Why You’re Unhappy: Biology vs Politics

Dr. Loretta Breuning, Happy-Chemical Pioneer and founder of The Inner Mammal Institute, wrote the first book on the animal origins of our happy brain chemicals: serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphin. Her work has been translated into 16 different languages

In her latest book, she explains that unhappiness is not a disorder, but our brain's natural default state. Our happy chemicals are not designed to be on all the time, yet we're taught that happiness is “normal.” This leaves a lot of people feeling like something is wrong with them.

The disease model of mental health is so entrenched that we don’t notice it the way a fish doesn’t notice water. It’s proclaimed as a service to the greater good, but it does more harm than good because:

It presents our normal emotional ups and downs as indications of a disorder.
it creates the illusion that everyone else is happy, while you are deprived.
it shifts your attention away from the skills necessary to trigger your brain's natural happy chemicals.
So, why is this misleading view of our biology so popular?

It’s politics.

Not the politics of government elections, but the politics of saying what’s popular to win support.

Doctors, scholars, therapists, and the media embrace the Rousseauian view that happiness is intrinsic to nature, and society is to blame for unhappiness. They tell you that animals and children are happy, and you would be too if it weren't for “our society." This mindset makes you a powerless victim of external circumstances instead of building the skill of managing your brain.

The truth is animals, children, and hunter-gatherers are unhappy a lot. You don’t hear this from the people who claim to give you “THE Science.” But simple biology makes it clear that our brain saves its happy chemicals for survival action. It’s hard to get happy chemicals from this brain we’ve inherited. Humans have struggled to build this skill from the beginning of time.

You don’t build the skill when you’re taught that happiness is effortless in “normal" people or you think you have a disorder that experts should fix.

The book shows why the healthcare system, academia, therapists, and the media overlook the undeniable truth about our biology.