The Upward Spiral Quotes

“Being around other people and developing close relationships feels good for a reason, and that reason is dopamine. Thus it’s not surprising that dopamine and oxytocin interact with each other. Dopamine neurons connect to the part of the hypothalamus where oxytocin is produced, and oxytocin stimulates the area of the brain stem where dopamine is produced. In addition, the dopamine-rich nucleus accumbens receives input from oxytocin neurons.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Another study showed that humor appreciation also activates the dopamine-rich nucleus accumbens, as well as the brain stem region that produces dopamine, which explains the enjoyable aspect of humor. It also activates areas of the dorsal striatum, which suggests that there is something habitual about humor appreciation. It is something you can practice, something you can get better at. At the very least, you now have a scientific reason to watch funny videos on YouTube.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Getting a massage is also a great way to relax your muscles. Massage reduces pain, stress, and anxiety, and it improves sleep. The wide-ranging effects likely result from the fact that massage boosts your serotonin and dopamine levels and decreases cortisol. Sometimes it’s even helpful to give yourself a massage with a tennis ball by lying on it, leaning against it, or rolling it firmly against your muscles. It probably doesn’t have all the same effects as getting a massage from a person, but it’s cheap and quick, and it can still feel great.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Fortunately, suppressing an impulse doesn’t always have to decrease your dopamine—it can actually feel good. The key is the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for pursuing long-term goals and has the ability to modulate dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. So suppressing an impulse can be rewarding, as long as it’s in service of your larger values.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Setting Goals to Increase Dopamine. People are often at their best when working toward a long-term, meaningful goal that they believe is achievable, like earning a degree or getting a promotion. That’s because not only is dopamine released when you finally achieve a long-term goal but it’s also released with each step you make as you move closer to achieving it. Having a goal also allows the prefrontal cortex to more effectively organize your actions. And most importantly, achieving the goal is often less important to happiness than setting the goal in the first place.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Just ten minutes of exercise had significantly altered their dopamine circuits and increased their willpower. Yes, pedaling a couple miles on a stationary bike while reading the latest issue of People won’t solve all your problems, but for your brain, it’s a heckuva lot better than just sitting there, and it’s a great kick start to an upward spiral.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Boosting serotonin leads to a better mood and a greater ability to set goals and avoid bad habits. Increasing norepinephrine means better concentration and lower stress. And more dopamine generally means more enjoyment.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Serotonin—improves willpower, motivation, and mood. Norepinephrine—enhances thinking, focus, and dealing with stress. Dopamine—increases enjoyment and is necessary for changing bad habits. Oxytocin—promotes feelings of trust, love, and connection, and reduces anxiety. GABA—increases feelings of relaxation and reduces anxiety. Melatonin—enhances the quality of sleep. Endorphins—provide pain relief and feelings of elation. Endocannabinoids—improve your appetite and increase feelings of peacefulness and well-being.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“I was playing a lot of sports, and that actually changes dopamine signaling in the brain, which helps make life more enjoyable. And going to class not only altered the habit circuit in my brain, but it also meant that I had to spend some time out in the sun on my way to and from classes, which boosted my serotonin and regulated electrical activity in my brain during sleep.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Often when we try to start a good habit and then slip up, we describe it as a failure of willpower. But sticking to a good habit is not simply a matter of willpower. You have willpower only insofar as your prefrontal cortex is paying attention and has enough serotonin to work properly.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Stress changes the dynamics of the conversation. When you’re calm and relaxed, your prefrontal cortex is pretty good at getting its way. But the more anxious or stressed you get, the more the power shifts to the dorsal striatum and nucleus accumbens. That’s why you might be doing fine on your diet until you get in a fight with your significant other. Or you might be exercising regularly until family drama raises its ugly head. When stressed, you usually act out your most deeply engrained routines or become a victim to your impulses.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“The dorsal striatum says, “Let’s do it this way, because we’ve always done it this way.” And the prefrontal cortex says, “But that won’t help us get where we want to go.” Meanwhile, the nucleus accumbens says, “Ooh, that cupcake looks delicious.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Planning your response to stressful situations can increase prefrontal norepinephrine, and calm the limbic system, helping you feel more in control.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“So if you tend to worry, reduce your options and make quick decisions whenever possible. As soon as you make a decision, however small, everything starts to feel more manageable—”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Awareness does not require emotion, because emotion and awareness are mediated by different brain regions.