Shit you want Synthesis to explain scientifically.

[Cindy42]

Dear Dr. Synth,

Are there any known mental or emotional disorders in which randomly-generated strong emotions can wake you in the middle of the night, or become produced in the presence of others more often than when by yourself? Random negative emotions that have zero to do with how you actually feel at any given time.

[RogueGunslinger]

I've had "episodes" like that dozens of times in my life now. I've just likened it to a panic/anxiety attack, or something similar.

[Cindy42]

I've had "episodes" like that dozens of times in my life now. I've just likened it to a panic/anxiety attack, or something similar.

ugh... really? to a point where you don't have a moment of peace and can't think or concentrate on anything? it happens really, really often. by often meaning that there is never a time when it is not happening. but i don't feel that way inside apart from the chemical actuality of it happening.

[RogueGunslinger]

Let me try to describe it in more detail.

I wake up, glancing around the area, somewhat confused as to where I am. I recognize the place I'm at but I can't readily think of where it is.  Right off the bat I feel like something is wrong. It's an indescribable feeling. Just that nothing that is happening, nothing in existence is right, and that something bad is going to happen. I also feel sort of like the world, or objects are way, way to big, or small, or the wrong shape and size Or that I'm not the right size, in a world that great a deep and hollow and I'm lost... but at the same time claustrophobic, like something is bearing down on me. I feel like I'm sort of trapped inside of myself, yet looking at myself from far away, and an observer. All the while I usually am in a state of panic (well hid, if I'm around others.)

These episodes usually happen when I just wake up, but it's hard to say that's what I was doing before-hand, because when it happens I lose all perspective of what was going on before. Only what is going on right there in that state of mind exists to me. Almost like I have no memory.

I've talked to a lot of people about it, and I'm not the only person it happens to. They all have their own way of describig it, but it's always very similar to my own experiances. But I don't know if this is specifically what's going on for you.



Edit: I should add, that this feeling is sort of like some of the paranoia that can come with smoking marijuana.

[Synthesis]

Dear Dr. Synth,

Are there any known mental or emotional disorders in which randomly-generated strong emotions can wake you in the middle of the night, or become produced in the presence of others more often than when by yourself? Random negative emotions that have zero to do with how you actually feel at any given time.

Primary intrinsic stuff would be:
Schizoaffective disorder
Bipolar disorder
Depression with psychotic features
Hypomania
(depending on details of the history)

Could also be:
Generalized anxiety disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
Rabies
(again, depending on details of the history)

Could also be delirium secondary to another medical condition (hyper/hyponatremia, meningitis,Wilson's disease).

Could also be acute drug intoxication, or the effects of drug withdrawal.

There are probably dozens of other things, most of which would be ruled out by a more detailed history and a quick physical exam.

Based on your posting history, bipolar disorder and hypomania would be at the top of my list, but that's not really the best way to go about it. I suppose it would really hinge on whether you'd ever had a legitimate manic episode or not.

[Synthesis]

Let me try to describe it in more detail.

I wake up, glancing around the area, somewhat confused as to where I am. I recognize the place I'm at but I can't readily think of where it is.  Right off the bat I feel like something is wrong. It's an indescribable feeling. Just that nothing that is happening, nothing in existence is right, and that something bad is going to happen. I also feel sort of like the world, or objects are way, way to big, or small, or the wrong shape and size Or that I'm not the right size, in a world that great a deep and hollow and I'm lost... but at the same time claustrophobic, like something is bearing down on me. I feel like I'm sort of trapped inside of myself, yet looking at myself from far away, and an observer. All the while I usually am in a state of panic (well hid, if I'm around others.)

These episodes usually happen when I just wake up, but it's hard to say that's what I was doing before-hand, because when it happens I lose all perspective of what was going on before. Only what is going on right there in that state of mind exists to me. Almost like I have no memory.

I've talked to a lot of people about it, and I'm not the only person it happens to. They all have their own way of describig it, but it's always very similar to my own experiances. But I don't know if this is specifically what's going on for you.



Edit: I should add, that this feeling is sort of like some of the paranoia that can come with smoking marijuana.

I'd strongly suspect temporal lobe epilepsy with that kind of history. (Not every seizure is tonic-clonic.)

[Kismetic]

Let me try to describe it in more detail.

I wake up, glancing around the area, somewhat confused as to where I am. I recognize the place I'm at but I can't readily think of where it is.  Right off the bat I feel like something is wrong. It's an indescribable feeling. Just that nothing that is happening, nothing in existence is right, and that something bad is going to happen. I also feel sort of like the world, or objects are way, way to big, or small, or the wrong shape and size Or that I'm not the right size, in a world that great a deep and hollow and I'm lost... but at the same time claustrophobic, like something is bearing down on me. I feel like I'm sort of trapped inside of myself, yet looking at myself from far away, and an observer. All the while I usually am in a state of panic (well hid, if I'm around others.)

