31–40 of 109 posts
I find this hard to believe when considering raves and MDMA. If anything people with too much serotonin and a social phobia probably do not have enough serotonin receptors, and the extra serotonin is the body compensating.
Hmmm.. having been on an SSRI (at the time I was depressed) and suffering from a mild to middling social anxiety disorder (which stems from a chronic childhood one which lessened as I reached my mid 20's), for me SSRI's made me feel indestructible and fearless. But they also made me feel like I had no emotions at all and removed sexual desire and affected pleasure, so I stopped taking them and instead dealt with the…
> I still get bouts, but I have a mechanism in place to handle the symptoms and they mostly dissipate. Can you tell me about the mechanism that helps you?
I find this hard to believe when considering raves and MDMA. If anything people with too much serotonin and a social phobia probably do not have enough serotonin receptors, and the extra serotonin is the body compensating.
With most biological systems, it's a pretty safe bet that things are more complicated than that.
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> I still get bouts, but I have a mechanism in place to handle the symptoms and they mostly dissipate. Can you tell me about the mechanism that helps you?
Not OP, but the biggest thing my therapist recommended me was practicing mindfulness through meditation. The idea is that it makes it easier to fall back in that same mental state when suffering everyday anxiety. Another thing she recommended which I just started doing was exercising regularly. I just started lifting a few weeks ago with a friend at the gym, and already its had a huge boost on my confidence levels. S…
Being a person diagnosed with social phobia I thought that myself many years ago. All the SSRIs and SRNIs actually made whole thing worse.
honest question: is that phobia a real problem for you? or did somebody tell you it is?
Went through brain CT, EMG and some other tests and after some months psychiatrist gave me F40.2 (social phobia) stamp.
Went through various medications that made things much worse (yeah, all these medications actually tried to retain serotonin in the brain). Rivotril and other drugs that actually "disable" the brain work, but they aren't the solution. Being extremely tired also works, but it is not very practical.
It's rather debilitating illness and my life went to hell.
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honest question: is that phobia a real problem for you? or did somebody tell you it is?
Honest answer: Yes a serious problem. Two years ago I've had panic attack in the elevator and I was just technically unable to go into office where I worked (I've had a good job and I was content there). Doing ordinary things like groceries, etc. was terribly hard. Went through brain CT, EMG and some other tests and after some months psychiatrist gave me F40.2 (social phobia) stamp. Went through various medications t…
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There is no disagreement, that is what I said. Mental state is perception, and this can change from one moment to the next but the excitement/ fear being a hormonal state takes time to subside.
You can use excitement as a broad category that includes good and bad, but there are definitely different hormonal mixes, some that are pleasant and some that are painful, and the difference is not perception.
The paradox being that SSRIs have been shown to be beneficial for social phobia ...
What if those with social phobia are creating those serotonins to counter-act other social-phobia-causing stuff? IMHO, this article really shouldn't say serotonin causes social phobia based on 'social-phobiacs have lots of serotonin'
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There is no disagreement, that is what I said. Mental state is perception, and this can change from one moment to the next but the excitement/ fear being a hormonal state takes time to subside.
You can use excitement as a broad category that includes good and bad, but there are definitely different hormonal mixes, some that are pleasant and some that are painful, and the difference is not perception.
For instance some people enjoy things they consider frightening - others hate it.
My suggestion is that there is not a direct causal link between a higher or lower level of seratonin and a mental state called anxiety.
The same bodily state can enjoin one to flight or fight. Attitude, history, personality, self-belief and training can alter ones attitude to the same hormonal situation.
Changing the way one thinks about things can be very effective. I do not mean to trivialise such a change, this can require professional help, such as congitive behavioral therapy.
I posit there is not a one-to-one correlation between seratonin level and a mental state ( fright or excite ) but that other factors confound it.
Perhaps this is why these studies have come to seemingly contradictory ideas about seratonin levels and mental states ?
Links between the chemistry of the brain and distinct mental states seems less well established than proponents of the 'chemical-imbalance' school of therapy maintain.
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Honest answer: Yes a serious problem. Two years ago I've had panic attack in the elevator and I was just technically unable to go into office where I worked (I've had a good job and I was content there). Doing ordinary things like groceries, etc. was terribly hard. Went through brain CT, EMG and some other tests and after some months psychiatrist gave me F40.2 (social phobia) stamp. Went through various medications t…
thanks. crazy situation. don't get me wrong, i'm just naive, but would using headphones (listening to music), not looking at people and closing the eyes in the elevator work?
I'm not sure what caused that. I've actually acted as a project manager in my early twenties and everything was fine (I could handle meetings and all that idiocy just fine). Then it all went downhill and I can't tell if the onset of these symptoms was gradual (and I was just simply ignoring them) or if they appeared suddenly.