Rejection & Brain Chemicals

What chemicals are released in your brain when someone is mean to you, especially if it involves rejection?

What a great question! First – The brain may view social rejection with anger, pouring out adrenalin. As adrenalin levels go up, so does dopamine – the chemical to help you feel better. If the person was not aggressive, anger or fear may not be triggered. As far as rejection itself goes, fMRI studies showed that physical pain and social rejection pain activate the parts of the same brain areas because they tend to overlap somewhat. Social rejection appears to piggyback on physical pain pathways in the brain. This may explain the reason that neurologically speaking, social rejection pain hurts so much. A heart ache can be felt as physical pain. Pain signals arrive in the brain through two different pathways. A fast pathway passes through the thalamus where it is triaged and sent to sensory and motor sections of the cerebral cortex for additional processing. The slow pathway passes through the central nervous system to the amygdala, hypothalamus, and the prefrontal cortex. This pathway is linked with the emotional reactions that occur in response to a social-emotional hurt such as the pain of rejection 

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