How can i induce euphoria

The same brain mechanisms that facilitate euphoria also fuel its opposite. Many of the above influences can also induce depressive states. For instance, being in love can make you feel like you're in heaven, but at other times it can feel like hell. In the same way sleep deprivation, asphyxia, gorging on food, sex, drugs, and even music can depress mood as much as it can heighten it if you go overboard. Some neuropsychiatric conditions like bipolar disorder or dementia can swing wildly and unpredictably back and forth between euphoria and dysphoria.

One of these hotspots operates from the medial shell — a sub-region of the nucleus accumbens within the limbic system. The nucleus accumbens signals the ventral pallidum , a second hotspot near the base of the forebrain.

Stimulating these hotspots amplifies sensations of pleasure. Adding dopamine to the mix reinforces the reward aspect of pleasure to create incentive to repeat the behavior that induced a euphoric state. The reward circuit is a group of structures that is activated when we do something rewarding like eating, having an orgasm, or taking drugs.

The brain responds to the activity by releasing dopamine to brain regions along specific pathways. During euphoria, dopamine neurons in the VTA are activated and travel down the mesolimbic dopamine pathway , boosting dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens.

The mesocortical dopamine pathway is another major pathway in the reward system. It begins in the VTA and travels to the frontal lobes in the cerebral cortex. Dopamine neurons are activated before any actual reward is received, hence before pleasure kicks in. So dopamine seems to play roles other than causing pleasure, namely connecting a behavior with pleasure and increasing reward seeking.

Nonetheless, since the mesolimbic dopamine pathway is consistently activated during euphoric experiences, it is considered the main structure of the reward system. The actual network of brain structures involved in mediating reward is much larger and complex than just dopamine pathways, involving many other brain regions and neurotransmitters. Some of the most sensitive areas in the reward system lie along the medial forebrain bundle , a collection of nerve fibers that provides a route for transmitters from the dopamine-rich VTA to the lateral hypothalamus, brainstem , and basal forebrain.

Euphoria boosts activity in the mesolimbic pathway, a brain circuit driven by the neurotransmitter dopamine. Dopamine regulates positive feelings, motivation, and decision making,. It spurs us to repeat rewarding behaviors. Experiencing and appreciating pleasure as its own entity is necessary for true happiness and life contentment. Our genes expect us to feel good, not just do the tasks that feeling good compels us to complete.

So today I'm going to tell you how to get high and hit these pleasure centers, primal style. If that sounds like it involves a shaman, some cactus cuttings, and monotonous chanting over a fire, I don't blame you. That's absolutely one way to get high and it's probably similar to how Grok did it, but this isn't an ayahuasca recipe post, a review of peyote churches, or a guide to "Choosing the Right Fat-Busting Entheogen For Your Body Type. It's popularly known as the runner's high, but you don't have to run to feel high from exercise.

The best known, mother of all natural highs can have you skimming the clouds. Its soaring yet soothing effects are some of the reasons I stuck with endurance training for so long despite the other negative effects it was having.

The latest research indicates that the high is probably mediated by two endogenous chemicals: beta-endorphin, an endogenous opioid involved in pain reduction and relaxation; and anandamide, an endocannabinoid responsible for pain reduction and euphoria. The exercise high probably influenced human evolution , helping promote the highly active lifestyle necessary to dominate the environment. When the going got tough like when a saber tooth tiger was right on their heels or when they were chasing down dinner , euphoria and pain reduction would have been invaluable.

Studies indicate that it takes about an hour of endurance training for beta-endorphins to release, whereas short-term anaerobic training produces significant levels of the opioid the more intense the better. In another study , an acute bout of Olympic weightlifting caused elevations in beta-endorphin. This was low-volume resistance training, no more than ten or fifteen seconds of actual honest work, but the intensity was high enough to provoke the exercise high. Overall, it's high intensity anaerobic work that produces the biggest endorphin rush.

As for the endocannabinoids, intensity is key there , too. Just as exercise itself can spur a euphoric state, exercising with others may offer a different and arguably better high. One study found that rowers' pain thresholds were greater after training as a team than after working out alone. Since pain sensitivity is a marker of endorphin release, the group workouts produced more of a high.

In another study , players engaged in a high-pressure soccer shootout enjoyed bursts of oxytocin, the "love hormone," after celebrating. Not only that, but the oxytocin surges were contagious across teammates, bringing them closer to each other and strengthening bonds. The more our ancestors enjoyed working together, the better their chances of surviving. This may be why CrossFit is so popular, and it's one more reason to take up Ultimate Frisbee my personal favorite of course , join that basketball league , or convince a buddy to do some sprint competitions.

Check back tomorrow for more on group workouts. Whether it's bungee jumping, mountain climbing, snowboarding, cliff diving, sky diving, or base jumping, some of us flock to extreme sports like moths to the flame.

The appeal is obvious even if you don't personally subscribe to it : extreme sports place the body into remarkably stressful situations.

It's physical exercise, yes, but it's also mental exercise. When you're leaping from a cliff or plane, your lizard brain thinks you very well may die. The result is a rush of powerful hormones, including adrenaline, dopamine, and beta-endorphins which correlate closely with reports of euphoria. Your heart works harder and faster, sending more blood, more quickly to the muscles as well as the brain.

Your senses are heightened. Time slows down. Moments linger longer than ever before. It's all a stop-gap mechanism to help you survive the situation. Even if you're not a mindfulness practitioner, extreme sports will force you to savor the moment. Dangerous situations -- perceived or real -- tend to have that effect. There's the afterglow, too. After the hormonal explosion has abated and you're back on solid ground, you'll feel calm and accomplished and carefree.

Stress melts and stays away, because what can compare with flinging oneself off a mountain into open air? You hear talk of "adrenaline junkies," as if snowboarders and base jumpers and free climbers are little more than healthy meth addicts -- and I think that's the wrong way to describe what we're doing out there.

What we're drawn to is the intense, hyper-real focus and awareness that our body produces as a response to the incredible insanity of the situation. It's not about the risk itself as much as a testing of skill against the very immediate, potent backdrop of survival.

You're somehow never as in touch with life as you are when you're walking the edge of it. What's not healthy or natural is taking drugs to feel "euphoric. To get this feeling again, you may choose to use the drugs again-and again. And that can lead to craving and addiction. Over time, the brain needs more of the drug to get the same feelings of pleasure. The drug causes surges, like waves, of the brain chemical dopamine, which initially produce the euphoria.

After repeated hits, though, the brain adjusts to this higher level of dopamine by making less of it and by reducing the number of receptors that can receive and transmit the signals it sends. Cocaine and amphetamine act at the terminals of the dopaminergic fibers to nucleus accumbens and perhaps other structures. The shared activation of the dopaminergic input to nucleus accumbens accounts for the behaviorally activating and the rewarding effects of both stimulants and opiates the opiate stimulant action is not widely known because it is usually masked by depressant actions of opiates in other, antagonistic, brain circuits.

The activation of dopaminergic systems also accounts for amphetamine euphoria; it almost certainly accounts for cocaine euphoria and it probably accounts for opiate euphoria as well. Opiates and psychomotor stimulants clearly have many other actions which are not shared; nonshared actions must account for the well-known differences in the subjective effects of opiates and stimulants.