# Neurobiology ...the pain



## szeret (Aug 7, 2007)

Can any one help?

I really dont feel all together with it right now, my anxiety, depression, and obsessive thoughts are through the roof. My mind is chewing over and over philosophy and neurobiology (and thier implications for me) over and over again. Its all made me feel so depersonalised. My problem is this: It started when somebody, asked me if love really existed and i tried to explain it biologically. Its all hormones etc... and something inside me just snapped at this. If u can reduce the most important emotion we have down to being a few hormones etc... then what else can u boil down? If feelings are all just neurotransmiters such as dopamine and serotonine, then it all most feels to me as if everything i feel is false. Just a load of chemicals, that any one could synthasise. I dont feel really, my emotions arnt in and of them selves(what ever that means). Im just a load of neurotransmitters, chemicals and little electric bleeps. I know it all seems absurd to say this, but i cant shake this off.

Philosophy doesnt help, nothing seems to.

I just wish i had help, Im very confused and fuzzy.


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## AETitus (Feb 16, 2008)

I totally know what you're talking about. I used to see everyone as just a walking, biological program pretty much. For me, it made people easier to understand. Then when it came to analyzing myself... it made me feel sort of cold-hearted and apathetic. I never explained to people the way I saw it, because it's a hard thing to explain. I've thought love and liking people was silly, because no one really needs it, it just makes us happy and all. But really, it kind of makes us humans special, I guess? I still don't view it as something I need, but want, perhaps. Basically, I can't change the way we work. What can I do about that? Nothing, but come to terms with it. It's a matter of finding peace with it, I suppose. It is a painful thing to think about, especially when you're sure no one else sees it the way you do and you're sure you're crazy or something. But just hang in there - eventually your thoughts will calm down. I thought for sure I'd wake up every morning and return to thinking about it every single day of my life. It's like... a wild animal, or something. If you just charge at it, it'll freaking tear you apart. Just approach it slowly and calmly, and it'll be the same. It's all about the attitude you present to these things. So just take it easy. =]


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## Strange_Visitor (Apr 18, 2008)

szeret

What you must understand is that science and philosophy are replete with theories not facts.

Evolution is a theory, for example, which best fits the current evidence available. This theory is only 149 years old ("Origin Of The Species" published in 1859). No doubt more evidence will arise in the future which will give rise to new or amended theories.

My point is you're basing your belief that love is purely hormonal on belief not knowledge. The greatest scientists in the world only have theories on how the brain works.

If we were purely biological beings, how did we develop a consciousness? All other animals (according to current theory  ) are driven solely by instinct, and cannot think in the abstract or contemplate their own existence.

Sexual attraction and the propagation of the species may be instinctual and hormonal but love surely is a creation of our conscious mind. In essence, a choice, based on mutual compatability, not a biological imperative?

What I would also urge you to consider, is that your current existential enquiries are the result of an overstimulated mind, caused by your anxiety disorder (I've been there and can relate).

Mark


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## szeret (Aug 7, 2007)

Thanyou so much for your responses. It comforting to know that I'm not just being a 'freek', its so easy to get confused/scared about even even the most simple things when you feel to highly strung. This past mounth has been hell anxiety and dp off the scale :S Im on meds now though, so hopefully things will start getting better.


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## deep_feeler (May 18, 2006)

Why would love being biological make any less valid?

And if it does make it less valid or something, isn't your depression over such a thing invalid as well, being that its also biological?


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## Urushiol (Jul 8, 2007)

szeret,

I can very much relate to the way you feel. My DP started in almost exactly the same fashion. I had just layed aside my life long religious beliefs, I felt like I had been hoodwinked. I went on to try and validate my life, and existence without needing a God to "create" me. I incessantly read, and learned about Biochemistry, microbiology, evolution & the like.

This worked great for a while. Then, slowly, I became cynical, and felt I was one of the few that understood the nature of human existence. I began to see others as biologic machines, with "central computers" that just sort of operated on a program, and had no real value, or free will. This was quite the delusion I might add.....

But eventually this sort of thinking shifted over to myself. And from that point, I just couldn't seem to make sense of it all. That everything I was, that I am, is nothing but chemical reactions, and electrical signals in my head. That I am my brain. I still believe this to be true, but I now again believe that human life has value, and that we have free will. But somehow, through all that thinking, and analizing, and self observation, my mind snapped.

I guess I have never told anyone this, its when contemplating all this that I became DPed. I guess my mind has never really recovered.

So, the short of the long and the short of it is that your not alone in this thinking, it is my problem, at its most distilled.

I hope you eventually come to some resolve,
-Rush-

PS: I like your sig.


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## szeret (Aug 7, 2007)

Thank you Rush. Reading your post was a real comfort. Its so easy to way your self down with so many thoughts and impossible ruminations, and to feel horribly alone with them. In a way it's good to know that there are others dealing with the same issues and that I'm not alone. 
I guess I just have to stop worrying about what we are, and just learn to except that we have what we have, what ever _it_ is, we have 'this', we have life.

I hope we all come to find some kind of resolve.

K.

Ps. I like your sig too.


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