It’s amazing to me, now, how much our society pushes us to over-work and doesn’t really define “self-care” for us - and how many internal issues that can cause! Thank you for reading, Gary!
"The habenula seems to be responsible for the pain part of the pleasure-pain balance of dopamine release highlighted be Dr Lembke, So it is important to understand what can activate the habenula, A very informative article on the habenula reveals that
[... the habenula is involved in encoding information about disappointing (or missing) rewards. The habenula has also been found to be activated in response to punishment and stimuli that we have previously associated with negative experiences. Based on all of this information, it is thought the habenula plays an important role in learning from aversive experiences and in making decisions so as to avoid such unpleasant experiences in the future."
So perhaps the habenula gets stuck on activated, and hence chronic freeze starts manifesting, when one has built up too many negative experiences over a lifetime. Furthermore
“… when the reward is smaller than we expected… dopamine activity in the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area is inhibited. Smaller-than-expected rewards, however, cause increased activity in the habenula, while larger rewards lead to an inhibition of activity there… when the reward is smaller than we expected, dopamine activity in the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area is inhibited. Thus, it has been hypothesized that the habenula is involved in encoding information about disappointing (or missing) rewards."
Prof. Huberman refers to this as “reward prediction error”. My disappointment, and feeling flat, after the completion of a task at work, which I described above, is, I think, a good example of this. It is interesting to conjecture how my mindset and behaviours generating a lifetime of disappointments may also have contributed to my PD diagnosis. People with PD also tend to become pessimistic, and this may be a learned adaptive response to avoid disappointments and hence to offset even further activation of the habenula.
"The habenular nuclei are involved in pain processing, reproductive behavior, nutrition, sleep-wake cycles, stress responses, and learning... the function of the lateral habenula with reward processing, in particular with regard to encoding negative feedback or negative rewards.
These are all things also significantly affected by PD.
I wonder if it is possible to create targeted visualization, meditations or hypnotherapy scripts to inform the habenula to de-activate?"
I have both books in my Amazon cart now...only question is, which one to buy first?
Thank you a million times for this article!!!!!!
I love the little Demons book - which one did you get???
Yes,, perfectionism and workaholism played a big part in my descent to disease!
Did you ever come across a part of the brain called the habenula, which ties dopamine into these themes?
I have not heard ot habenula, but I’m intrigued!
It’s amazing to me, now, how much our society pushes us to over-work and doesn’t really define “self-care” for us - and how many internal issues that can cause! Thank you for reading, Gary!
Yes, our modern society seems to be antithetical to our thriving!
Here are some relevant notes I made on the habenula, as part of my review of Dr Anna Lembke’s book on dopamine and addiction [ https://www.outthinkingparkinsons.com/articles/motivation-pleasure-pain ]…
"The habenula seems to be responsible for the pain part of the pleasure-pain balance of dopamine release highlighted be Dr Lembke, So it is important to understand what can activate the habenula, A very informative article on the habenula reveals that
[... the habenula is involved in encoding information about disappointing (or missing) rewards. The habenula has also been found to be activated in response to punishment and stimuli that we have previously associated with negative experiences. Based on all of this information, it is thought the habenula plays an important role in learning from aversive experiences and in making decisions so as to avoid such unpleasant experiences in the future."
So perhaps the habenula gets stuck on activated, and hence chronic freeze starts manifesting, when one has built up too many negative experiences over a lifetime. Furthermore
“… when the reward is smaller than we expected… dopamine activity in the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area is inhibited. Smaller-than-expected rewards, however, cause increased activity in the habenula, while larger rewards lead to an inhibition of activity there… when the reward is smaller than we expected, dopamine activity in the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area is inhibited. Thus, it has been hypothesized that the habenula is involved in encoding information about disappointing (or missing) rewards."
Prof. Huberman refers to this as “reward prediction error”. My disappointment, and feeling flat, after the completion of a task at work, which I described above, is, I think, a good example of this. It is interesting to conjecture how my mindset and behaviours generating a lifetime of disappointments may also have contributed to my PD diagnosis. People with PD also tend to become pessimistic, and this may be a learned adaptive response to avoid disappointments and hence to offset even further activation of the habenula.
"The habenular nuclei are involved in pain processing, reproductive behavior, nutrition, sleep-wake cycles, stress responses, and learning... the function of the lateral habenula with reward processing, in particular with regard to encoding negative feedback or negative rewards.
These are all things also significantly affected by PD.
I wonder if it is possible to create targeted visualization, meditations or hypnotherapy scripts to inform the habenula to de-activate?"