I've noticed that other people change when they lose a lot of weight, and now I understand why. It's all about dopamine, "the juice of reward". Dopamine levels surge in proportion to the money status and power a person possesses. And dopamine could explain why John Key thought it was okay to continually pull Amanda Bailey's ponytail.
Stick with me here - I know this sounds like one of my more random columns and I'm not a neuroscientist. But power - like being prime minister - causes testosterone surges which in turn trigger dopamine release. (So does winning, gambling and sex - and dopamine-hunger drives our appetite for these things).
The drug I'm taking boosts one's dopamine, thus why I have turned, temporarily I hope, rather up-myself.
But I'm trying to prevent myself turning into a total a***hole after reading a book called The Winner Effect: How Power Affects Your Brain. It explains how power increases egocentricity and weakens empathy for others; it boosts self-confidence and can incline you to feel that the rules that apply to others do not extend to you. "Power can corrupt and one reason that it may do so is that it is a very powerful drug which can, in high and repeated doses, become addictive," the author, Professor Ian Robertson, writes.
A Stanford University study found evidence that if we arouse power feelings in otherwise ordinary people, they start to see other human beings as objects.
Even brief memories of low-grade power in artificial experiments can make people more egocentric and socially uninhibited and to see people as objects. So imagine what long-term large-scale power over thousands of people does to the human mind?
So, abuse of power may start with pulling someone's ponytail when asked not to, and where does it end?
"The addictive qualities of power and its distorting effects on the human mind have caused the deaths of hundreds of millions of people in the past century alone, through other power-addicted dictators like Stalin, Mao, Kim il Sung, Hitler, Mugabe, Pol Pot and others."
That is not to mention powerful businesspeople. Professor Robertson asks how it was that in 2008 three CEOs of GM, Ford and Chrysler, flew to Washington to beg for US$25 billion to bail out their bankrupt companies but to the open-mouthed amazement of the media each one arrived in his own corporate jet.
They did not even see anything wrong with this. In a similar way, John Key did not seem to see anything wrong with pulling a waitress' hair until it was pointed out to him.
Outrage seldom pricks the bubble in which powerful people are encased. Last week John Key's bubble got punctured, leading us to question his power psychology.
Some people have a variation of a gene which affects the amount of dopamine circulating in the reward parts of your brain. If you have this gene you are more inclined to be impulsive and have attention deficit problems. Jeez. So how am I going to stop myself turning into an arrogant s***? I will probably stop taking the drugs soon; then I'll get fat and humble again.
But even then I will try to remember this warning: "Everyone who has any power should ask themselves from time to time : 'Is power going to my head?" Auditing our need for power should include asking ourselves whether our ego-driven power is counterbalanced by high levels of altruistic power. I find having hard-case friends to tell you to stop being a dork helps too.
If in doubt, just nod and say nothing
A kind, concerned person asked me what antidepressants I am on. So I told them. And they were disapproving and instead suggested a regime of Rescue Remedy, bananas, no lollies, massage, acupuncture and yoga.
Riiiight. Except, trust me, it takes more than a banana to fix you when you are in the midst of a major depressive episode. I scarcely need to point out: Rescue Remedy = water. Also, I can't bear massages (something about personal space, don't ask me) and I was TOO DEPRESSED to get to a yoga class. If I could have got to a yoga class I wouldn't have had a problem.
I appreciated their concern, but I think maybe we should all stop giving other people advice.
It surprises me how we think people are so enlightened about mental illness these days but really, they're not. If in doubt, just nod sympathetically and say nothing.