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“The prefrontal cortex chooses what to do based on what’s good for us in the long term. The nucleus accumbens chooses what to do based on what’s the most immediately pleasurable. And the dorsal striatum chooses what to do based on what we’ve done before.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“depression generally involves a problem with how the thinking and feeling circuits in the brain get out of whack.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“You can turn a tendency toward a downward spiral of depression and anxiety into an upward spiral of joy and clarity in your life.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Essentially, the phrase “increasing serotonin activity” can mean a number of different things. It can mean that your brain makes more serotonin or increases receptors for it, or that those receptors just become stickier to serotonin. It can also mean that the serotonin that’s made isn’t broken down as quickly or that the serotonin squirted into the synapse just hangs out for a while—giving it a longer opportunity to bind to the next neuron—instead of being quickly sucked back into the neuron. Changing any one of these factors can increase serotonin activity.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“In the 1960s, depression was thought to be a matter of having too little of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine. Then, a few years later, the theory changed to a deficiency of serotonin. We now know it’s much more complicated. Sure serotonin and norepinephrine are involved, but so are dopamine and numerous other neurochemicals.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Sometimes it seems like the whole world is conspiring against you, like life is full of disappointing events, missed opportunities, and harsh circumstances. Maybe, for you, it feels that way all the time. But guess what? It’s not some cosmic conspiracy, just a by-product of your brain circuitry.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Once you stop focusing on all the things you can’t do, you may start to be amazed by what you can do.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Your brain likes to take shortcuts if it can, and most of the time, it’s on autopilot. But when your brain notices that you’ve made a mistake, the anterior cingulate alerts the prefrontal cortex, “Hey, this is something we should pay attention to.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Imagine there’s a marshmallow sitting on a plate in front of you. A nice lady in a lab coat sits next to you. She says she’s going to leave the room, and you can eat the marshmallow if you want. But if you wait for her to get back, she’ll give you two marshmallows. Oh and by the way, you’re only four years old in this scenario. So which is it: one marshmallow now or two later? Choose wisely. It may impact the rest of your life. This famous experiment was conducted over forty years ago. Kids who waited to get the second marshmallow grew up to be more successful than kids who ate the one in front of them right away. They had higher SAT scores, were more likely to go to college, and were less likely to use drugs.8 The marshmallow experiment is really a test of your prefrontal cortex’s serotonin function and its ability to override the habitual and impulsive striatum. In fact, when the kids from the original marshmallow experiment were scanned in an fMRI forty years later, they even had differences in prefrontal activity.9 The ones who had waited for the marshmallow as four-year-olds had greater ventrolateral prefrontal activity, which, unsurprisingly, helps control impulses.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Serotonin helps with impulse control, willpower, and resilience. Dopamine is important in enjoyment and habits. Norepinephrine modulates focus and concentration. Oxytocin is essential to close relationships. Other neurotransmitters are important too, like GABA (antianxiety), endorphins (elation and pain relief), and endocannabinoids (appetite and peacefulness). Other chemicals, like BDNF, help grow new neurons, and even proteins in the immune system play a role.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“A different Japanese study showed that playing with a dog with which you have a strong bond—a dog that is more likely to make eye contact with you—can increase oxytocin. This suggests that having someone look to you for support or trust can increase oxytocin. Simply petting a dog can also start an upward spiral. Petting, like other forms of light touch, boosts oxytocin. And petting a dog, even someone else’s dog, also increases dopamine and endorphins. The increases in these other neurotransmitters provides even more thrust to an upward spiral.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Once you start being productive, dopamine is released in the striatum and parts of the prefrontal cortex. Suddenly you’ll have more energy and motivation to do the thing you really need to do.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Massage. Numerous studies have examined the effects of massage on everyone from babies and new mothers to breast-cancer survivors and people who suffer from migraines. The results are fairly clear that massage boosts your serotonin by as much as 30 percent. Massage also decreases stress hormones and raises dopamine levels, which helps you create new good habits.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“Your Dopamine System with Quality Sleep. The dopamine system helps modulate both slow-wave sleep and REM sleep.28 Furthermore, not only does dopamine have a large effect on sleep (as well as on pain and depression) but sleep, pain, and depression all also affect the dopamine system. In addition, many aspects of the dopamine system are influenced by circadian rhythms, including the production of dopamine receptors, dopamine transporters, and dopamine itself.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

“The amount that you feel in control of a situation lowers your stress level.”
― Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time