Neurotransmitters: How Your Brain Calms Down or Revs Up

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Neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and GABA play a central role in how the brain regulates mood, energy, focus, and stress responses. They are the target of many psychiatric medications, but they are also influenced by nutrition, lifestyle, and overall nervous system health.

Which Neurotransmitters Are Stimulating and Which Are Calming?

Neurotransmitters are divided into two groups: excitatory neurotransmitters rev you up, and inhibitory neurotransmitters calm you down. Some of the neurotransmitters serve multiple functions in your body and can be excitatory for some of their duties and inhibitory for others.

Neurotransmitters that tend to calm:

Serotonin
GABA
Glycine

Neurotransmitters that tend to stimulate:

Glutamate
Aspartate
Adrenaline
Noradrenaline
Acetylcholine

Neurotransmitters that can go both ways:

Dopamine

Adrenaline is both a hormone and a neurotransmitter. It is considered a hormone when it is released by the adrenal gland and a neurotransmitter when released by nerve cells.

Infographic showing calming, stimulating, and context-dependent neurotransmitters, with serotonin, GABA, and glycine listed as calming; glutamate, aspartate, adrenaline, noradrenaline, and acetylcholine listed as stimulating; and dopamine shown as working both ways.

How Neurotransmitters Work

Brain nerve cells release neurotransmitters through their axon terminal into a gap, known as the synapse, which is created between it and another nerve cell.

Once the neurotransmitter is released by one nerve cell, it will only be picked up by another if receptors for that particular neurotransmitter are ready, waiting, and able to receive it.

There are take-backs with neurotransmitters. If the receiving cell doesn’t absorb the neurotransmitter when it’s released, it can be reabsorbed into the originating cell.

There are several steps that facilitate having neurotransmitters available when you need them and impact your ability to use them:

Creation: Most neurotransmitters need to be created using elements like amino acids from proteins, along with enzymes, vitamins, and minerals.
Release: The neurotransmitters are passed out the end of a nerve cell into the synapse and hang out near the nerve cells, sort of waiting to be picked up.
Reception: The receiving nerve cell has to have a receptor for that neurotransmitter in order for the transfer to take place.
Reuptake: Neurotransmitters that are hanging out in the synapse between nerve cells can be taken back into the original nerve if the receiving nerve doesn’t accept it.

Diagram showing how neurotransmitters are released from one nerve cell, cross the synapse, bind to receptors on another nerve cell, or are reabsorbed through reuptake.

How Depression and Anxiety Medications Impact Neurotransmitters

Pharmaceutical drugs for depression and anxiety typically target the reception and reuptake steps of the neurotransmitter system:

Benzodiazepines such as Valium and Xanax are used to stimulate receptors for the calming neurotransmitter GABA.
SSRIs such as Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, and Lexapro are Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors that potentially prolong serotonin’s ability to hang out in the synapses and be picked up by receptors.

Natural Anxiety and Depression Relief: Optimizing Neurotransmitters

Foods and supplements can support nerve cell health, including optimizing receptor and reuptake function and ensuring that the elements you need to produce and use neurotransmitters are available in your body and brain.

Omega-3 fats are essential for maintaining healthy brain nerve cells and keeping them working as intended.

Minerals, vitamins, and non-protein amino acids can give an extra boost to neurotransmitter production by providing necessary building blocks for biochemical reactions. Here are some examples with links to my posts that explain how they help:

The Blood–Brain Barrier: How the Brain Controls Access

When it comes to getting the building blocks for neurotransmitters into your brain, you have to contend with the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The BBB acts as a gatekeeper. It is on guard to only let certain molecules in and control the amounts of substances coming and going.

It has been widely believed that the calming neurotransmitters GABA, serotonin, and dopamine cannot cross into your brain from your bloodstream because of the BBB. The predominant school of thought has been that there can be no benefit from foods or supplements containing these neurotransmitters because they can’t get into your brain to do their thing. But there are some medical professionals and researchers who are questioning whether (a) it is true that they can’t get past the BBB and (b) whether it is the only route to effectiveness.