You wouldn't believe the variety of moods I experience. Unless you've read my post on bipolar disorder, in which case you would. In either case, I'm going to elaborate a bit on what type of shit I go through.
Right now, I'm in a pretty good mood. I woke up relatively early, drank a bunch of coffee, and went to the gym. All of these activities seem to have had positive effects on my mood. In fact, the latter two are the most consistent mood elevators that I have in my metaphorical toolbox right now.
Recently, I've been waking up in a quite sour mood every day. The world feels cold and unfriendly in the morning, and my body feels like it's lined with lead and bricks and heavy shit like that. Even drinking a cup of coffee seems like it will take infinite effort, partially because of the act of filling up a cup and then taking sips, and partially because my depressive inertia will have to be broken when it inevitably brings me up to speed.
Fortunately, this morning was a bit better. I'm not entirely sure why, but I woke up before nine o'clock, and while I did go back to bed for a few hours, I didn't do so grumpily. But enough about today. Let's talk about why my mood cycles so much, and why the things that help do so.
The first thing that comes to mind, besides my natural mental state, is caffeine addiction. As I discussed in my post "Caffeine and Other Drugs", caffeine inhibits the function of adenosine, a neurotransmitter responsible for, among other things, limiting neural activity. My body may be reacting to this consistent inhibition by producing and releasing more adenosine to make up for the caffeine. Thus, before I've had my daily dose of coffee, my neural activity might be limited more than it would be without the influence of psychoactive drugs in my life.
Since I'm prone to rapid mood cycles anyway, I suspect that the caffeine withdrawal joins forces with natural depression and kicks my ass. The only solutions that I see to this problem are complete abstinence from caffeine, or a consistent regimen of several cups of coffee a day. Hmm, which shall I choose? I'll be right back, I need a refill on my coffee.
Yum, caffeine. Let's talk about the working out part. Aside from making me big and buff (hypothetically - not as much as I'd like, in practice) it seems to energize me and put me in a good mood. I wonder how exactly it does that?
Woah, I just learned some crazy shit. It turns out that aside from releasing endorphins (the body's natural painkillers), exercise releases anandamine, a neurotransmitter which hits the cannabinoid receptors in the brain and body. Yes, the same receptors that THC, the most active chemical in marijuana, hits. It undoubtedly has different effects on the brain than THC, but it is involved in mood and appetite control. So, in as few words as possible, it turns out that working out gets me a little bit stoned! No wonder it can be so addicting.
I don't use marijuana, for a variety of reasons (including the risk of getting kicked out of my house, and risk of extreme mood states, as discussed in my post "Bipolar"), but I have sure had some good times when I did use it. It's really interesting to me that exercise may reward the brain in the same way that THC does.
I'd really love to get properly addicted to exercise. It would be oh so nice to crave something healthy the way I crave cigarettes, coffee, and all of the drugs that I don't do anymore. I guess I'll just have to keep doing it as many times per week as I can bring myself to, and see what happens.
Well, that's all for now, folks. If you just learned as much as I did, and took as great an interest as I did, from my quick Wikipedia search, you oughtta come back tomorrow and see what I've got for you.
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