When mood swings are caused by hormonal changes how can we control our moods by our determination?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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so it has been scientifically proven that mood swings are caused by hormonal changes so when you talk about anger how do we understand this in terms of in terms of hormones what does it mean if you say that can anger be controlled simply by controlling the hormones that are there in the brain or how exactly is anger related with hormones there is an increasing finding in science that whatever emotions we have they have neurological expression there is chemical changes that happen in the brain whichever emotion we experience now there is no doubt about it because the brain is the place from which consciousness emanates into the body and actually whatever we experience it will have a neurological expression the mistake often that is made is to think that there is nothing more than neurological expression to these emotions that means the emotions are nothing more than just the changes in the brain chemicals that the hormonal imbalances themselves are the be all and end all of our emotions so what is wrong with this idea say sometimes you know if you meet a relative small child you know nephew niece or someone just to have fun with them we may tickle them you know we tickle their belly and when we tickle their belly we start laughing laughing now when the child starts laughing like that is that laughter happiness that laughter is laughter but if that laughter were happiness we all want to be happy then we all could have our own perpetual tickling machines and you could be happy for the rest of our lives although there is laughter and normally we associate laughter with happiness but in this case laughter is simply a physical response to a physical stimulus that is not happiness so just as the physical expression of laughter can reflect the inner state of happiness but that physical response of laughter can also be stimulated by a physical stimulus and there may not be any presence of happiness internally the same way what happens at the physical level can also happen at the neurological that means yes whenever I am angry certain hormones are secreted in my brain so that is true but just as the laughter on the face is itself not happiness similarly the secretion of hormones in the brain itself is not anger it is a just as the laughter on the face is meant to be a result of anger, a result of happiness similarly the secretion of certain hormones in the brain is a result of certain emotions now at the same time it is true that if if certain hormones because of certain reasons become excessive that will affect my moods just like if somebody starts tickling me, I will start laughing but laughter laughter and what it signifies happiness, it is not simply a result of tickling so our emotions have a deeper dimension to them and yes to some extent for some people who are severely affected by certain biochemical imbalances in their brain addressing those imbalances helps that addressing should be done but such addressing does not imply that the emotions themselves have a biochemical origin everything that we do at a physical level, it requires the appropriate physical tool you know, if say my throat becomes sore or somehow my throat gets clogged or otherwise it becomes dysfunctional I will not be able to speak so my speaking requires the proper functioning of the throat and one aspect of the proper functioning will also be that whatever chemicals are associated with the throat, they should be in proper proportion. Sometimes my throat may become too sore or otherwise it may become problematic but that does not mean, just because say my throat has become sore and so I am not able to speak, that means if I start saying, oh my speech originates in my throat it is the throat that is speaking no, it is the person who is speaking just as the person is different from the throat, somehow we almost like by some kind of scientific superstition a scientific superstition we elevate the brain to a category other than the rest of the world now nobody will say that the face is experiencing happiness, isn’t it? but somehow some people start believing that the brain is experiencing happiness or rather nobody will say that the throat is the source of speech or the throat is the organ through which speech is coming but somehow when that same thing is attributed to the brain you start thinking, oh the brain is the experiencer of happiness the brain is the experiencer of emotions the brain itself is consciousness no, brain is a tool and if the tool is somehow something wrong with that tool then the functioning will not happen so William James was a famous psychologist and he gave the example of a prism normally a prism splits light and you see seven colors so when the light that comes into the prism then it splits into seven different colors if the prism is damaged then the light will not form in the same way in the same way now that does not mean that the light originated in the prism although the damage in the prism causes the light pattern to change that change does not necessitate that the prism is the origin of the light the prism could well be the transmitter of light also the same way the brain hormonal changes they affect our emotions but the brain and the hormones within them, they are not the origin of emotions, does it answer your question? thank you any other questions? how do we relate