This past weekend, I caught part of the CBC (Canadian public radio) science show "Quirks and Quarks". The section was about "What makes us happy?".
The part that I came in at was discussing evolutionary biochemistry, and said approximately
This naturally reminded me of my own experiences, and those reported by a number of others here, that the urge to cross-dress builds up and becomes more urgent until it is indulged... after which it builds up again. I know from my experience that I habituated to wearing panties fairly quickly: I am not as comfortable now if I do not wear panties in my daily life, but it isn't something that I think about a great deal: wearing panties doesn't really make me happy, but I still need my dose of neopantinol for life to run smoothly.Filling your wants does not make you happy. You want things just because you want them; there isn't a reason for most wants: they just are. Your urge to fill a want will build up and build up until it is finally filled, which will temporarily satisify you, but will not really make you happy. Instead, the satisfication will fade away and a new want will come to the forefront and you will get the urge to fill that. Our brains are essentially wired for unhappiness when it comes to filling desires.
The show went on to indicate that only a few things really make us happy over the long run. One of the biggest of those was community -- a feeling of belonging to a group.
Thinking afterward, I wondered: for how many of us is it not really the dressing up itself that makes us happy, but rather the socialization, whether information or at societies and clubs, or in electronic meeting places like this one? Does participating in this forum make you feel happier than the dressing itself does -- the dressing being something you need but not something that makes you happy?