MizSuz
Posts: 1416
Joined: 1/1/2004 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: January Hi deanna, The endorphin rush feels like utter contentment to me. Supreme bliss. Calm. Everything is okay, and will be okay forever. Apparently the feeling is related to a heroin high, but I can't compare the two since I've never done heroin, and morphine just makes me sleepy. But I have a feeling you may have experienced endorphins in other contexts: runner's high, maybe? meditation perhaps? There are other ways to get to that blissful place than just traditional pain. But even with pain, I need a component of tension release, or pleasure to get an endorphin high. That means no fear. I think when the pain is coupled with fear, the sensation is more like you've described: turning off at the beginning. That's probably due to the adrenalin overwhelming the endorphins. In my experience, I can't be afraid, or I won't get the benefits of endorphins. I think the fear is why I haven't ever experienced utter contentment during childbirth. Hope this helps, January Adrenaline is an endorphin, just not one of the dopamine-like ones that make you feel 'swimmy' and 'fuzzy' and 'well.' Rather, it is a catecholamine (kat-e-cola-meen), which is also an endorphin but of the type that causes feeling 'startled' 'jazzed' 'wired' and 'afraid.' They usually (but not always) are the fight or flight endorphins and can be manipulated as readily as the others, once you know where the individual's buttons are. Other catecholamines that are stimulated in wiitwd are epinephrine, norepineprhine and dopamine. You like the dopamines, which often have an affinity for opioid receptors in the brain and body.
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