Dr. Betty MurrayHelping Women Navigate Menopause | Speaker, Author, and Advocate for Women's Health Over 40

Slow COMT, the “Executive Gene,” and Why Stress Gets Addictive

22 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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In this monologue, Dr. Betty Murray defends individuals with the slow COMT genotype—often dubbed the "executive gene"—who are prevalent in high‑responsibility, multitasking roles. She explains that these people experience an amplified stress chemistry that they become habituated to, describing the sensation as akin to a low‑level, constant crack buzz. When the underlying estrogen‑driven volatility destabilizes this buzz, they lose the familiar neurochemical lift and may turn to other substances or behaviors that further exacerbate their stress response, creating a potentially addictive coping cycle.

Chapters

I'm going to defend the slow comped people. They call it the executive gene. There's a lot of us, just so we're clear. Me too. There's slow comped, right? You're, yeah, you're like squirrel and I have to do 3 things at once. But often those are the people that are playing roles in executive environments because they have to keep multiple plates spinning. But you know, here's something that I've found anecdotally, and I'd be interested to see if you see the same thing, that the slow comped people get very used to their chemistry. 'Cause it's kind of like getting a little bit of crack all day long. And when things are volatile behind that, and most of this is going to be estrogen's volatility behind that, what they often feel, despite the fact that they're sort of in this, you know, kind of exacerbated stress response, they don't get the buzz off of it anymore. And so then what do they reach for? Stuff that makes it worse.