octobertiger wrote:
^ Sorry, I don't agree with that, and that hasn't been scientifically proven to be the case. Dopamine is supposed to be a neurotransmitter - now, surely that means it's a vehicle, but not confidence in itself. If there are no vehicles, then of course confidence will be affected.
Surely our perceptions and thought patterns create the perceived 'confidence' in the first place, yet require a chemical transport system to get the body to react very quickly (hence panic attacks, etc)
A bit like - you have fear of something - the fear is felt, and a chemical (adrenaline and eventually a suppressant - its name escapes me)
All this 'everything is genetic' and 'everything is a chemical' is a bit dangerous really. I'm not saying that your post says that directly, and I'm not saying that chemicals aren't useful, but they cannot be the whole story.
Another example? You feel confident playing piano on stage, in front of thousands. All of a sudden, you're doing this and there's a change of plan - you have to sing in front of them (ok, strip naked if that scares you more). Naturally, there's a massive change in mood. Are you telling me someone's sucked your dopamine away? How can this be so?
I thought confidence derived from the belief that you've got something you could be proud of, whether it be your academic achievement, job, looks, special skills, money, etc.
However, sometimes people can lack confidence even if they've got all of those, whereas there are those who have loads of confidence based on nothing. So maybe that's where the chemicals come into play.
Last edited by Yuzu on 17 Oct 2013, 11:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
17 Oct 2013, 12:01 pm
