nervous and hormonal war within me….
our human body’s function is generally regulated by autonomic nervous system and the hormones….these factors, through different mechanisms, regulate our heart beat, breathing, temperature, intestine motility, and others.
there are 2 division of autonomic nervous system, sympathetic and parasympathetic, each of them predominate at different state of body. when you are a "fight or flight" situation, sympathetic nervous system will be activated…..our heart rate and respiratory rate increases, pupil dilates, glycolysis and lipolysis prevails (to provide energy) and the whole body is ready to either "fight", or "flight"…
when we are out of danger, or any intense situation, parasympathetic nervous system prevails and slows our heart rate, breathing rate and the whole body relaxes….
let’s imagine there are 2 side of army, one of it is sympathetic, and the other is parasympathetic. the commander of the first is adrenaline, assisted by noradrenaline, dopamine, angiotensin II and the others. the latter is led by acetylcholine, accompanied by prostacyclines, nitric oxide and others…
phamacology was my first exam…..exam that many regard as the hardest one….it’s difficult because it has huge amount of material to study….unlimited amount of name of the drugs which are impossible to remember….and memorizing them is like memorizing some magic spells in " charmed" or "harry potter"….plus, there are this complex mechanisms with side effects which seems all the same and impossible to differentiate at first glance….
first exam is usually the hardest one…. emotionally, mentally and physically….even the easiest exam will be hard if it’s arranged on the first one….it’s because our body has not adapted to the exam stress yet after long latent period…after the "battle mode" has been switched on….things wouldn’t be so hard anymore….
on the day before my pharmaco exam…when i was lying on my bed, i could almost feel that there’s a war happening within me… a war between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system….when the thought of the exam comes into my mind, and that there’s some chance that i might do badly, plus the worry that i might get blank during exams….my heart rate increased…..even when lying down, my heart’s palpitation is so intense it’s as if it’s struggling to escape my rib cage…my breathing was shallow and fast…..it feeled as if i was going into asphixia…
i kept telling myself that i have done everything in my power to prepare for my exam….and even if some accidents happens, it’s beyond my power and nothing i could do. i tried to keep myself calm…..trying to activate my parasympathetic nervous system, suppressing the raging adrenaline that had already flooded my whole body…..otherwise i think i would go into convulsion soon enough….
so the war went on and on throughout the night….with my heart rate and breathing go fast and slow from time to time….i was aware of every single process happening in my body…every heart beat as well as the blood flowing through every vessel…. and u know when your body goes crazy like that….it’s rather hard to get some sleep to replenish the enrgy for the next day’s exam….
the war ended up with the host (me) getting exhausted and finally pengsan…when my body couldn’t take it anymore and decided to shut down altogether…..that’s how i finally got some peace and quiet…
