Scott

You are absolutely right. IN my community. Talking to other parents. Kids don’t just go out and play. You have to kick them out of the house and tell them to figure it out. Just go out and play.

Peter

Just one more thing regarding these bio-markers. I think it is more important to ask people: what is happening to you? How is your life going?  Many of us will have one or more adverse life events.  The problem is you can’t undo them. You have them and you need to acknowledge that they have happened and can then get help.  When I give a talk, I go out of my way to share that I have had times in my life when I have needed help. I have had several times in my life when I have needed psychotherapy.  People used to have a village where they could get support. We are very isolated now. We need to find support.  I make it my business now to have some friends that I can walk with.  We always talk and stuff comes out.  I think that we can’t just live in these isolated ways. When people are seeking to get help, they are not asked what is happening to you. They are instead instructed to take these pills.  I can take a lot of pills, but they are not going to address the fact that my mother wasn’t able to give me what I needed at certain points. She made a mistake.

Jeremy

To draw back to your book, Peter, one of the other physiological dynamics you bring up is the natural, very brief, strong pulsive power of dopamine.  This is a natural reward system that when turned into social media likes that happen over and over again. Big bursts of dopamine occur that are not physiological. They don’t lead to the same outcomes as in a natural environment. Our bodies are trying to adapt to this over-stimulation by down regulating our dopamine receptors. It takes more and more intensity—which leads to the addictive cycle found in drugs, media effects, whatever.  By not thinking about how our body naturally responds to stimuli, we are just searching for massive dopamine hits. We think that these big hits are the solution to unhappiness. This is leading to the depth of despair.