It’s been suggested to me by more than a few licensed professionals of late that my form of depression more than likely has to do with a deregulated parasympathetics system, the deregulation having to do with traumatic experiences. I do live a rather dangerous lifestyle so I can see where that might be the case. But I also find it interesting how none of these professionals ever said anything about how hot showers, hot baths, or intense aerobic exercise can trigger a downward emotional spiral. Not that I recall, anyway. “Did I miss an important footnote?”
The only reason I’ve been thinking about this lately is simple. When I take a hot bath at night, I crash shortly afterwards and find myself wide awake two and a half hours later. When I take a hot shower in the morning, it’s all to easy to want to go back to bed, sometimes feeling like the things I planned to do over the course of the day are all for not anyhow.
Then there’s the exercise. It feels good to exercise first thing during the day. But shortly there after I feel drained physically and emotionally. “Some of this has been going on for years!
I know that hot showers raise blood pressure, which I understand can trigger the fight or flight mechanism, and the same is true for aerobic exercises like spin. The I read and told that the parasympathetic system is design to normally just calm the body down. However, if it’s deregulated, “It’s can go too far!”
So… I’m experimenting with exercise already to see how that can be changed to achieve more acceptable emotional and physically balanced results. I guess I’m going to need to add showers and baths to the list of things to experiment with, too.