Being naturally nocturnal, having excellent night vision, and/or sensitivity
to bright lights/sunlight. Sunlight feels like a heat lamp radiating uncomfortably
on your skin; you may burn easily, but not tan readily. UV lights -- a/k/a"black
lights" -- drive you nuts to look at them.
Blood craving / bloodlust, (apart from any sexual or erotic draw towards
blood), where you cannot get it out of your mind. Ingesting it provides you
with a sense of peace, relief, euphoria, relaxation and invigoration. You
crave the taste of it -- it tastes absolutely divine to you, you love the
smell of it; you have a driving need to obtain and consume it. You have a
chronic, insatiable thirst. You become weak, irritable, and feel out of sorts
if you do not consume it fairly regularly; generally, you require it in quantities
greater than "a few drops" in order to satisfy you.
Somewhat heightened physical senses, such as acute sense of hearing, smell,
or touch; sensory extremes are uncomfortable or not easily tolerated. You
can hear high-pitched sounds, such as the whine from a TV set or ATM machine
that other people can't hear, or have difficulty hearing. Alcohol and other
drugs affect you easily at lower quantities than other people; on the other
hand, some report that they have an increased tolerance for alcohol and other
substances.
A dual-personality (not to be confused with schizophrenia or Disassociative
Disorder -- you're still "you" in mind, just not in your thinking
or behavior......), a.k.a. "the Beast", which you have difficulty
controlling when it surfaces. Generally it will emerge when you are in acute
need for blood, if you become angered, frustrated, or your inhibitions are
lowered due to distraction, alcohol or drugs. You experience emotions of any
kind intensely and passionately; people remark that you can be melodramatic
at times, though to you, it's just a normal expressing of your emotions.
Apparently, many vampires have increased psychic abilities and/or sensitivities,
clairvoyance, etc.; this is not true for all. -- I, myself, have virtually
none that I am aware of or put much stock in. Also, increased empathy (sometimes
extreme empathy, where they have trouble telling whether what they are feeling
is their own emotions or someone else's). Psychic vampires, or psi-vampires,
draw energy from others, and will become perky, animated, invigorated, possibly
hyperactive, while the one they are drawing from will become tired, weaker,
or lackadaisical, disinterested. Many have an increased ability to manipulate
energy.
Often, those who are real vampires were/are drawn to the vampire, or the
vampire mythos and image, from a young age, often reading or watching and
finding that they related to or sympathized with them; they have always had
an inexplicable interest in vampires. Sometimes they are drawn to dress or
act "like a vampire does" in order to express themselves or to feel
vampiric. They may have been drawn to experiment with blood, blood drinking
or bloodletting and found that it suited them.
Other traits include migraine headaches; various gastrointestinal sensitivities
and problems, such as intolerance for milk-products, and food allergies/sensitivities;
mood swings, depression, melancholia; an acute sense of separateness from
those in "normal, mundane society"; above-average intelligence;
possibly diagnosed with hyperactivity or attention-deficit disorder.
Having a number of these traits does not necessarily indicate that you are
a vampire; it's just traits that we tend to have or suffer from. If you don't
have a great number of the primary/secondary symptoms like bloodcraving, sensitivity
to light, etc., then I wouldn't worry too much whether you're a vamp.
Do not take these traits and symptoms out of context. If you have a number
of these, then, before you go off on your own assuming that you are a vampire,
I highly recommend that you first go and get any symptoms you feel you have
checked out with your doctor; you may find that they are quite treatable. Taken
as a group, these traits and symptoms may indicate that you are a real vampire,
especially if you have the bloodlust / blood cravings.
Sasha adds to what I've said: "And it cannot be overemphasized too much
that such things like the migraines, sun-sensitivity, psychic abilities and
stuff are mostly secondary symptoms (not like the bloodthirst or the beast inside).
So that people are even more aware of the fact that having migraines and being
depressive is not quite so much an indicator for being a vampire as is, for
instance, blood craving."
