Funny how I found my drug of
choice.
I ran my autosomal DNA data
through a company called Promothease. They developed snpedia.com. https://www.snpedia.com/index.php/Promethease
For a $5 dollar fee the
Promothease program compared my DNA to their database which provides a report
on certain snps that may indicate a propensity for things like drug allergies,
baldness, cancer, and addiction.
I looked up some of the
scientific studies that define addiction. I discovered that a release of
dopamine and endorphins in the brain gives a person what is known as a “high,” a condition, where at least for a short time they feel really good. The
desire for the natural heightened chemical release reinforces behavior that
will recreate that release. Evidently the desire to feel good is considered an
indicator one may have an addictive personality.
I can understand why anyone would
want to feel good…all the time.
When I am playing with genealogy
(to me it’s not work), it’s a game (future blog), and when I make a
break-though and extend family back a generation, or find a missing child of a
grandparent, I get a spurt of dopamine, and I can feel it. It feels good.
When I can provide resources and methods and preparation for an adoptee in pursuit of finding their biological parents, it feels very good.
When I make a multi-generational
connection via email, with a distant cousin, who blesses me with awesome information
and documentation: property deeds, love letters, the transcript of a murder
trial, a grandparent standing before a church confessing to getting in a fight
and was drunk; I get a big surge of dopamine and feel ten years younger.
My family is not perfect. They
made mistakes. Sometimes big ones. They were human. Some are Revolutionary war heroes. When my toes touch back to
earth from my “high”; I go to bed at night with a smile on my face.
But, when I make a new cousin connection,
and when I get to be the one sharing what an awesome, human family we have, I
get such a gigantic surge of dopamine, I can’t get to sleep. I start looking for that next surge because
it makes me feel so good. So, I stay up all night looking for my next connection. My
next fix.
Hi. My name is Barbara. I’m a
genealogist.
Gedmatch #T689325
WikiTree: Shoff-7
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