These episodes usually happen when I just wake up, but it's hard to say that's what I was doing before-hand, because when it happens I lose all perspective of what was going on before. Only what is going on right there in that state of mind exists to me. Almost like I have no memory.

I've talked to a lot of people about it, and I'm not the only person it happens to. They all have their own way of describig it, but it's always very similar to my own experiances. But I don't know if this is specifically what's going on for you.



Edit: I should add, that this feeling is sort of like some of the paranoia that can come with smoking marijuana.

RGS, if I understand you correctly, I've had those experiences my entire life.  I actually ...  enjoy them.  Uncommon, though, about once a month.

I also have very vivid nightmares that often involve my own gruesome death ...  again, I love them.  I can't describe it.  It's a rush.

Often, the above two are related.  It takes some time after awakening before I no longer feel disjointed from reality.

I also have the symptom of speaking, but not having a voice.  Instead, I desperately try to "find air" to speak, and nothing is exerted.

Maybe we can compare notes?

Apologies, Doc.

/derail

[RogueGunslinger]

I've always enjoyed the experience as well. Heh. Well, maybe not the first couple.

[Gunnerblaster]

What's the pro's & con's of building a space shuttle on the planet and having one constructed in space (ie. at a space station in atmosphere, etc.)?

[Cindy42]

Good, I don't believe in demons anyway. My pastor is convinced that that stuff is related to evil spirits.

[RogueGunslinger]

It's pretty disheartening when a complex, deep feeling of ascendance and super awareness is describes as: You had a seizure, dude.

I transcended my own body, and all I got was this lousy fawlbakjw;aui73879efaaaaaeagfaffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

[Gunnerblaster]

Lmfao.

[BleakOne]

Good, I don't believe in demons anyway. My pastor is convinced that that stuff is related to evil spirits.

We talkin' evil bottle o' Jack or more of a Slimer thing?

[Synthesis]

It's pretty disheartening when a complex, deep feeling of ascendance and super awareness is describes as: You had a seizure, dude.

I transcended my own body, and all I got was this lousy fawlbakjw;aui73879efaaaaaeagfaffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

Yeah, I've seen a video of a kid who had sort of a prophet or god-like sensation when he had his seizures.  Felt like he suddenly understood the meaning and purpose behind the entire universe, or like everything made sense and he was at peace with it.  Pretty much any human sensation or emotional experience can be simulated by a seizure with the right focus.

I'd say "if it doesn't bother you, don't worry about it," but there's some evidence that with every seizure (if it's seizures) you're incurring excitotoxic damage to the neurons in the area, so over time you might start to lose functional areas of brain that would bother you...but once you've lost it, there's no way to get it back.  Of course, the medications to control it could be worse than the seizures, as well...but there are about a half-dozen different meds...so it's a bit of a guessing game + balancing act as far as treatment goes.

I'd try to get an appointment with an epileptologist (subspecialty in neurology) and see what the deal is.  EEG and MRI should be able to tell pretty quickly whether there's abnormal electrical activity going on, and whether there's an epileptogenic lesion in the first place. It could be something benign like hypnopompic hallucination, now that I think about it.

[boog]

There are newer, better, less side-effect ridden meds for epilepsy now.

Though ... a lot of my patients go back to the tried and true stuff due to cost or otherwise. If you do get prescribed something like Vimpat, it's hella expensive, but I can find you a coupon.

I am the pharmaceutical coupon lady. :[

[Dalmeth]

What's the minimum pressure in which a human can survive, given ample time and supplies?

Specifically, I mean the minimum the body can take, with an external air supply available and the possibility of treatment in a hypobaric chamber to adapt to low pressure.

[Jdr]

Dr. Synthesis is really sounding like a Mad Doctor name the more we say it.

On topic of Mad Doctors: who would win in a fight: Dr Wiley or Dr Robotnik (Eggman)?

We're not talking a fistfight, we're talking a science showdown here.

[Sephiroto]

Let me try to describe it in more detail.

I wake up, glancing around the area, somewhat confused as to where I am. I recognize the place I'm at but I can't readily think of where it is.  Right off the bat I feel like something is wrong. It's an indescribable feeling. Just that nothing that is happening, nothing in existence is right, and that something bad is going to happen. I also feel sort of like the world, or objects are way, way to big, or small, or the wrong shape and size Or that I'm not the right size, in a world that great a deep and hollow and I'm lost... but at the same time claustrophobic, like something is bearing down on me. I feel like I'm sort of trapped inside of myself, yet looking at myself from far away, and an observer. All the while I usually am in a state of panic (well hid, if I'm around others.)

