uPoe changed from having a high tolerance for alcohol and
partying in his college years to low
tolerance later in life:
u“My sensitive temperament could not
stand an excitement
which was an
everyday matter to my companions. ...
For some days
after each excess I was invariably confined to bed.”
EAP, letter to Dr. Joseph
Snodgrass, 8/1/1841
uPoe became hypersensitive not just to alcohol but to all types
of sensory stimuli
(aka, Multi-Sensory Sensitivity):
u““True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully
nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed, not dulled them. … Have I not told you
that what you mistake
for madness is but overacuteness of the senses?” EAP, The
Tell Tale Heart, 1843
u
u