Very good question Ivory. I hope people can respond to this because whenever I have an emotion i try and find a way to medicate myself so i dont have to feel my emotions.

For me it's a burden since most are negative and its hard to process them and let them go. Trying to understand them could pull you away from experiencing them.
-- seeker of peace

First of all, I never studied human emotion. So, this is pretty much a theory I have from everything I have heard over the years and some of which I have just thought of myself. Human emotion is no more than electrical impulses and chemical reactions in the brain the our senses being stimulated. Our brains are probably pre-wired from birth for certain emotions. A baby will cry when it needs nourishment or comfort as an example.

There was something on television recently about a young girl of three years old who had to have half of her brain removed by the age of six because of a disease. The doctors didn't give her much of a chance to ever have a normal life to walk, talk, and reason like someone with a whole brain. What happened is the hemisphere of the brain she had left compensated for what she had lost and she did learn to do everything as she had before her surgery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MKNsI5CWoU

Another example is the how dopamine plays a huge part in the risks we take in life and the amount of fear we feel as an emotion. A large amount of dopamine-inhibiting receptors will let someone enjoy the thrill of skydiving while someone who has a small amount of those same receptors feel fear and and not likely to take risk.

I have a theory about schizophrenia I brought up to a psychiatrist once but he shrugged it off because I have no medical background. It still makes common sense to me, so I will tell you what I think. There is a natural hallucinogen, dimethyltryptamine in the pineal gland, located in the direct center of the brain. This is what causes our dreams. People with schizophrenia have what I call conscious dreams where the dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in the pineal gland does not shut down during waking hours but continues as if the person is still in a sleeping state. This causes the person to see and hear things that are not real but just as vivid as real life.

We now know it is possible that for those with DID, our brains have compensated for physical and mental trauma abuse and injuries, been rewired and fragmented, to where different levels of stress and triggers will isolate feedback. This is a protection mode the brain has learned to deal with outside stimuli whether it is positive or negative. The word trigger has become a negative term but it can be a positive one depending how the brain processes the information.

I think the whole subject of MPD and dissociative disorders are in their infancy and there is so much more for doctors to learn. If our brains can be learn to compensate or if medical science learns how to manually perform these actions to a higher degree than we now know, it gives people hope.

The last thing is about people who are those void of emotion, the sociopath. This person has a brain that sees other human beings are objects only. There goal is manipulation of others only for their own gain and can fake real feelings for others. These are the least understood people in my opinion. If anyone has any incite into this subject, please enlighten me?

For me, it's completely overwhelming...like a thousand sounds and nothing all at once.

I think learning to be accepting of the emotions when we feel them is important. Just as we learn to accept the alters and know they serve a purpose, so do emotions. Allowing ourselves to feel can open up understanding of ourselves in deeper ways that can help us heal. We don't have to take action on negative emotions, but acknowledging their presence can be helpful and ultimately help them diffuse in healthy ways.

I have periods of being ADD and feeling euphoric where my mind races. Then I have what I call numb or dull headed periods where I really don't think or feel a lot whatsoever. I have been down and out and depressed which is usually triggered by real life events. Lately, I have learned to block it out and suppress the depression most of the time. It is like just ignore it and it will go away. People have different ways of adjusting to things beyond their control. I learned to deal with my emotions by building a wall and turning inward to protect myself and let music be a source of therapy. I don't take any prescribed mood medications. I have always felt it is better to get negative emotions out, whether it is a need to talk it out with a friend or cry to let it out instead of letting it build up and explode. Everybody has their own ways to deal with emotions and there isn't a right or wrong way as long as it doesn't end up hurting yourself or others.

Interesting.-Ivory