this for my Highschool health class when we learn about mental and emotional health. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks a ton. We need people like u who actually educates teenagers like me. We r mostly told to seek happiness disguised as pleasure. We shall seek happiness as being happiness.

This makes sense so much. Thank you! The world of freedom where we live comes with responsibilities to a happier life. No wonder so many people are depressed.

Ah, nice one. I’ve been battling addiction for years…this lights-up and simplifies this cognitive process like a map or plan, Imperative. Many thanks. 🙏🏻🍃May all beings be Happy and Free.

Notes: Pleasure is dopamine, happiness is serotonin. Pleasure is visceral, you feel it in your body. Happiness is ethereal, you feel it above the neck. Dopamine downregulates serotonin, the more pleasure you seek the more unhappy you get.

One of the most instructive and inspiring videos on UKposts 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

This is the science of philosophy and spirituality. Incredible!

Finally a good video that explains the dopamine -serotonin - cortisol triangle. Also useful introduction about of the difference between pleasure and happiness.

Oh my god, I think the whole world should listen to this! I’m so thankful it came to me and I subscribed to the channel right away. Please continue to educate the addicted world. Thank you from the bottom of my ❤️

I really regret forgetting i watched this video more than a year ago I'm watching it everyday from now thank you sir.

Great video. I have ADHD, so it hits home, because I'm trying to get the dopamine that my brain doesn't easily get (or too easily removes), so, behaviourally, I end up chasing dopamine, which then heads off down the hedonic treadmill and never makes it to the inhibition of serotonin. The only anything I'd say is that, to my way of thinking, when Dr. Lustig used the word 'contentment' at the end, that felt like a better word than happiness. Contentment is, definitionally, an assessment of how things are over time. Yes pleasure is transitory, but happiness is a little in both camps.

Obviously I am here because I have questions... when the video started... i didnt expect to learn anything from this video... but you explained it so well... loved the analogies you gave.... made me smile ... thank you for the video and the effort into learning the science so you could also explain it to others.

The interaction between dopamine and serotonin is quite intriguing. Thanks for a video explaining complex matter in a comprehensible way! It's mind blowing to get the meaning of it at its full extend.

I can't thank you enough. I have been suffering from problems exactly mentioned in the videos and now I know what's exactly happening biologically and so I can help myself. 🙏🙏

The absolute best explanation of addiction I have EVER heard!

Neurology + Philosophy - this video is gem 💎.

The biochemical reasons of human condition crystal clear explained in a few minutes. Every thing he is saying rings so true. When we all understand and life consequently, then the world will be a different, better place. Thank you so much!

Thsta the best explanation I ever found! Took word to word by heart so my impulses make more sense. Having ADD is sooooo hard because you basically have neuron death so much faster, so you need to reaaaally organize yourself to balance your life out. Microdosing, therapy,weed, family and friends, exercise,good food and spirituality in balance makes life finally feel not only worth living, but both EXCITING and PEACEFUL.

I stopped my pmo addiction for a week and since today i stopped my nicotine addiction. It kinda goes back to what you said because when i stopped my porn addiction i felt good and better. The reward felt earned, so much even that i decided to stop nicotine to feel even more better. Dopamine is good as long as you work for the reward instead of getting instant gratification

The dopamine/pleasure/addiction explanation is well done. The serotonin/depression connection needs much more explanation than I see in the video. Benzodiazepines mess with the brain's Serotonin level and may create an iatrogenic addiction with long term usage. (Ask Jordan Peterson)

Man, you just gave me the answers I have been searching for for a long time. Adds that extra perspective to the left brain right brain stuff. Thank you. You got another subscriber.

Most powerful thing he said “pleasure can be obtained from substances, happiness can not. “

Very well explained

Absolutely inspiring and revealing! Have been struggling with this concept, how to disabuse my mind from constantly seeking pleasure instead of happiness but now l know the difference. Many thanks for this video. It's was not only inspiring but a life changer! Infact, l had to watch it over and over again & even downloaded it.

Maybe not play the emotional music while I'm trying to learn about my brain?

