I’m thinking way too much about Liv5 and I ended up writing this.

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Post-Concert Depression Syndrome (PCSD) - can be defined as the feeling of depression that comes about after going to an awesome concert. Many succumb to this awful ailment for one reason and one reason only: Live music just kicks ass. Period.

PCDS can evolve from these different stages:

1. Days/weeks/months before the concert, you may feel completely normal. You look forward to the concert and know it is approaching and you are super-duper excited, but you feel nothing special.
2. The morning/day of the concert, you may experience what is known as Pre-Concert Excitement – you may become surged with adrenaline.
3. Moments before the concert, you may appear calm on the surface but underneath your heart beats faster and faster, and soon the PCE will erupt from within you.
4. During the concert, you are in a place of complete bliss. You smile excessively and pump the metal-horns constantly while singing/screaming the lyrics along with the singer. You become filled with extreme emotion from seeing the band just a few feet in front of you, and you are absorbed into the “concert atmosphere” – the music pulses through your entire body and you forget about everything else in the world.
5. Immediately after the concert, you are excessively high in a natural and wonderful way. You may run around completely hyper, still reciting songs from the band, acting goofy with your friends. You appear strange to non-concertgoers. (However, if you do meet the band, you do not exhibit any of these symptoms so as not to weird them out).
6. The day after the concert, you may still be trembling with excitement and happiness. You tell of your awesome experience to anyone who would listen, although most of them don’t care. If you have autographs and/or pictures, you most definitely show them off. (Note: for some, PCDS may begin to set in).
7. Days or weeks after the concert, you experience PCDS.

Factors of PCSD may relate to fulfilling your life purpose of seeing and/or meeting your favorite band, having such an awesome time that you are dreading going back to the tedious flow of everyday life (which is exactly how I’ll feel forsure or that was the last time you would see that band for a while.)

Symptoms include: sadness, an increase in obsession with the band that you are missing (such as listening to nothing but their music), partial amnesia (the inability to remember every little thing that happened at the concert or even remembering things that never happened), and regret (for not seizing every available opportunity such as staying after get autographs or meet the band). Regret can also set in for no apparent reason.

PCDS can start almost immediately after the concert while others it can start hours afterwards. However, PCDS does affect almost everyone who attends a concert for a band they really love. PCDS can last anywhere from only a few days to weeks or months, or until the band you are missing emerges again. PCDS is not known to be permanent and while it does fade away for most, for some it only worsens.

My advice: seek support from others who suffer from PCDS, remain optimistic that the band still exists and will reappear in the future, and reminisce on all the good memories (although be warned that for some, reminiscing can make the depression worse).

The next post-concert depression that I’m looking forward to is LIV5, with the only reason that I’m going to meet my favourite band, A Rocket to the Moon.