This is a bit of a neuroscience question. It bothers me because it's something that has just resumed happening. And it's irritating. If I'm dealing with an uncomfortable situation, strangers, or something I find unnerving, If I attempt to make eye contact or move my head towards someone my neck does this stuttering thing. Like my mind is shutting down, or having some pulse-like seizure deal at the mere idea of making eye contact. Otherwise I feel fine, can converse properly, but there's like a radius. And if I move my eyes within that radius of someone's face, it happens.
Factors to bear in mind:
-Food allergies. Ate some shit recently and this has probably resulted in the elevation of histamine.
-Caffeine consumption.
-Ate a lot of cocoa beans (salsolinol, endocannabinoid reuptake inhibitors, flavan-3-ols etc)
The latter two tested independently do not result in the above, nor do they when together. That leaves the first. Unfortunately I don't know much about IgG, IgA, or IgE reactions, nor the full extent of histamine and inflammatory processes ability to act as modulatory neurotransmitters etc.
Please help me downregulate this lust to understand.
just be yourself
>>7724357
It has to be the coconut I ate. It's as though it reopened the gates, and I'm back in a land of strange anxieties I falsely believed I had gotten rid of, worked passed, understood and reconciled, whatever. It's all an illusion. A machine easily mistakes its own operation to be more the result of intrinsic factors than it really is.
Fucked for life. So I just need to understand.
>>7724369
I don't think there exists a true self, but some selves are more you than others in a given context. I try.
I feel only partly conscious. Wired, fully aware, stressed, calm, and part asleep. How can this be? Any recommended reading material? I mean truly good textbooks on neuro-anatomy, neurology, neurochemistry. Etc. Something that wants to act as the proxy to tell the reader everything there is to be heard. Any other teaching style and I will find myself fighting the author.
>>7724381
I don't take hallucinogens.
M8
See a fucking shrink or something.
>>7724347
Not neuroscience, just basic psych. I do the same thing, as do many other people. It's just an anxiety reaction; your neck and shoulder muscles are tightening up because you're nervous, but you're in the process of moving your head, so you get a shuddering jolt, like hitting the gas and brakes of a car at the same time.
I don't really know a way around it. I focus on a spot on a person's cheek and talk to that for a few seconds until the feeling has passed. Look for the pattern of creases around their eye, something like that.
>>7724442
Interesting. I figured the process could probably be easily described mechanically at some level, but didn't know this was a common thing.
What I tend to do is stare behind the left side of their head, and slowly ease their eyes into my central focus. Or try to snap in from different angles / speeds, but nothing really worked, I could only try to physically suppress it. I'll try what you mentioned if the feeling persists.
Hopefully it doesn't and fades soon... Thanks either way. Have you noticed any triggers that are chemical?
>>7724442
Expanding on this you are just tensing up and your muscles are simply shaking from the tension. I can do it myself though I never do it in conversation.
Going from a psychology view, the best thing to help you relax I'd suggest learning how to breath in a rhythm. The rhythm could be anything but I like 3 seconds in, 1 second hold and 4 second out. This both helps to relax the muscles and as an added bonus helps to stabilize your brain waves so you don't have one of those deer in the headlight moments.
I'd also suggest to learn progressive muscle relaxation. Starting from the top of your scalp and working your way down to your toes, tense each muscle for 10 to 15 second then move onto the next one while thinking of a certain phrase like "relax." Eventually just thinking of the phrase relax will trigger all the muscles to relax without you having to tense each one individually thanks to classical conditioning.
>>7724347
social anxiety
get into relaxation/meditation>>7724569
, incremental exposure with people, reflective thinking. Before starting a social interaciton briefly think on whether you believe it will go badly, or well. After the interaction is finished, reevaluate: did it actually went badly, or did it go well? Did you have reason to be anxious or afraid of the interaction?
if your issue is serious see a professional anxiety therapist such a psychologist
The feelings seems to have passed now. It has something to do with allergy or histamine... as tomato and eggplant, if consumed for too long, will do the same thing.
>>7724569
>>7725243
I'll remember your advices. Even though what I described initially has seemingly passed, I do have major and longstanding anxiety problems I'm only slowly being able to unravel. I often feel like I'm navigating through some strange space that has one ultimate wall that can't be passed no matter what is tried. Muscles clench up and remain, vision goes dark, might become dizzy, and there's nothing to be done. Progress away whatever habits allow it to be triggered is slow. You mentioned the conditioning response, I'm usually quite good at adopting behaviors like that, for better and worse.
I want to thank both of you, I appreciate it. I thought I would only be told, as usual, that I was crazy or just an idiot. Real advice is appreciated.
>>7726747
>clench up and remain
remain rigid*
