[shadowmore]

It's usually prescribed specifically for fever, not just for any pain.

Could this be why so many people (myself included) report feeling a sense of wanting to live a more proactive life when sick with a fever?

You'd think it would just be because you're feeling a sense of contrast from your usual more energized state and want to avoid wasting energy on unproductive things once you get it back, but could it actually be because the Acetominophen reduces our overall sense of anxiety?

The article talks about how there have been studies that show it dampens all emotions, but to feel more sure about long-term efforts, you don't strictly need to be emotionally charged or inspired, you just need to be less anxious about the potential failure of such efforts.

[dragonwriter]

> It's usually prescribed specifically for fever, not just for any pain.

It is regularly prescribed (alone or as part of a compounded drug with opioids) for post surgical pain; as I understand it's the most effective common non-narcotic painkiller for traumatic injury, but not as effective as NSAIDs (or steroids) for inflammatory pain, because it doesn't specifically target inflammation.

[thinkingemote]

> report feeling a sense of wanting to live a more proactive life when sick with a fever?

There is (very weak) theory that, given that viruses want to spread to more hosts, and given that certain infections like toxoplasma or rabies can change the hosts behaviours, that a virus wants us to get out more and be more socialable. The urge to live a life when we feel when sick with fever could be part of the infection changing our behaviour to make it spread!

Viruses and other things exploit our behaviours of sneezing and coughing to spread after all, so why not increase the chances some more.

There was one study done that showed that those who were just injected with the flu vaccine (as a safer way than actually infecting people with the flu) that they became more gregarious and went out socialising more.

The science is pretty weak and can be explained that those who had the vaccine felt more protected and invulnerable, so it does not prove anything.

The researchers theorised that sexually transmitted diseases may also want to spread. Its possible that being infected by STDs could make you more promiscuous therfore.

There's no studies done on covid infections and change of host behaviour. Suggesting that people might not be fully free in their decisions when pre-symptomatic and infectious would mainly be not helpful, useful and also dangerous.

To me, the idea that viruses could affect our mental state is so out there its similar to the idea that the bacteria in our guts could affect our mental state 20 years ago.