All those factors you mentioned - "Hunger, tiredness, exercise, diet, hormonal cycle" - jumble up your brain something fierce. Whether it's directly, with post-exercise endorphins being generated, or indirectly, with chronic pain affecting your mood and general outlook, so much of your personality is influenced and possibly even defined by mere chemistry in the brain.
Maybe we each have a "true" personality, but how would we ever know what it is? Just the amount of sun we get changes how we think. Let alone pharmaceuticals - Paxil made me "meh" all the time, Wellbutrin tweaked me the hell out and Effexor lets me feel almost, for lack of a better term, normal.
I worried for a long time that medicine took away the "real" me. I certainly don't feel as creative, ambitious or smart as I used to. I also don't feel as anxious, desperate or miserable. Fair trade.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2011-05-07 05:41 pm (UTC)All those factors you mentioned - "Hunger, tiredness, exercise, diet, hormonal cycle" - jumble up your brain something fierce. Whether it's directly, with post-exercise endorphins being generated, or indirectly, with chronic pain affecting your mood and general outlook, so much of your personality is influenced and possibly even defined by mere chemistry in the brain.
Maybe we each have a "true" personality, but how would we ever know what it is? Just the amount of sun we get changes how we think. Let alone pharmaceuticals - Paxil made me "meh" all the time, Wellbutrin tweaked me the hell out and Effexor lets me feel almost, for lack of a better term, normal.
I worried for a long time that medicine took away the "real" me. I certainly don't feel as creative, ambitious or smart as I used to. I also don't feel as anxious, desperate or miserable. Fair trade.