Concerts have been around for ages and they have only become more and more complex. When you go to a concert, there are five different stages you experience. Every stage is equally as emotionally draining as the rest, and every stage varies from person to person.

1. Anticipation

From the moment you find out about the concert, you can feel the excitement. You want to go on every social media account you have and tell the world about the show you just bought tickets for. Typically, you have a friend (or a group of friends) to go with and you are all eager. Sometimes this stage begins months before a show and sometimes it is a matter of hours. Either way, you are super excited and you feel like you might pee your pants a little.

2. Car Ride

You have the tickets and the countdown on your phone now says there is only a matter of hours until you are overtaken with the music. The car ride is all of the excitement you felt during the anticipation period packed into one day. Depending on how lucky you are, the drive to the venue could be a few minutes or it could be some hours of driving. No matter how long you are driving for, though, the choice of music is the artist(s) of the concert. Unless you could not care any less about the concert or the artist(s), you are listening to them on the way there. If you thought the anticipation stage was filled with eagerness and excitement, you have never been in a car on the way to a concert.

3. Euphoria

The concert is amazing, just as you suspected, and you feel like you are floating. You can feel the music coursing through your veins and your heart beats along with the drum. Every special effect, if designed well, amplifies the feeling of the music. The presence of the artist(s) in front of you makes you feel like you are connected to them. The sense of euphoria takes over you and it feels like nothing bad can happen to you. You follow along with the lyrics and it all feels super heavy on the emotional side. There are many different types of concert-goers and no matter what kind you are, you will feel this extreme sense of joy. Some people demonstrate their sense of euphoria through their dancing and others might simply stand, taking in the music.

4. Post Concert Intoxication

The crowd is giving one last round of applause, the stage is clearing, and some people begin leaving to beat the crowd. It feels like you are slowly snapping back into reality and you have to figure who you are and why you are there. You feel the remnants of your sense of euphoria and you feel intoxicated. It was a great show and now you have to get back to the real world. Usually at this point, you feel elated. The ringing in your ears is somehow satisfying as if to signify the end to an amazing concert.

5. Post Concert Depression

The worst stage of concert-going but the most inevitable. The sense of euphoria is now completely gone and you have lost that feeling of intoxication. You keep torturing yourself by thinking about the concert and looking at pictures/videos of the concert. Someone asks you how the show went and they get confused when you talk about how amazing it was while simultaneously looking miserable. Time is the only way to cure PCD. That, or you can get tickets for the next concert.