Posted by cumulative on September 29, 2007, at 15:59:01
In reply to Re: I seek permanent hypomania., posted by linkadge on September 29, 2007, at 15:43:55
>I don't see it as a spectrum at all. There are individuals who are stable, and then there are indivuduals who are not stable.
Some people are stable and much "higher" than others.
>I've never known an individual who I could say is perpetually euphoric.
http://www.wpic.pitt.edu/stanley/2ndbipconf/ppt/W404_13/tsld012.htm
...not episode-bound and constitute part of the habitual long-term functioning of the individual ...
>The reason I don't believe they exist is because it would be unhealthy. Pain and discomfort exist to motivate just as much as pleasure does.
Autoimmune diseases are unhealthy too, they're still in the genes. You place far too much faith in the "proper" working of the system. Now, again, what's unhealthy for evolution isn't necessarily what's unhealthy for the individual.
>Suppose an individual had a higher level of dopamine in the brain or something. The brain would eventually adapt just as it does to illegal drugs.
It's just this -- people have different baselines. Some people's baselines are very high.
>Thats what illegal drugs are for.
Generally, they are crude tools. MAOIs are better, but like illegal drugs tolerance develops to euphoria, although excellent positive results usually remain.
>Exactly. Illegal drugs turn on genes that cause parts of the brain to "believe" in the ability to be constantly euphoric.
No they don't. Methamphetamine releases massive amounts of catecholamines. Hyperthymia is also associated with high catecholamine activity. Neither of these are relevant to the fact that in the literature, people who almost never, if ever, come down from their hyperthymic temperament.
>Everybody who does drugs has a feeling of power that they have uncovered some secret ability to surmount that will last forever.
No they don't.
>If you were thinking about how it would be ending in a few hours then it wouldn't really be euporia.
Probably true.
poster:cumulative
thread:785240
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070929/msgs/785923.html