In the song Zero by the Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgen sings “Intoxicated with the madness, I’m in love with my sadness.” Along with all the Nine Inch Nails albums, their album “Melon Collie and The Infinite Sadness” was one of my favourites as an adolescent. That particular line I remember well since I flirted a lot with depression at that age and recall a certain sweetness to these Melancholic states, as it were, as it felt like a place I was familiar with. Possibilities of then immaturity and mood disorders aside, I became aware of the fact that I was addicted to this “sweetness” as it would prevent me from coming out of these said slumps. To me, depression comes unannounced at any given time and so is unavoidable, but I gradually defeated its perpetual hold, partly thanks to this awareness, by allowing these states of disposition to come and go like the leaves rushing past on a river. Some are quick to insist that medicine is the answer to depression, but like with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, general weirdness and many other mental “disorders” how often is the actual question understood? Do we want to force a processed sanity on our society even if we are unable to understand ourselves or the reason for neurodiversity? Treatments are usually only focused on the symptoms with very little knowledge of the cause or its purpose. In many cases it is possible that each “depression session” has a specific adaptive value of importance that would be lost by subduing the occurrence by some substance.

Although sometimes regarded as the antitheses of reason, our emotions play a much greater role in our lives than we tend to acknowledge. Emotion in its most general definition is a neural impulse that moves an organism to action, originating automatic reaction behaviour which has been adapted through evolution as a survival need. The hypothalamus, a region of the brain, produces small-chain proteins for every different type of emotion called neuropeptides or neurohormones. There are peptides for happiness, sadness, lust etc. that are assembled by the hypothalamus as our brain experiences an emotional state and are released through the pituitary gland straight into the bloodstream and find their way to different parts of the body.

In turn, every cell’s surface in the body is studded with millions of receptors some of which can receive neuropeptides. The binding of the peptide and receiver triggers intracellular changes influencing the behaviour of cells. Amazingly, not only do the individual cellular organisms of the human body form a homeostatic system to keep it alive, but each of them also experiences every emotion originating from the mind or consciousness. As a cell reproduces a newer or daughter cell, it will reproduce more of the receptor sites that are constantly in use and less of those that aren’t. Over time we can truly become what we feel about life or ourselves as our cells continuously adapt.

Affective neuroscience, the study of neural mechanisms of emotion, suggests that emotion makes up an essential part of human decision-making, including long-term planning. It also suggests that the famous distinction made by Descartes between reason and emotion is not as clear as it seems. Many would prefer to abolish emotion altogether as its addictiveness can be domineering, but I believe it is an integrated part of who we are. Almost every bit of our makeup is designed for its existence. What would the value of purpose be without it? How much would the meaning of life actually matter then? How saturated will our collective sanity become? Would we want to understand anything? It would be like blinding ourselves purposefully not to see life’s atrocities, but at the same time sacrifice any vision of its magnificence.

John Preston: “What’s the point of your existence?”
Mary: “To feel. ‘Cause you’ve never done it, you can never know it. But it’s as vital as breath. And without it, without love, without anger, without sorrow, breath is just a clock… ticking.” - Equilibrium

Indeed, like we use our senses to make judgements about our existence, so too do we use our emotions. And as with our senses at birth, if kept untrained emotions can greatly mislead our judgments (or can be quite distracting), but when we understand its nature and cognitively train ourselves to focus it better, emotions can become an invaluable resource to an enlightened and meaningful perspective.

See also:
Medical
Gonadotropin-releasing hormone
Neuroendocrinology
Cell division

Psychological
Emotional intelligence
Empathy

Entertainment
Equilibrium
What the #$*! Do We (K)now!?
Lonely Finger

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