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- Introduction
- Brain and context
- Other theories
- Examples
- Chaotic emotions »
- Left and right
- The observing self
- Organising idea
- References
The REM state
Caetextia and CFS
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Chaotic emotions
For caetextia sufferers, one of the main consequences of not being able to manage separate streams of attention simultaneously is that they have no easy way to control their emotions. They cannot detach from a conditioned response pattern and see the possible consequences of that response or consider other more beneficial ways of reacting. Thus they feel confused and out of control, suffer extreme anxiety and anger, and can swing between wild mania and the blackest depression. They may also have trouble with sexual emotions and their sexual identity. Enduring this emotional turmoil must sometimes feel like living with an unpredictable wild creature. Indeed, some people with caetextia have told us that this is exactly how it feels.
Maybe the sensory overload that many people on the autistic spectrum experience is because of their inability to process within themselves the changes going on around and within them. As they struggle to moderate their feelings, the only hope they have of reducing the pain that this sensory overload causes them is to try and control the environment and other people as much as possible. Because exercising control keeps their arousal down, and thus makes them feel better, they tend to do it obsessively. Unfortunately, as reducing their stress levels in this way involves exerting control over others, this raises the stress levels of everyone around them.
