The brain, hormones and body chemistry behind your moods

How the brain, nerves, hormones and brain chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine shape thoughts, feelings and moods – explained simply.

Chapters on this topic

Chapter 3: Human Brain and Nervous System

Where mental health has an address in the body : A thought has an address. An address is not a destiny.

Chapter 4: Hormones and Brain Chemicals

Messengers of mood, not insults to character : No single chemical is a mood. A chemical story is also not an insult.

Chapter 19: How Five Senses Actually Work

Transduction before mood : A sense is a converter. Mood is what the converter feeds.

Chapter 21: Body Chemistry and Mental Health

Blood work before blame : Thyroid and glucose can impersonate a psychiatric diagnosis. Test first.

Stories from real life (19)

The Alarm That Would Not Switch Off – Priya was seventeen and preparing for her board exams in Jaipur. Whenever she opened her Physics paper, her heart hammered, her palms turned cold…
After the Bike Fall – Arjun, twenty-two, rode his motorbike to a call centre in Hyderabad. One rainy night he skidded and hit his head. He had no helmet…
Learning to Paint at Seventy – Haridas, seventy-one, retired from the railways in Kolkata and found the days strangely empty. He began forgetting where he had put his glasses and…
Midnight Scrolling and the Growing Brain – Fifteen-year-old Chloe lived in Manchester and was known at school for her sharp wit. Lately she had been dozing in class and saying things…
The Stroke That Taught A Family Anatomy – After a left-sided stroke, a grandmother lost speech but not song. Relatives said she was being stubborn. A doctor named Broca's area. Naming did…
The Helmet Argument – A teenager's new rudeness followed a scooter fall without a helmet. Uncles planned a lecture on respect. An emergency doctor planned a scan. The…
Night Shifts and Biscuits – Neha, thirty-one, was a staff nurse in Mumbai who worked three weeks of night shifts each month. Between 2 and 4 a.m. she kept…
Tired All the Time, and Not Just Sad – Kavita, thirty-eight, taught primary school in Lucknow. For almost six months she had felt tired in a way that sleep did not fix. She…
Heat, Hormones and Hurtful Words – Lakshmi, forty-seven, ran a small tailoring shop in Madurai. Over the past year her periods had become irregular, and she woke drenched at night…
It Is Not Only a Chemical – Tom, twenty-nine, was an engineer in Glasgow who had been feeling flat for months. He ate takeaway at his desk, slept until noon at…
The Thyroid That Looked Like Sadness – Meera was called negative for a year. A physician added TSH. Hypothyroidism was sitting under the story. Thyroxine did not make her a different…
The Exam-Week Jaw – A student called himself lazy. His jaw, sleep, and stomach called it load. Reducing Sunday email changed more than a poster about grit. Cortisol…
The Grandfather Who Stopped Coming to the Table – Raghunath Kulkarni, seventy-one, used to be the loudest voice at the family dinner in Nashik. He argued about cricket, teased his grandchildren and told…
The Dark Months in Helsinki – Aino Virtanen was twenty-three when she moved from Chennai to Helsinki for her master's degree. September was beautiful. By November the sun rose late…
Mihir and the Scratchy Shirt – Mihir, seven, cried every morning about his school uniform. 'It scratches! The tag is stabbing me!' His parents in Ahmedabad thought he was making…
Leela, Age 41 – Two years after surviving a terrifying kitchen fire, forty-one-year-old Leela realised something strange was happening to her nervous system. Whenever she encountered the smell…
Tired, Low and Forgetful at Forty – Sunita Patil, forty-two, a school teacher in Kolhapur, had been feeling flat for most of a year. She was exhausted by lunchtime, felt cold…
Kabir’s Skipped Meals – Kabir Sheikh, thirty-five, drove a delivery van in Hyderabad. His days ran on tea and biscuits, with a large meal late at night. Lately…
Neha’s Tingling Fingers – Neha Verma, nineteen, was a first-year student living in a hostel in Delhi. She was a strict vegetarian and survived on instant noodles, tea…

Shloks (4)

Katha Upanishad 1.3.3–4 – Know the self as the rider, the body as the chariot, the intellect as the driver, and the mind as the reins.
Bhagavad Gita 6.16 – Yoga is not for one who overeats or starves, nor for one who sleeps too much or never sleeps.
Bhagavad Gita 15.9 – Presiding over ear, eye, touch, taste and smell, and over the mind, the person enjoys the objects.
Bhagavad Gita 17.8 – Foods that increase life, clarity, strength, health, happiness, and love—which are juicy, naturally oily, stable, and agreeable—are dear to the sattvic mind.