I have been recently diagnosed with an imbalance of Dopamine and Serotonin, and this this was truly helpful. I need to boost both, however NOW I know the emphasis needs to be on Serotonin. Plus, understanding the effects of cortisole. This last part explains a tailspin I had been after a series of rough life events. Makes so much sense. "The more ya know", right?!!!

i'm addicted to these type of science videos even tho i have no intention to learn i just watch and wow and know and forget next day

Stress via cortisol-induced fear conditions-and the satisfactory reward pathway of dopamine that leads to addiction, makes so much sense. (We’re all addicted brain-washed, cash cows to a profit-oriented society). I’ve been studying the subject of dopamine and sex for over 20 years now, and would like to share some insight. 
We get the highest levels of dopamine release through addictive climaxing, especially when it’s done as a form of stress release. The most dopamine the body can produce (after sugar and alcohol) is by climaxing-the levels being similar to a cocaine hit. So climaxing becomes our ‘go to’ reward, we become climax-aholics to combat our conditioned, cortisol-induced stress. But here’s the thing, directly after the climax, dopamine immediately drops, (that’s why arousal diminishes after climax).
Then comes a short serotonin spike and a micro-contentment moment (of up to a few minutes), which rapidly dies off too. 
The main pitfall of climax addiction found in my research shows that all neurotransmitters and hormones involved drop considerably-for up to two weeks. 
Here comes my question: What’s the largest period of time you’ve gone without this specific dopamine fix when you feeling stressed? Nobody wants to give up pleasure, but as you probably know, the opposite of addiction isn’t being sober and doing without-it’s connection. Connection is what nearly all people crave, whether they realize it or not. We all need human connection to feel loved, supported, and understood. We hunt for other rewards in search of that connection, often becoming addicted. 
Connection happens in the presence of the neurotransmitter and hormone, oxytocin. We can increase oxytocin and the serotonin pathway of contentment through the somatic experience of touch, skin-on-skin. Like holding hands, cuddling, hugging, gentle kissing, massaging and sensual, caring touch. There’s an especially powerful release of oxytocin when you’re touching or being touched (consensually, with agreement) for your own pleasure-while fully focusing on receiving that pleasure. This experience connects you to yourself. It also profoundly connects you to your partner. This connection not only solves climax addiction, but also induces contentment and happiness. Im happy to share more.

Very well explained sir. Such a underrated video, it needs more and more viewership, as u mention happiness is achieved in social groups☝🏻🙌🏻👌🏻

This is something everybody needs to know!! Best explaination I've ever been given about addiction and depression..this information is so important that yes this needs to be essential learning in schools...and yes I'm going to do my best to share this...thanks so much to the author!! Bless you!!

This video seriously needs more recognition to it .....this is gonna help me so much with my life Thanks alot sir for sharing this information with us ♥️

This is one of the most amazing educational videos I’ve seen. Wished I was taught this at school.

Thank you for explaining this very interesting topic in a simple way so that some of us understand the differences better. Now seeking for how to achieve best balance between the 2

I've sometimes thought that we are not always responsible for our actions. We're accountable because no one else can be. But we're not always responsible because we just don't understand what the hell is going on in our attic. Information like this should be taught in schools rather than remembering who fought in what war and who killed who.

The most helpful explaination about why there is the danger for getting addicted i've ever heard. Thanks a million from Berlin

This was insightful and helpful, considering I have a psych exam tomorrow 😅

Beautifully and incredibly effectively explained. Thanks a lot for simplifying these concepts, making it easy to identify the two and most importantly what to strive for in life !

We keep on looking for pleasure because we are fundamentally unhappy. We are fundamentally unhappy because we live in a toxic society based on individualism and competition. We lack the human connections that would make us feel whole. Gabor Mate opened my eyes on what addiction really is. What I undestood from his conferences on UKposts is that addiction is self-medication that enables us to keep on living despite the toxicity of the society we are part of. Addiction is not the problem. It is the symptom of the problem.

Thank you for sharing Dr. Lustig's expertise! This information is absolutely vital. You are helping everyone who watches this video.

