From: jwgh at earthlink.net (Jacob W. Haller) Subject: Subjectivity Date: 20 Sep 2000 Message-ID: <1eh85i4.vq0flygs5s2wN%jwgh@earthlink.net> Newsgroups: talk.bizarreSometimes I feel a little odd. It may be a purely mental thing, but it feels like my head is hollow somehow; or not hollow, but that there's an empty space in there somewhere. There's also something that feels like something I can't quite feel; it's like if it were just a tad more severe I would have a legitimate headache, or would have a buzzing sensation in my head, instead of merely almost having those sensations.
A few years back I went on Prozac for a while. It didn't do anything that I could detect, nor did I notice any difference when I went off it (something I did without telling anyone, which is a very stupid thing that you are never supposed to do). Was there a difference? At the end of that time period I was definately in better shape than I was at the beginning. Would I have gotten there anyway? I can theorize but I have no way of knowing.
I imagine a psychoactive drug which is perhaps moderately effective but which has a common side effect: people who take it _think_ they are better off than they were before, whether they actually are or not. Their memory of events of the past is unchanged, but their interpretation of same is different. "That was the best time of my life" becomes "Wow, I really put up a great front." Or alternatively, a drug that is very effective but has the side effect of making you think it isn't. I see people going on the drug, then thinking "Why am I taking this?", then going off it and feeling awful again, but having a difficult time accepting what's actually going on. It wouldn't be much weirder than "suicide ideation", which is apparently one of the possible side-effects of Prozac.
-jwgh
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"We all have an extension, and it is .TMP"
-mathew (meta@pobox.com) in talk.bizarre 19 Jan 2000