"Con Mode" Myth or Truth?

I've been going to conventions for a while now and everytime I go I notice what seems like a physiological change in my abilities. For some reason I can function normally with little to no food and sleep. I really like to eat. I mean REALLY like to eat, I am the sort of person that would never under any other circumstances skip a meal. Yet at conventions I don't really even think about food. The same is true for sleep as well. Some of my friends have said they have the same thing happen to them.

What about you?

Is "Con Mode" real? Or I am just odd? Both are probably true.

What do you think?

I am never one to function well without sleep, and I get very faint when I don't eat, but for some reason, my body seems to be able to withstand the convention atmosphere (scarce food, scarce liquids, scarce sleeptime) very well.

Maybe it's truth, but I think maybe we all have the capabilities of forgetting what we need and focus on what we want during conventions.

It's called adrenalin and once you stop it stops too. YOu just get into con mode and focus. You run into the people you know and remember why your there.

Some cons just feel good from the start, others just past you by with no feeling. Those are the ones you usually start feeling your body breaking down on. Then there are those cons that are either chaotic or just mellow and then in the last hour just feels good!!
At the end of the weekend you usually forget that you either ate a butt load of junk food or didn't eat at all.

Being on this side of the event it's hard for me to gage what the fans feel because I hardly have time to enjoy many of the events and be next to them with today's cons.
Back in the days you could be a guest and a fan at the same time and I guess some still do- But cons have gotten so big and there are so many new faces that it's hard to do both these days.
But I remember the days of all night parties or just roaming halls all night long with 72 hours of no sleep as well as just knowing everyone at the cons. I wonder if that still goes on for newbees.

Asu wrote:It's called adrenalin and once you stop it stops too. YOu just get into con mode and focus.

ohhh you sound all sciencey..... <-- (i dun even know if it's spelled right, even though i know it's not a real word....i think)

I can go through a whole day with only 3 or 4 hours of sleep sometimes, but after the con is over
it'll catch up. I'll see if i can pay attention to that next month at Neko, and the food, I'm used to eating a bit less the normal, so i guess i'm already set for umm.... "con mode" at all times ....just in case, cause one never knows when something will just pop up from nowhere.

TheMightyWidget wrote:ohhh you sound all sciencey..... <-- (i dun even know if it's spelled right, even though i know it's not a real word....i think)

Don' worry, U can make up words here.

But Conmode is definitely a disease and local cons are the best- you can still crash at home- Wow no traveling for AMA this year. Neat NOVA owns all the cons!!!!

I thought that Adrenalin, or Epinephrine as it is also know, was a product of the Adrenal gland during "Fight or Flight" stressors or other short-term stressors. I hadn't really thought of it as a possiblity for causing the "Con Mode" reactions because of the length of conventions. Thanks for the idea. I'll have to study up and do some more investigating into this possibility.

Conscious wrote:I thought that Adrenalin, or Epinephrine as it is also know, was a product of the Adrenal gland during "Fight or Flight" stressors or other short-term stressors. I hadn't really thought of it as a possiblity for causing the "Con Mode" reactions because of the length of conventions. Thanks for the idea. I'll have to study up and do some more investigating into this possibility.

Whenever the mind is stimulated, or when you get excited, the adrenal glands secrete adrenaline. This applies to the said "fight or flight" mode, stress, having fun (like being on rollercoasters), having sex. Adrenaline is all over the place. It's what keeps your body going when your brain tells you that you want to keep going. When stimulus for this is gone, the adrenal glands slow the production of adrenaline, causing the crashing feeling when your body slows down to realize it hasn't been well taken care of.

Oh yes, I call it Conventionitis. It stems from a variety of causes. One, lots of stuff to do--like if you're staff, press, volunteering, selling stuff, doing panels...it's a major source of stress. Two, lots of stuff you want to see. At Otakon I find myself running from place to place a lot, mostly due to the first cause (gotta cover stuff). Three, a lot of cons take place in hotels, and due to the first two causes, you don't want to leave the hotel to get food. You then discover that the hotel cafe or whatever has vastly inflated prices and you end up running on very little the whole weekend ($3 10 oz. bottles of Coke, anyone? Or how about some $8 waffles?). I think during one con I went to back in June out in Los Angeles, I had only like two and a half complete meals the whole time, and only like ten hours of sleep. I got back to my dad's place out there after the con and slept about 14 hours.

Ok, I definately believe it's true. I just came back from Nekocon and as Mari can tell you, exhaustion does not hit me until Sunday. I am wide awake all weekend until Sunday night. And I cant eat. Like, if I try to eat at conventions, I start to feel physically ill. When, usually, it's the reverse. I think it's all that adrenaline. Lol.

Yes it is true. Ok i guess I did eat at the normal meal times, but the meals were extremely small, after breakfast on saturday i had a hot dog and coke, then a burger and coke for dinner, then sunday was breakfast and tenders and fries and more coke. and sleep was very little, i think i went to sleep at 2:30 the first night and woke up at 8:00 to SHOWER..like everyone needs to but some don't, but i didn't run into anyone that funked, i guess it's cause i'm so passive and don't approach people. that much, even if i do look like them. and then eat and the events started at 9:00, the second night i went to sleep at about 3:30 and forgot about the time change so i guess i got the same amount of sleep with one extra hour of being awake. And then sunday was hard cause i had to work from 9 to midnight x.x but when i did get to sleep it was a while. I think i slept for about 8½ hours... x.x