one of the common things I hear when I get e-mails from the curious and skeptical is "How do you know its not all just psychosomatic?" or "How do you know its not just an addiction?" The short answer is that 100%, I don't know... the long answer is I am pretty much 99% sure it's not... and here is why:
1) Psychosomatic signs are generally present after the inciting cause. Take a psychological addiction such as some drugs for example. A person takes the drug, it causes certain feelings of euphoria and pleasure, the person likes that. Thus, they want the drug so they can feel that again. If they don't get the drug, they feel edgy, twitchy, may vomit, etc. The important thing to note, is that the withdrawal symptoms happened AFTER the addiction had established. If sanguinarianism is an addiction, it would be the first and only addiction in which the "withdrawal" symptoms occur BEFORE the "drug" had even been taken. Most sanguins experience the pain, nausea, headaches, etc. BEFORE they taste blood. Drinking the blood then makes these problems go away: headaches clear, nausea dissipates, and pain goes away.

2) "Maybe you wanted to be a vampire so badly your mind convinced your body?" IF this were the case, my mind would convince my body it was the kind of vampire commonly seen in books, movies, and games. Therefor, I would have convinced myself I had fangs, would combust in the sun, I would be repulsed by garlic and crosses, unable to cross running water, and doing my hair and makeup in the morning would be VERY hard, as my mind would convince myself I couldn't see my own reflection. Instead, the ONLY thing consistent with all the Hollywood hype is the blood drinking, and even that is not really the same. So, lets make an easy visual chart. I've been told visuals are good...

Why the "usually"? Because the fiction of the vampire is VAST. Authors take the legends and past fiction and vary them to their own creativity. Reading all the fiction, or watching all the movies you get a huge variety. So, I focused on the major books and movies I knew. There are exceptions.

3) I started having related problems in 1992 (the headaches mostly, later nausea and the rest), I first tasted blood in 1994... problems cleared... I found the online sanguin/vampire groups in 1998. Soooo... I had all the signs and problems BEFORE knowing there were others who had almost exactly the same problems. Its really hard to believe that a large group of people could all exhibit the same signs and symptoms before talking to each other. Especially since the signs have little to nothing to do with the fictional concept of the vampire.

So where does this leave us? Alone, hopefully, at least some what. Please realize we run our own circles often enough. We doubt, we fear, and the pain brings us back and reminds us again what we are...but not why. No one likes to be reminded of their doubts, least of all those stuck somewhere between science, mythology, and skepticism. These are the things that haunt my mind every time someone asks one of the questions at the top. I believe its not, because there is too much, in my mind, to say it is.

This article is presented as part of an ongoing effort to present other views outside of, as well as within, the online vampire community. Those of us who consider ourselves vampiric don't always look at things from the same viewpoint due to our life experiences. As such, the views and opinions contained in this article are entirely those of the author(s), and may not necessarily be shared by SphynxCatVP. The webmaster is not under obligation to update or otherwise keep current the contents of this article. Most importantly, only you can decide for yourself whether this article or any of the author(s) other views are useful or applicable to you - you are responsible for using your own reasoning and judgement, so judge wisely.

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