This video was super easy to understand and discussed a very important topic that was broken down very well. And although this video is short, it got straight to the point and communicated everything clearly. I think this video was very informative and interesting to think about. I have learned more in this, 10 minute video, than I have learned in 50 hours of school. Thank you. More people need to see this.

This is very well explained; I also read somewhere that from a philosophical point of view, pleasure, and even to an extent, happiness _all the time_ are just not possible -- for the reasons you state, yes, (ie, basically, the neurons and/or the parts of your brain that either produce, or 'appreciate', the 'good stuff' get worn out) but also it's as simple as in the same way that someone who's only been outside in the night~time can never really, internally, get the idea of daytime, a person who hasn't known pain can't really 'get' pleasure, and certainly not happiness... made sense to me. Unfortunately I only got wise to all this once I was _already_ irrevocably addicted to smack ( _and_ the rest!!) What I've always wondered though, if it could be explained in terms one didn't have to have a degree in biochemistry to understand, is, if opiates, cocaine, amphetamines, etc. get you high by turning on the dopamine tap, and Parkinson's Disease medications like L Dopa, which, while I've never actually taken them, if I understand correctly, are basically just synthesized dopamine, how is it that they aren't the cause of people like my father - in - law who suffers from late - stage Parkinsons, "flying off his †i†s", if I can use the medical terminology?! I mean, I get the idea of tolerance more than anyone (well... more than anyone except, maybe, people like him) but, put it this way, I never saw warnings in the product information for his tablets, stuff like "This medication may cause users to uncharacteristically solicit prostitutes... _become_ prostitutes... hand over the car - or house(!) - keys to people with names like Ray~Ray and Stee~o, and similar such drama... Also, admittedly, I haven't seen Ecstasy users, who favour a drug which, I think, causes the brain to release a surge of Serotonin, do things like the examples mentioned above (except maybe the hiring of prostitutes - only to put them to sleep banging on about getting who they are, who they _really_ are, deep down inside, and how they love them, and no, they're _not_ just _saying_ it, either...) but I have seen plenty people who do (or did, anyway) take E's on a daily basis, and went around skinny as shoelaces either from self~neglect, or cos their digestive systems are all shot to hell, I mean, that's pretty addictive behaviour, I would say... Notwithstanding the above though, I'm not trying to be nitpicky - if there were only 2 videos I could show someone who was dabbling about with Class~A's, it would probably be pointless in any case, but I would show them *this,* and the scene in the Guillermo del Toro version of 'Nightmare Alley' where the Carney boss gives the speech about how you cultivate a 'Geek': not like that other old sideshow staple, the Freak, exactly, but a derelict basically kept and enslaved in order to be humiliated in front of paying audiences, for example by biting the heads off of live chickens, drinking jars of of used cooking oil and other stunts of like nature. While it would go over the heads of many, it's a powerful testimony to the dangers of being enslaved to a substance, and by extension, to (s)he who controls that substance...

Happiness doesn't necessarily require group, it can be achieved individually.

Never see a video well explained like this

Absolute genius. Perfectly explained and opened up a whole new understanding for me on the differences and roles played by these neurotransmitters. Thanks so much.

Wonderful explanations here, I’m a layman but this video is simple and makes actions/reactions understandable. I’ve been on a steady diet of Oxy and Codiene for years as a result of a severely broken ankle. Taking my ‘meds’ is now something that is a focus point for me. I’m resigned to continuing pain relief in this form. However some of the symptoms described here are completely correct as I have experienced many of these reactions. I simply cannot function without pain killers

Best lecture i have ever heard in my 43 years of life .Thank you sir ( Dr. Robert Lustig )

'You cannot get happy by taking a substance'. Thank you so much Dr Lustig! I really like your work on sugar btw. I do wish all the junkies I've knowno over the years had watched this short video, but I know it would probably only help a tiny minotiry of them.

Oh my God , it's amazing how this one video can tell us almost everything we need for today! Thanks 💗

Great video! Thank you for the explanation. Educators should teach this in high school (probably do in some) in order to help young people to understand addiction better so as to have a better chance to avoid it in their futures. As well as explaining all the things one could be addicted to like pornography, food, etc and not just alcohol and drugs.