The death of Eric Dane from motor neurone disease has affected me – this is my third blog inspired by watching his Final Words. It is a brutal illness. It confronts us with the vulnerability of the nervous system in a way that is stark and unfiltered. When someone develops motor neurone disease, movement slowly disappears. Strength goes. Voice changes. The body that once carried ambition, energy and presence becomes harder to inhabit.

I have found myself thinking about dopamine. That might seem like an unusual direction, yet dopamine sits at the centre of movement and drive. It is involved in how we initiate action, how we pursue what matters and how we experience motivation. It is also deeply implicated in addiction and shaped by trauma, stress and the long-term suppression of emotion.

In his interviews, Eric Dane spoke openly about addiction and about the pressures he carried. Addiction does not arise in isolation. It often sits alongside unprocessed trauma, chronic stress and the quiet holding in of emotion over years. When feelings are not metabolised psychologically, they are carried physiologically. The nervous system adapts. Stress hormones rise and fall in altered rhythms. Reward pathways compensate. Dopamine becomes part of that adaptation.

In my work with addiction, dopamine is never theoretical. It is visible in people’s lived experience. It shows up as restlessness, craving, intensity, flatness or the relentless search for something that might finally bring relief. Trauma reshapes reward chemistry. Chronic stress alters sensitivity and tone. Emotional suppression has physiological consequences. Over time, repeated exposure to substances or behaviours changes how the reward system responds and how the nervous system regulates itself.

Motor neurone disease is complex and multifactorial. It involves processes such as inflammation, mitochondrial strain, impaired protein handling and oxidative stress. Neurons are metabolically demanding cells. They require constant energy, precise signalling and careful regulation of chemical balance. Dopamine metabolism itself generates oxidative byproducts, and maintaining equilibrium depends on resilient antioxidant systems and strong cellular energy production. When stress, inflammation and metabolic demand accumulate over decades, the terrain in which neurons function is altered.

This does not create a simple line from trauma or addiction to motor neurone disease. What it highlights is integration. The chemistry that allows us to strive, to perform, to endure pressure and to suppress what feels unbearable operates within the same biological system that must also sustain cellular resilience. The nervous system does not compartmentalise our experiences. It carries them.

Eric Dane’s death has brought that integration into sharp focus for me. The same system that fuels performance, ambition and presence is also shaped by trauma, stress and adaptation. Dopamine sits within that system as part of a wider network involving stress hormones, immune signalling, mitochondrial function and emotional processing. Reflecting on dopamine in this context is reflecting on cumulative load, on resilience, and on how profoundly interconnected our nervous system truly is.

My heart goes out to Eric Dane and to his family, especially his two daughters. Behind every neurological condition is a human being, a family and a story that extends far beyond biology. It takes extraordinary courage to sit in front of the world and speak so openly at the end of a life altered so dramatically by illness. Watching his Final Words and hearing what he wrote to his daughters felt intimate and profoundly generous. He did not have to share that with us, and yet he chose to. My heart is breaking for him and for the family who now have to carry his absence. With Love xx