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Comment by shawnz | Hacker News Reader

Anecdotally I think I do have an idea of how a "serotonin rush" feels. There's a particular feeling I get most noticeably when seeing the sunshine outdoors on an early morning that's pretty similar to certain feelings I've had from psychedelic drugs. There is a known connection between sunlight exposure and serotonin release so it seems like a reasonable explanation to me.

There are definitely some obvious commonalities among the feelings produced by dopaminergic drugs as well which are similar to the feelings I naturally experience when working on a big project.

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> There is a known connection between sunlight exposure and serotonin release so it seems like a reasonable explanation to me.

Indeed, but I guess what I'm saying is that the feeling you experience isn't further evidence that it's serotonin.

Your connection between the feeling and it being serotonin is purely based on the studies that have been done. Those studies are the evidence. The qualitative feeling we get doesn't add to the body of evidence.

That is what the original author was arguing against. People arguing with her online saying "I feel a dopamine rush, therefore it's dopamine that I'm experiencing. You can't tell me it's some other neurotransmitter."

Taking 20mg of Adderall if you haven’t before is quite the rush of something, and I wouldn’t want to say “I’m having an amphetamine rush right now” because everyone would act like you’re on meth. Which I mean, you kind of are but still it’s perception.

It's not just based on the studies though, mainly I formed that opinion by correlating the feeling with drug experiences. I don't think it takes that much exploration before you begin to see the commonalities between them.

Sunlight exposure causes nitric oxide release (which itself will have downstream effects on neurotransmitters). That's probably what you're feeling if I had to guess.

FWIW the best way to get a feeling for what serotonin feels like is doing MDMA since it dumps massive amounts of serotonin out. It dumps plenty of dopamine too - it wouldn't be nearly as fun without that - but the unique "rolly" feeling is very attributable to serotonin.

Not advising people take MDMA just to figure out what serotonin feels like, but for those who have it's very helpful to sort of "recognize" what different neurotransmitters feel like

I think I tend to run a little low on seratonin and I know the exact feeling you're talking about. It's a gentle, pleasant sense that everything is going to be ok, that somehow still feels oddly artificial. Usually happens in bright sunlight, but rarely in other situations where it's really hard to figure out what triggered it.

Adrenaline is one that is more common for me, and impossible to mistake. I can literally taste it.

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