Serotonin

Submission 21,925

About

Serotonin is a chemical and neurotransmitter in the body which is believed to help regulate mood and social behavior, appetite and digestion, sleep, memory, and sexual desire and function. It is most commonly known as the chemical responsible for a feeling of well-being.^[3]

History

On July 17th, 1948, Maurice M. Rapport, Arda Green, and Irvine Page coined the name "serotonin" for the substance in they discovered in blood. In 1952, 5-hydroxytryptamine became the preferred name in the pharmacological field and the next year the chemical was discovered in the central nervous system. ^[1]^[2]

Online Relevance

On March 5th, 2011, one of the earliest images depicting serotonin on Reddit was posted to r/pics by Redditor I_RAPE_CATS^[4] in which serotonin and dopamine are labeled the only actual things "you" like (shown below, left). In 2014, Psychology Today outlined the importance of humor and memes in ending mental health stigma saying, "We need to mobilize our whole society hearts and minds to begin to get the depression epidemic under control. The ends justify the memes." There were plenty of forums discussing depression but many memes surrounding serotonin, happiness and depression began showing up in r/2meirl4meirl. 2meirl4meirl is a slang term used to describe a wide range of image macros, captioned GIFs and videos that explore the subject of clinical depression and other mood disorders in a humorous manner. It can be seen as a subgenre of Me IRL. It is also known by more generic names like depression memes and crippling memes. By 2019, Redditors began posting to more images about serotonin to more mainstream subrreddits like r/funny where an image (example shown below, right) may gained upwards of 18,300 points (93% upvoted) in four months. By 2019, Articles and lists made about "hacks" to increase serotonin became common.^[6]^[7]