These episodes usually happen when I just wake up, but it's hard to say that's what I was doing before-hand, because when it happens I lose all perspective of what was going on before. Only what is going on right there in that state of mind exists to me. Almost like I have no memory.

I've talked to a lot of people about it, and I'm not the only person it happens to. They all have their own way of describig it, but it's always very similar to my own experiances. But I don't know if this is specifically what's going on for you.



Edit: I should add, that this feeling is sort of like some of the paranoia that can come with smoking marijuana.

When I was in my teens I would occasionally feel strange while playing video games.  Suddenly things felt very far away or small or really big.  It was like I could reach out with my hand and wrap it around my entire television.  My controller felt small.  The TV looked small and so far away, yet I felt like I could reach it without getting up.  I never forgot where I was or how I got there.  No lapses in memory ever, but while I experienced it I felt like the whole world was different.  It was like my entier perspective was skewed or distorted, like a bulge in spacetime or something.  The big/small and close/far perceptions were very off.  Usually within a few minutes of me just sitting and experiencing whatever it was, it would go away.  I've only experienced this feeling once in my adult life, that I can recall.  Every time I ever recall feeling it I had been playing a video game or sitting in front of a television.  Usually the room was dark too.

Now, as an adult, I often experience very lucid or vivid dreams and on a regular basis.  The only thing is, I usually don't remember the dreams very long unless I make an effort to do it.  I also feel disconnected sometimes too.  No drugs were ever involved in any of these experiences.

[Synthesis]

What's the minimum pressure in which a human can survive, given ample time and supplies?

Specifically, I mean the minimum the body can take, with an external air supply available and the possibility of treatment in a hypobaric chamber to adapt to low pressure.

I doubt anyone could answer that satisfactorily, since the only data we have is from experiments and accidents without the benefit of supplemental oxygen, with the exception (apparently) of some guy in a balloon who somehow decompressed only his hand. 

Assuming you've got an oxygen supply, I think the two major problems are heat dissipation and keeping water from grossly evaporating from your exposed mucous membranes.   You could probably solve the water problem without affecting pressure by sealing off the mucous membranes (goggles over the eyes, mouth covered and sealed by ventilator, plugs in nose/ears/urethra/vagina/rectum).  Your skin is pretty good at preventing water from escaping, otherwise.  I'd still be concerned about sweat glands, maybe...but my suspicion is that the rate of leakage there would be slow enough that you could compensate with intravenous fluid administration...but that's just sort of idle speculation, all around.

Heat dissipation is apparently still pretty slow, even in a vacuum.  Since we already have an IV line going, you could probably just make sure it was body temperature going in, and that would keep your temperature more or less constant.

But yeah, you'd definitely have to acclimate in order to slowly ease all the dissolved nitrogen and other inert gases out of your body.

[lordcooper]

It generally costs me ~£10 or an hour wandering a certain field to experience things like the above posters have described.  Colour me jealous.

[Symphony]

How coem i always have the shits for an entiere morning after downing the tequilas?

[RogueGunslinger]

Jsut a morning? You lucky basterd.

[RogueGunslinger]

My thumb has felt sprained for the last month. It's in the second knuckle down, closer tot he palm. It's a 1 on the pain scale, and only when i push it certain ways(flexing backward against the natural bend of the knuckles). But I manage to catch it every so often just enough to let me know it's there. I've never had what felt like a sprain for this long. Why wont it go away, I don't seem to be injuring it any further and i hardly do anything to use it. It's annoying as fuck.

[Gunnerblaster]

Once, every several days or so, I wake up with lower back pain in the morning. It seems to primarily originate from just to the right side of my lower spine.

Whenever I push up on a stable surface, such as a table or sink counter - I feel a sort of 'stretching' pain in that area.

Any ideas how I can alleviate it? What might be the cause?

I've done hard lifting, in the past, and pull/strained muscles in my back. I was also in an accident about a year ago. I spend about 9 hours a day standing in roughly the same area. About 3-5 hours sitting and 5-8 hours laying down (sleep).

[Synthesis]

Take 2 Motrin and walk it off.  If it doesn't resolve in 4 weeks and you have good insurance, someone might want to scan it...but I'm guessing you're in the military, so I'd be surprised if you got anything more than an X-ray and maybe a muscle relaxant, if the doc is feeling really generous.  The differential for lower back pain is pretty large, yet supposedly 90% of cases resolve without complications.