Learning the Distinction Between Pleasure and Happiness Can Transform Your Life

Modern societies are riddled with addiction (food, sex, drugs, etc.). This is not an accident. It comes from a fundamental misconception: the belief that pleasure and happiness are one and the same, when they are in fact two opposite things.

Pleasure vs. Happiness

In his book "The Hacking of the American Mind", Dr Robert Lustig shines a light on this issue from a scientific perspective. According to him, there are seven distinctions between pleasure and happiness.

The Biological Perspective: Dopamine vs. Serotonin

Dopamine and Serotonin are both bio-chemicals that act as neurotransmitters.

Dopamine excites neurons. When neurons are too excited, too frequently, they tend to die. In order to mitigate the damage, neurons use a process called down regulation, which consists in reducing the number of receptors available to be excited.

When down regulation happens, the next dopamine hit will produce less effect since there are less receptors triggered. In other words, you need a bigger hit to produce the same effect.

This creates a vicious circle where your capacity to feel pleasure constantly decreases (because of neurons dying and down regulation), which leads you to constantly increase the stimuli.

Serotonin, on the other hand, is inhibitory—contrary to dopamine which is excitatory.

It inhibits neurons instead of exciting them. Meaning that it slows them down instead of firing them up, and therefore brings a feeling of contentment, which in turn leads to happiness. This is why you can't overdose on serotonin.

Generally, the feeling of contentment will most likely lead to positive behaviors. And positive behaviors feed opportunities for happiness.

Think, for example, about your attitude right after a concert you really enjoyed. You’ve been emotionally and mentally satisfied and therefore are more likely to be sociable and friendly. You might start a conversation with strangers around you—something you wouldn’t do usually—and this might lead to a new friendship. And friendships are a source of happiness.

For this reason, I consider that happiness can be a virtuous circle.

Spot This Confusion in Your Own Life

If you start paying attention to the phrasing people use, you will notice that the words "pleasure" and "happiness" are often used interchangeably.

For example, when someone says "It has been a pleasure working with you", or "It brings me pleasure to see you again", are they really referring to this short-lived physical sensation that is addictive and similar to what we feel when eating junk food or gambling? Of course not, they obviously refer to the intellectual satisfaction that is long-lived, non-addictive, and found through interaction with others. It's just that they use the wrong term.

And the mistake goes both ways. You might also hear people say things like “Food makes me happy“.

Why Do We Confuse the Two?

It's probably not an accident if our capitalist societies present pleasure and happiness as interchangeable. Generally speaking, things that trigger pleasure can be bought, whereas things that lead to happiness cannot.

That's why the capitalist system tries to convince us that pleasure equals happiness. It wants to make profit off our search for happiness.

Not only is it easier to over-stimulate pleasure in humans rather than happiness, it's also a lot more profitable since pleasure calls for more pleasure, contrary to happiness which leaves a feeling of contentment.

Why This Confusion Matters

This confusion is one of the major reasons why so many people fail at reaching happiness, despite their efforts. They mistakenly believe that pleasure-based activities or substances will bring them happiness or contentment, when in fact it can only bring them pleasure.

Pleasure and happiness are not only different, they are also mutually exclusive. This is something made very clear by the biological perspective.

There is something that down regulates serotonin, and it's dopamine. As a consequence, the more pleasure you seek, the more unhappy you get.

Sure, you can technically feel pleasure and be happy at the same time, but the further you go into pleasure, the hardest it will be to feel happy.

With this knowledge in mind, you can now make sure that you pursue happiness the right way. Analyze your behaviors and compare them with the 7-distinction table in order to see in which category they belong.

If you implement this technique in your life, I would love to hear your feedback on it. 🙏