Chemical feelings

[essence_of_cool]

I often get what i call 'episodes' of unexplained happiness and anxiousness or sometimes sadness. Im baffled by this, because, in most of these seemingly unoticable episodes i feel unexplainably happy and energetic even though there is no reason for me to be. Sometimes i am waiting at home before going to school to a boring day, with nothing but boredom and monotonous tasks to undergo; with nothing to look forward to; and with nothing to be happy about at that moment, yet i fell uncontrollably happy...

Before we go on:

1. No, im not taking drugs,

2. and note that i dont get stupidly hysterical or anything, just a bit happier and excited...

I was thinkning that maybe this had something to do with a slight boost of usage of a particual neurotransmitter or hormone.

Other interesting info: It ususally hapens in the morning, the effect is usually happy, not sad, and i have not noticed any external influence that could promote these 'episodes' (eg. food).

Anyway, im curious to know whats going on. Thanks

[YT2095]

I so hate labels, but "manic depressive/bipolar" springs to mind.

 

see a Doctor if it bothers you that much

[essence_of_cool]

no! dosent bother me! it interests me! and what labels

[DrP]

what labels?

 

manic depressive and bipolar.

[Psycho]

I would personally call it being a teenager, the only difference between you and others is that you actually worked out that you are doing it, whereas most just deny they are like that.

 

In the case of food maybe you have a slower response to increased sugar levels and therefore they stay in your blood longer, or just the raised sugar level causes it before it is levelled off.

[iNow]

FYI - One can have "bipolar tendencies" without being fully and diagnosably "bipolar." It could be mild depression, and you happen to come out of it from time to time, which is common. It could be nothing at all, or that girl you like, or that friend who just got sick, or all manner of other very normal everyday life stuff changing the way you feel at any given moment.

[Glider]

manic depressive and bipolar.

 

[consciousness raising rant] It's a lable because it (inaccurately) refers to the person and not the condition. Manic depression is the more accurate term and refers to the condition, not the person.

 

This kind of labeling appears to be unique to psychological conditions. People with depression become 'depressives', people with eating disorders become 'anorexics' or 'bulimics', people with schizophrenia become 'schizophrenics'.

 

You don't tend to see this in medical conditons. People with leukemia tend not to be labled 'leukemics', people with cancer are not termed 'oncogenics', people with eczma don't become 'eczmatics' . The only exception I can think of is diabetes.

 

This kind of labelling is pernicious because it changes the way people think about the sufferers. The sufferer becomes the condition and so also gets to accept some of the blame for it. For example, you have a person (good), and you have cancer (bad), then you have a person with cancer (a good person with a bad condition) who is therefore deserving of sympathy and help (check out the donation levels to cancer charities).

 

On the other hand you have a person (good) and you have schizophrenia (bad), but then you have a 'schizophrenic' (who is now a mix of good and bad, i.e. definitely less good/innocent than the person with cancer) who is therefore less deserving of sympathy and help (check out the donation levels to mental health charities). [/consciousness rasing rant]

 

Sorry for the off topic, but never miss an opportunity to raise consciousness

[hermanntrude]

I often get similar episodes, and often a period of introversion afterwards reveals the cause, which was unknown to me at the time

[ecoli]

How long has this been happening? If it's been more than a month, please see a psychiatrist... you might need medication.

 

You don't tend to see this in medical conditons. People with leukemia tend not to be labled 'leukemics', people with cancer are not termed 'oncogenics', people with eczma don't become 'eczmatics' . The only exception I can think of is diabetes.

 

Also obesity, thought I believe the PC term is "fatty."

 

This kind of labelling is pernicious because it changes the way people think about the sufferers. The sufferer becomes the condition and so also gets to accept some of the blame for it. For example, you have a person (good), and you have cancer (bad), then you have a person with cancer (a good person with a bad condition) who is therefore deserving of sympathy and help (check out the donation levels to cancer charities).

 

On the other hand you have a person (good) and you have schizophrenia (bad), but then you have a 'schizophrenic' (who is now a mix of good and bad, i.e. definitely less good/innocent than the person with cancer) who is therefore less deserving of sympathy and help (check out the donation levels to mental health charities).

 

I agree with you, but I certainly understand why this social convention arose.

 

I just volunteered for two weeks in a county psych hospital and saw a lot of schizophrenia cases. Severe psych diseases are so invasive and all consuming that you literally can become a different person after getting symptoms.

 

You can get medical diseases which affect your mood and personality. But if the disease is in your mind it's almost impossible to not let the disease define who you are.

 

This is aided and abetted by the fact that we still aren't sure how schizophrenia comes about in patients. For a long time, we hid our mentally insane out of sight and locked in cages. Now, we're not much closer to curing these diseases.

[Glider]

Also obesity, thought I believe the PC term is "fatty."[/quote[Not 'Big Boned'?

 

I agree with you, but I certainly understand why this social convention arose.

So do I. It's fear (through lack of understanding).

 

I just volunteered for two weeks in a county psych hospital and saw a lot of schizophrenia cases. Severe psych diseases are so invasive and all consuming that you literally can become a different person after getting symptoms.

 

You can get medical diseases which affect your mood and personality. But if the disease is in your mind it's almost impossible to not let the disease define who you are.

There's the rub. The disease is not in your mind, it's a disease of the mind, or, more accurately, of the brain. But given that a person (i.e. all characteristics that are not physical) is their mind, anything that affects/alters the mind will alter the person. This is what people find so scary.

 

This is aided and abetted by the fact that we still aren't sure how schizophrenia comes about in patients. For a long time, we hid our mentally insane out of sight and locked in cages. Now, we're not much closer to curing these diseases.

Research into these conditions is relatively new. For so long any helpful progress into understanding them has been hampered by unhelpful concepts, e.g. demonic posession, and the idea that the person somehow brought it on themsleves or were in some way deserving of the condition.

 

Locking them up in lunatic asylums was just sweeping it under the carpet and families would never talk about a comitted family member because of the shame.

 

The protocols have changed since Victorian times (although not as much as you might think in some places, e.g. Eastern European and post communist countries), but attitudes haven't changed that much, particularly among the genereral population.

[SkepticLance]

In teenagers a lot of hormones do fluctuate quite a bit. Based on your explanation, I would see no reason to assume anything abnormal. If you suffered from those label illnesses, you would be well aware of it. As you mature, you will probably grow out of it. In the mean time, enjoy those happy periods, and try to do something interesting during the sad bits to get your mind off it.