For anyone that doesn’t understand how the biochemical processes in our body work, mood and behavior can be an “emotional rollercoaster.”
It can be frustrating when external factors dictate your ups and downs, and something so small negatively affects your mood for the rest of the day.
I’ve experienced these problems first hand, and there was a time where I felt hopeless.
Eliana even used to say: “If I’m mad, I’m mad there is nothing I can do about it.”
Your mood dictates a LOT of your actions, so that was the first thing I optimized. Better mood = more positive action!
One thing that I started to do was microdosing with psychedelics. I found it helped me feel clear, focused, decreased my anxiety and improved my mood.
Now, you should understand that this is my own personal experience and I am not making a recommendation to microdose psychedelics (for legal reasons).
I recently had a discussion about this topic with Dr. David Rabin on the SelfHacked Podcast.
Dr. Rabin is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who is currently leading the largest controlled study of psychedelics medicine. He talked about their effects on serotonin, which play a huge role in your mood!
Psilocybin and LSD bind strongly to the serotonin receptor, and this bind causes it to increase its affinity for serotonin. What that means is that the receptor reacts more favorably and efficiently, which improves your mood!
Watch the full podcast with Dr. David Rabin above, where he goes more in-depth on the controlled use of psychedelics, the default mode network, and how serotonin plays a part in it all.
Psychedelics and the Serotonin Gene
The serotonin HTR2A gene creates the serotonin (5HT) 2A receptor, the main receptor that psychedelics work on.
No studies have been conducted on variants or SNPs of HTR2A gene for obvious reasons – it’s hard for researchers to study psychedelics at all because of its legal status.
However, I would guess that the variants that make men worse at dating or less ‘alpha’, also make it more likely that they will respond better to psychedelics. This is based on my personal experience and armchair theorizing.
Microdosing psychedelics puts me in a calm, relaxed, focused and creative state. These are the same psychological states that make men more attractive to women and results in a more ‘alpha’ attitude.
Read this post on the SelfDecode blog to see which variant you have of the HTR2A gene.
It’s my hope that psychedelics will be better studied and less stigmatized so that hard data can come forth.
Remember, this is not a recommendation, this is just my personal experience.
Serotonin and Mood: A Complex Relationship
Serotonin is commonly known as the “happiness hormone.” It plays a big role in depression, but it also has an extremely important part in other mood-related processes, like aggression, impulsivity, and social dominance.
But mood is a complicated topic, as serotonin isn’t the only thing that controls it. There are many other factors that contribute to your mood, like dopamine, norepinephrine, and oxytocin to name a few.
Your unique genetic variants can contribute to how effectively your body produces serotonin. However, it’s not just your genes that determine your mood, your environment and lifestyle can have a big impact too!
For example, some studies showed that people who were taking part in activities that they enjoyed doing saw an increase in serotonin production!
That’s why it’s important to consider all the factors, and try and improve your mood by adjusting your environment, diet, and lifestyle accordingly.
Personally, my SelfDecode Mood DNA Wellness Report has been a life-changer for me. By looking at 92 different genes that affect my mood and prioritizing the personalized recommendations to tackle all aspects of my mood issues, I’ve been able to feel better than I ever have in my life.
The great thing is, anyone can optimize their mood by looking at their genes and SelfDecode is here to help you do it in the easiest way possible with comprehensive, easy-to-use reports that analyze your genetic variants to provide you with personalized recommendations to improve your mood!
