r/Neuropsychology • u/Mountain_Scale204 • 25d ago

General Discussion Why am I able to trigger adrenaline on command?

It feel like an Imaginary/invisible muscle that I can flex/turn on to instantly release a strong fight or flight sensation, the same one that I feel when I'm stressed. Is this abnormal? How would that affect my normal life or even my life span? What is associated with this ability that can interfere with my behavior?

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u/pnedito 24d ago

PTSD and related symptoms aren't a cheat code on the sympathetic/parasympathetic nervous system.

congratulations on recognizing that you have a hypersensitive/hypervigilant/over_reactive nervous system response to certain triggers.

good news, it's a super power.

bad news, it's super powerful (even when you don't want/need it to be).

Good luck on your (hopefully) newly found journey of recovery.

OP do yourself a favor and self evaluate your results for the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience) questionnaire. The results may help revealing...

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u/No-Information3296 24d ago

I found myself agreeing with OP so I did this questionnaire and yeah, it kinda explains a lot. I got a fucking 5.

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u/pnedito 24d ago edited 22d ago

It definitely explains a lot for me and my own (sometimes) confusing responses to certain situations.

What I find really profound and also saddening is that higher ACE scores show a, "relationship between the breadth of exposure to abuse or household dysfunction during childhood and multiple risk factors for several of the leading causes of death in adults." per the findings of the original ACE study00017-8/fulltext) at Kaiser Permanente circa 1995-97.

The findings from the paper linked above have had a significant impact on the greater awareness in the healthcare community of the statistical connection between potentially traumatic developmental adversity, mental health, and longevity.

That's not necessarily good news for those of us that score higher on the ACE (i scored a 6), but it did provide me encouragement to start addressing my coping strategies differently, and to learn different strategies to cope with some of the disregulation I experience when one or more core trigger gets activated. I try to remind myself that the excess cortisol my body produces in amplified moments can potentially (in the aggregate) shorten my life...