Distinguish between the experience of pleasure, ecstasy & adrenaline.
It’s super powerful to be able to distinguish between the experience of pleasure, ecstasy & adrenaline.
Since there is a lot of chemical crossover, it can all feel similarly arousing.
⚡️Ecstasy (different from faux-ecstasy), feels transcendent. Out of body.
⚡️Pleasure, feels *in* the body. Grounded.
⚡️Adrenaline feels intense, ungrounded & has a sharpness to it. It can also feel energising & euphoric.
Our adrenal glands release adrenaline when our brains perceive “danger”. So that we have enough energy to get out of a life-threatening situation.
We can sometimes misread adrenaline as pleasure-aligned turn on.
Especially, given many of of us have learned to rely on our adrenaline glands to get us through an over capacity week/month/year/life (not what our fight/flight response system is actually for).
Personally, I’ve unconsciously been a moth to a flame for euphoric adrenaline based s3xual experiences that did not actually feel loving, when I didn’t have the somatic-awareness (or familiarity with a regulated nervous system) to help inform my decision making.
I’ve also consciously chosen to partake in play that has spiked adrenaline & has felt radically loving!
This isn’t about prescribing right/wrong decisions.