We humans are considered alive if our heart is still beating. But how do we know that any form of life is definitely alive (not dead)? Answer: the chemicals which keep everything going are still doing what they do.
We may be the most complex form of life on the planet, but we need our chemicals to keep going, just like all the others.
Our chemicals include nitrogen, oxygen, etc., etc. But the ones which really matter to us every day, from moment to moment, are vitamins and protein and other tiny ones which only show up under the microscope: hormones and neurotransmitters, which regulate processes throughout the body. The ones that we especially welcome? adrenalin, dopamine (pictured), endorphins, melatonin, serotonin …
There are 3 things to note about such chemicals.
- You can’t buy them over the counter—except (apparently) melatonin. Our bodies will only produce them for us when we engage in appropriate activities.
- Nothing outside ourselves directly produces these particular chemicals in us. A person who loves jigsaws may get an adrenalin rush when he/she comes across an intriguing new jigsaw which she/he may need to compete for to acquire—but that is because she/he is already fascinated by jigsaws. No jigsaw can of itself produce an adrenalin rush. In the same way, it’s important to realise that while sunlight may encourage vitamin D, it doesn’t produce dopamine, to cheer us up. We need already to love sunlight for our bodies to produce dopamine. People who find the sun oppressive (I know such people exist, from my own experience) don’t get a dopamine rush; and people who suffer from physical conditions which sunlight worsens, find their bodies producing quite different chemicals.
- All such welcome chemicals affect our moods (as wine and chocolates can) but only produce emotions when we encounter suitable objects for particular emotions (see my comprehensive analysis of emotions, available on this website).