halfin
Senior member
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2009
- Messages
- 540
- Reason
- PALS
- Diagnosis
- 08/2009
- Country
- US
- State
- CA
- City
- Santa Barbara
Emotional lability (EL) is the most interesting symptom of ALS that I've experienced. Weakness and stiffness are just frustrating, as are speech problems. But unusual emotional displays are quite unexpected in a disease which is said to not normally affect thinking. It seems odd that the same brain systems that when damaged produce muscle weakness can also somehow make you laugh and cry.
I had EL come on pretty suddenly about a month ago. There were some hints earlier, slight exaggerations of normal emotions, but then suddenly I was crying ten times a day, and had several episodes of laughter in sad situations. Fortunately the meds I am on have helped quite a bit, eliminated 80-90% of it. But I still feel it somewhat.
What I learned was very interesting. The emotions are actually real, or at least based in reality, but normally I completely suppress them. The case of laughter in sad or unhappy situations brought home the embarrassing realization that I actually do find something funny about them. In fact, if you look at what things people laugh at, especially low-brow, unsophisticated humor, it is often someone getting hurt or suffering some misfortune. Think of old movies like the Three Stooges or the Little Rascals. I'm sure young people can find plenty of examples on youtube. Sad but true, people laugh at the misfortunes of others. Normally we completely suppress it, so much that we are unaware of it. But with the EL, it comes out. That is how it seemed to me. (Note that I have not been even a little bit tempted to laugh at my own injuries!)
The tears are interesting as well. Conventionally, we say that people cry when they are sad, but that is not the whole truth. People also cry when they are happy. In fact I believe that tears are a common expression of a wide range of emotions, if they are sufficiently strong. Most of the time, when I get tears as a result of EL, I am neither happy nor sad. I am experiencing an emotion which is hard to describe. It is a common emotion, and in retrospect I can recognize that it has always given me a feeling of warmth that might cause a slight tendency for my eyes to moisten, but in the past I was always able to suppress it. Again, I was hardly aware of it.
This emotion is kind of a combination of happiness and sadness, and comes on when I think or talk about something amazing, surprising, inspiring, moving, or any combination of these. The closest word I can come up with for the emotion is awe. Usually we associate that emotion with strong feelings, but I find that I feel something like awe many times a day, to a small extent, and those are the things that make me cry when my EL is acting up.
In fact I do find myself quite amazed and awe-struck to find myself in the bizarre and unexpected situation we all share, going from the prime of life to the sudden realization that this disease will bring total disability in a relatively short time. It is sad but it is at the same time utterly amazing.
I had EL come on pretty suddenly about a month ago. There were some hints earlier, slight exaggerations of normal emotions, but then suddenly I was crying ten times a day, and had several episodes of laughter in sad situations. Fortunately the meds I am on have helped quite a bit, eliminated 80-90% of it. But I still feel it somewhat.
What I learned was very interesting. The emotions are actually real, or at least based in reality, but normally I completely suppress them. The case of laughter in sad or unhappy situations brought home the embarrassing realization that I actually do find something funny about them. In fact, if you look at what things people laugh at, especially low-brow, unsophisticated humor, it is often someone getting hurt or suffering some misfortune. Think of old movies like the Three Stooges or the Little Rascals. I'm sure young people can find plenty of examples on youtube. Sad but true, people laugh at the misfortunes of others. Normally we completely suppress it, so much that we are unaware of it. But with the EL, it comes out. That is how it seemed to me. (Note that I have not been even a little bit tempted to laugh at my own injuries!)
The tears are interesting as well. Conventionally, we say that people cry when they are sad, but that is not the whole truth. People also cry when they are happy. In fact I believe that tears are a common expression of a wide range of emotions, if they are sufficiently strong. Most of the time, when I get tears as a result of EL, I am neither happy nor sad. I am experiencing an emotion which is hard to describe. It is a common emotion, and in retrospect I can recognize that it has always given me a feeling of warmth that might cause a slight tendency for my eyes to moisten, but in the past I was always able to suppress it. Again, I was hardly aware of it.
This emotion is kind of a combination of happiness and sadness, and comes on when I think or talk about something amazing, surprising, inspiring, moving, or any combination of these. The closest word I can come up with for the emotion is awe. Usually we associate that emotion with strong feelings, but I find that I feel something like awe many times a day, to a small extent, and those are the things that make me cry when my EL is acting up.
In fact I do find myself quite amazed and awe-struck to find myself in the bizarre and unexpected situation we all share, going from the prime of life to the sudden realization that this disease will bring total disability in a relatively short time. It is sad but it is at the same time utterly amazing.