Hi dude,
Cosmicpinkelephant (CPE) wrote:
I'd like to seek more details with regards to something he mentioned: He told me that he suspects my primary issue is that the connections between my midbrain and prefrontal cortex are pretty sparse or something to that effect.
Regardless, he mentioned something about the mesolimbic pathway getting "hijacked" or something like that which results in the unfortunate outbursts of emotion.

This is a pretty clear description of incongruity, but it could be said accurately of most people! Do you know what is the specific evidence for this conclusion? (are there scans available, or is this speculation?)
There's no specific link that I know of between incongruity and outbursts of emotion; but are we really talking about outbursts of emotion, or are these events sudden intrusions of sentiment? (If you don't know the emotion/sentiment difference (and most doctors don't), see Tutorials 9 & 10.)

Outbursts of sentiment are a hallmark of intermittent explosive disorder (IED):
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-cond … n-20024309
OR
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermitt … e_disorder
(bear in mind that these sites will call sentiment 'emotion' or 'negative emotion').

Having said this, your current drug regime isn't aimed at IED (they usually only throw SSRIs at IED, but maybe that's what the the vortioxetine was for?) Plus if this were the diagnosis, you'd probably be being advised to seek Cognitive behavioral therapy, (depending on what country you're in). Has the dude given a named diagnosis of a specific disorder? What do you think?

(CPE) Being a frequenter of this site, I naturally thought along the lines of perhaps my cortisol levels being elevated which perhaps leads to the amygdala classifying the signals as potentially life-threatening or something along that line.

Anxiety always raises cortisol and always raises norepinephrine, predisposing us to weight input too heavily during anxious times. But don't blame the poor old Amygdala; it only gives an anxious response if there is overly-stressful input, and that's not it's fault, any more than a calculator is at fault for answering a sum correctly with a number we don't like  :  )

So it's worth considering the context in which things go wrong. Is it time-based (as in, tension builds up over time and at some point has to be released, regardless of where you are and who you are with? Or does it only happen in certain places or with certain people? If the latter is true, consider why you hang out with these people. Sometimes, what looks like a problem is in fact a sane response to insane circumstances.

(CPE) So perhaps I ought to work on anxiety reduction all over again. This brings me the point of asking how is it that you or the fellow neurohackers here are able to keep emotionally stable for very long periods of time?

Everybody's got their own methods so I hope others will respond here! But employing anxiety-reduction methods daily is probably a ubiquitous answer. For one dude that may mean martial arts & meditation, for another dude it might be cigarettes and the odd gin & tonic, other dudes will be working out down the gym, having a few marijuana joints, gardening, booking a counseling session, or swallowing their Prozac. We're all different, so you gotta find out what works for you. Also, different things might work for you at different times of your life, so be prepared to experiment. Even when you've found something that works, you've got to keep looking for safer and safer options to achieve the same result.

Other stuff:
Lack of natural sleep, and of appropriate food, can throw all of our efforts out of the window, so always check the basics when difficult times happen.


Re: sugary drinks: almost everyone reports better health, but the truly great thing nobody mentions about giving up sugar is the enormous relief of hardly ever having to visit a dentist ever again  :  )
Best,
AR

(Alex) There's no specific link that I know of between incongruity and outbursts of emotion; but are we really talking about outbursts of emotion, or are these events sudden intrusions of sentiment?

Yeah, I meant sentiment. Old, wrong terminology always creeps in.

(Alex) Has the dude given a named diagnosis of a specific disorder? What do you think?

I've been told that I have a mix of both borderline and autistic traits. I think the autistic part may be a misdiagnosis since I can come across as being pretty intense and don't possess the best set of social skills. However, the borderline bit matches what I know of myself. I don't possess a strong sense of identity as in defined by having some fixed idea of what I want to do (although this may be more of society's fault in having these expectations than mine) and have the habit of depending on my parents too much for support. I think I know the difference between sentiment and emotion but when I'm in an anxious state, everything moves too fast and I'm unable to process the incoming information cognitively. I do see a therapist for CBT but lately I think she has been overreacting to my situation because she keeps mentioning hospitalization or calling the police. I think my "issue" also is that I'm pretty far from the mainstream in my thinking and so people panic all the more when they hear my thoughts about things. My psychiatrist on the other hand is a pretty cool guy though and he encourages me to go forth and do what I'm good at and respects my unconventional opinions on things.

So really, I think I gotta work on anxiety reduction first and foremost. I'll give mindful meditation a go.

Although, I must add that taking sodium valproate and haloperidol on top of vortioxetine have made me more relaxed and slowed down the pace at which my mind moves as well, which is nice. Clomipramine isn't all that good because it makes me feel quite tired most of the day. I might bring up getting rid of the latter when I see my psychiatrist in a few week's time.

Also, thanks for your post, Sakiro!