Lupron emotionalism?

Oh man, I'm sorry to hear about your mom. That is very, very difficult and...I can't say much more, other than I'm 50+ years and I still miss my mom.

For my part, I do think my HT has made me more emotional. I'm more sensitive and I cry more...sometimes when my feelings are hurt and I don't have a (legitimate) reason to cry. That said, all of the emotions I feel since my HT are dwarfed by my feelings when I lost my mom and dad. Of course, I can certainly imagine how HT might amplify the loss of a parent in your case.

But does it get worse? I'm only 11 months in and my most emotional days are behind me (so far). I think I'm getting used to this and getting better at realizing it's the HT talking. At least that's my take.

Once again, my condolences on your mom passing.

Redwing,

So sorry to hear about your mother passing and yes, miss my mother EVERYDAY (she passed unexpected when she was 54, 1982, I was only 32 years old).

Just yesterday, I was reading on HW, a brother said that the SE gets worse the longer you're on HT (I started 10-3-2012). Seems like the past few months has been really hard on myself and I find I cry so much more than in previous months. However, I try to hid it but, just this past Wed. I had a dentist appointment and cried all the way there and even stared again when I got into my exam room. Thank God, my wife and I have been seeing our dentist for over 20 years. I have had my moments at work as well (work part time at a funeral home)!!!! SAY WHAT??? Yes.. Hot flashes, and shrinkage, guess that goes with the HT.

Just take it a day at a time and "most" people will understand.

Being DX with "C", has been the number one task that I've had to face in life and trust me, I've faced lots of them.

I'll be praying for you and I completely understand how you feel.

Take care, Dave in Bartlett, TN

I was on Lupron for most of 2012, as part of the plan leading up to the IMRT treatments that I had around the middle of last year.

The physical SEs (especially the hot flashes) were pretty obvious, but for me, at least, the emotional SEs were much more subtle, and sort of crept up on me over time.

For example, one evening last year around about the middle of the Lupron treatment I was watching on the CNN news channel some quick report about an unfortunate family with kids that had to be living in their car because both of the parents were out of work, and their lives, and especially the lives of their kids, were miserable.

In my pre-Lupron days, my reaction to all that would have been "Gee, that's tough," and I would then have shrugged my shoulders, and moved on. But, thanks to the Lupron in me at the time, I'm sure, that TV report struck me as, "Oh my word, that's so sad." I got a lump in the throat, could actually feel tears starting up in my eyes, and I sat there feeling so sorry for those people, wishing I could do something to help them. And that's pretty much how I felt about things as a whole for at least the time I was on the Lupron, and for a good while after that.

However, my last Lupron injection was August 2012, but it wore off over time, and now, well over a year later, I can feel that my emotions have pretty much returned to what they were in my pre-Lupron days, and I am not quite so affected by the things I see or read about, as I used to be while on the Lupron.

But I still remain (and hope I will always remain) well aware of just how I emotionally viewed the world during my time on Lupron, from an emotional viewpoint that I had never had before.
For me, it was a very valuable experience to see the world that way, at least for a while.

Perhaps some psychologists are simply going to say that, with extra help from the Lupron, I just got in touch with my "feminine side." Well, if so, I consider it an enriching experience, and I'm very glad that it happened.

Very interesting thread.  I started HT on 3/5 (casodex and then Lupron on 3/20 -- doing 4-month shots).

I find the SE are EXTREMELY SUBTLE. They just sneak up on me, almost imperceptably.

The other day, we saw the movie, "The Butler," and I definitely welled up with tears. But that was a very moving film. So, was it the HT? I don't know.

I have found that I do get fits of anger (ENRAGED, ACTUALLY) but it lasts for 15-20 SECONDS. VERY strange. This is happening about once every 3 weeks and I am quite sure that is the HT talking. Knowing that makes it very easy to deal with.

Mel

First, let me say that grieving when your mother dies need not be blamed on the ADT. That's allowed and expected. Its a blow to anyone. Sorry about your loss. Don't worry about a few tears.

I haven't found my range of emotions to have changed very much. The variability of mood is similar to my old, pre-pod-person, self. But in absolute terms I am different. On scales of one to ten I am two to three points less happy and less excited by life than I was before starting ADT. It's a bit like the band from This is Spinal Tap where to make their music louder they got amps where the volume knobs went to 11. My happiness and excitement knobs only go to seven. Seven's not bad, mind you. It it noticably better than "meh". But to get there I need the sort of positive stimulation that might have killed me when I was normal.

It does seem like kind of a waste of resources for me to do fun things. I feel like I am using up space that might have accommodated someone with a much greater capacity to enjoy themselves.

Southern Comfort said...
Redwing,
I found that I adjusted to my new emotions after a while. So, no, for me, they did not keep getting worse over time. Interestingly, in the early stages of HT it frustrated me quite a bit. But, now, I am not as sure it is such a bad thing to have a richer, bigger set of emotions for experiencing life. I now generally have good emotional control. However, the emotional intensity levels seem higher at times. Of course, some of that can probably be attributed to aging, having a cancer diagnosis, etc.
SC

 

I have only been on Lupron since end of March 2013 but so far, I would have typed about same thing Southern Comfort did.

 

LupronJim