eunuchs and depression

[transward]

It has been my observation that stable low T people tend to have more depression, of the passive, lethargic no energy type than men with normal T. But people with changing T levels such as after castration, or changing hormone dosage often have the kind of wild mood swings that lead to the kind of violently active depression that causes suicide.

Transward

[Cainanite]

It has been my observation that stable low T people tend to have more depression, of the passive, lethargic no energy type than men with normal T. But people with changing T levels such as after castration, or changing hormone dosage often have the kind of wild mood swings that lead to the kind of violently active depression that causes suicide.

Transward

I can attest to this. It is the swings in my hormone levels that cause me to go off the rails. One of those effects can be a particularly nasty temper, that seems to flare up for no reason. What is really happening is a sudden drop-off in testosterone. The temper always hits just before the depression. Once in the depressed state, I can pull myself out, but remain lethargic and unmotivated. Once I level off, I am much more myself, and human again.

It is amazing how much our hormones affect our thinking and our reactions. We like to think our brains are independent of our hormones, but they are entwined in a very real and measurable way.

[eunuch2001]

Thousands of Chinese men became eunuchs for hundreds of years until the Qing Dynasty ended in 1912. I often wonder how all those eunuchs coped with depression. Maybe they were able to offer each other support and encouragement. They certainly didn't have access to HRT or anti-depressants.

[gareth19]

Thousands of Chinese men became eunuchs for hundreds of years until the Qing Dynasty ended in 1912. I often wonder how all those eunuchs coped with depression. Maybe they were able to offer each other support and encouragement. They certainly didn't have access to HRT or anti-depressants.

Ginseng ...........

[eunuch2001]

Ginseng ...........

I'd never thought of ginseng, nor do I recall seeing it mentioned in any research into Chinese eunuchs. Do you have a source of information or was ginseng an educated guess? On the subject of herbs and drugs I've often wondered if the Chinese cutters used opium for pain relief. Bearing in mind there were 100,000 eunuchs at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and many of these volunteered for castration, the surgeons must have had plenty of experience and the surgery can't have been too terrifyingly painful. I don't recall how many eunuchs were around when the Qing Dynasty ended.

[Crownjewels]

With me, my castration has had no negative effects on me when it comes to depression, the only thing that seems to get me depressed is money issues or problems at work. Otherwise I feel great and have no problems at all with my low T.

Ken

Ditto. I have a set routine for exercise, hobbies and social life, so I remain upbeat. The only thing to get depressed about is the diabolical weather in the UK!

[transward]

Thousands of Chinese men became eunuchs for hundreds of years until the Qing Dynasty ended in 1912. I often wonder how all those eunuchs coped with depression. Maybe they were able to offer each other support and encouragement. They certainly didn't have access to HRT or anti-depressants.

A couple of things are in play here. First you have to distinguish between being miserable and being depressed. If you lose a battle where most of your friends are slaughtered, your wives and children are raped and enslaved, and your manhood is brutally chopped off and you are sold into backbreaking labor, you will probably be miserable, but you would know exactly the source of that misery. You would not be depressed. Depression on the other hand, is an unpleasant byproduct of freedom. If the universe doesn't sufficiently oppress me then I do it to myself. A large percentage of Chinese eunuchs were the spoils of war, and misery would overwhelm depression.

And of the voluntary eunuchs, you have to look at the system. For large chunks of Chinese history the vast Chinese Civil Service was mostly staffed by eunuchs who could rise through the ranks to positions of great power. Often the Emperor frolliced with his concubines within the Forbidden City leaving the country to be ruled by the eunuchs. (to the point that the evil eunuch was a stock villain in Chinese folklore.). In a Confucian society where family was everything, often after a couple of sons to inherit and run family enterprises, one of the younger sons would be castrated and schooled for government service with the expectation of return on investment in the form of government goodies channeled family-ward. ( a similar system occured in Italy with the great families and the papacy. Which is how so many of the younger sons of the Borgias and Medicis ended up pope) So the eunuch, while mocked (often with the adjective "smelly," alluding to the difficulty nullified eunuchs can have controlling the bladder) had a respected place in a society that revered familial devotion..

Still I suspect they were depressed.

Transward

[devi]

Thousands of Chinese men became eunuchs for hundreds of years until the Qing Dynasty ended in 1912. I often wonder how all those eunuchs coped with depression. Maybe they were able to offer each other support and encouragement. They certainly didn't have access to HRT or anti-depressants.

I beg to differ about not having HRT. It has in fact been around for millenias of years, but probably was not anywhere near as consistant and reliable as what we have today (so you'd have to know the practitioner). However ways to perform certain medicinal functions were well known such as bringing on breast growth and inducing abortions by the ancients and possibly still being practiced today. Both of these are forms of hormonal management. And I have a good hunch that it is still practiced in certain places to this very day due to certain things that I have read mainly about India.

[nvrgag44]

transward wrote, "A couple of things are in play here. First you have to distinguish between being miserable and being depressed. If you lose a battle where most of your friends are slaughtered, your wives and children are raped and enslaved, and your manhood is brutally chopped off and you are sold into backbreaking labor, you will probably be miserable, but you would know exactly the source of that misery. You would not be depressed. Depression on the other hand, is an unpleasant byproduct of freedom. If the universe doesn't sufficiently oppress me then I do it to myself. A large percentage of Chinese eunuchs were the spoils of war, and misery would overwhelm depression."

If depression is an unpleasant byproduct of freedom I'll learn to deal with it and fight to the death before I'll willingly give up my precious freedom.