After reading the discussions of Vampire-Identified People on this website, you might be wondering where to go from here if you think you might be a type of Vampire-Identified Person yourself and aren't sure what to do about it.

I'll be honest and blunt. The odds that you really are a Vampire-Identified Person of any kind, and you don't already know this with complete certainty, are very, very small. The vast majority of individuals who come into the Vampire Community claiming to be Sanguinarians, energy vampires or hybrids stay a year or two, decide they were wrong after all, and disappear. This is especially true for newcomers who are under 25. People try on many self-identities in their teens and early 20s, and they discard most of them and move on. Those of us who have been around the Vampire Community since its founding have seen hundreds, if not thousands, of earnest self-defined "vampires" come and go. Some decide they were just going through a phase or jumping on a bandwagon or trying to belong; others decide they didn't have it quite right and they're really Witches or Otherkin or artists.

A true self-identity is not something you decide quickly or easily. Until you've lived it completely, challenged it, questioned yourself in every possible way and considered every possible alternative explanation for your feelings and experiences, it's not truly yours. I don't want anyone to read this website and end up thinking, "that explains it! I know what I am!" You might--but don't bet the farm on it yet.

No one should draw conclusions about any important issue without being fully informed. I would recommend that you read all of the articles in this section, and the websites recommended within the articles (especially Sanguinarius.org for Real Vampires and SphynxCatVP's Real Vampires Support Page).

Once you have all that information to mull over, once again consider why you think you might be a Vampire-Identified Person. What aspects of the information you read and the first-person accounts made sense to you or seemed to strike a familiar note?

If you are Sanguinarian, your primary indication of this should be a deeply felt desire, craving, or even stronger urge to consume blood from other people (or other living things)--not just your own blood. Blood should hold an almost incomprehensible and irresistable attraction for you; you should feel as though you need it, that without it you are lacking a critical element for your continued well-being. This is apart from (although not necessarily in place of) any erotic attraction blood holds for you.

If (and only if) the above is true of you, then consider other, "secondary symptoms." Do you avoid sunlight and other bright light, wear sunglasses all of the time, try not to go out in the day, and sunburn easily? Are you sure there are not other medical or circumstantial explanations? (For example, some medications, and contact lenses, can make you photosensitive, some diseases cause sun sensitivity, and use of illicit drugs often dilates the pupils and makes your eyes very sensitive to light.) Are you naturally nocturnal, preferring to be awake and alert during the night and feeling lethargic during the day?

If you have thought about all of this and concluded that you have definite symptoms of being a Sanguinarian that can't be easily explained away, then your next step would be to (re)read the information on the websites recommended for Sanguinarians, join a forum such as The Vampire Community Message Board or Smoke and Mirrors, and connect with others who can help offer advice on finding donors, learning about blood safety, and otherwise solving some of the problems you face. If you are an adult over 18, you may also wish to explore the offline blood-drinking/bloodletting scenes. You should do this with caution, however, and preferably with a more experienced mentor as a guide.

If you sincerely feel that you may be a "psi-vamp," the situation is a little more complex. The "psi-vamps" differ considerably in how they can be "diagnosed." Some "psi-vamps" self-identify on the basis of how they feel; others include, or rely on, how they seem to affect people around them (which is probably a better method, provided that the effects observed are fairly consistent and not limited only to specific individuals). But some "psi-vamps" hold that the only way to know if you are a "psi-vamp" is to be "diagnosed" as one by another "psi-vamp" who reads your aura or "energy signature." This is often done via online chat sessions or phone calls.

Five years ago, it was rare for "psi-vamps" to have actually met each other offline. Now, many of them have collected into small groups or organizations, so their "diagnoses" are not quite so remote. In any event, as with Sanguinarians, I recommend reading the recommended "psychic vampire" websites and books, visiting some of the forums, and acquiring as much information as you can before you draw any definite conclusions.

You won't find specific information about Energy Mediums outside of this website, but there are some symptoms suggestive of this condition (some of which are mentioned in the article). These include feeling a strong sense that one's own energy bodies are fluctuating in a distracting way, more or less all of the time. This may be experienced as an odd illusion of fullness and emptiness, a sensation of pressure, both inward and outward, in the solar plexus or above the bridge of the nose, a sense of sudden elation, euphoria, or increased vigor, alternating with occasional, unexplained lassitude, weakness and depression. (Note that this is distinctly and qualitatively different from emotional "mood swings" or the phases of Bi-Polar Disorder.) You may also notice an optical illusion that the area around you has gotten a little brighter, as though someone just turned on an extra lamp somewhere, or darker. Occasionally you may feel a sense of physical and emotional "overload" in which you easily "hit the wall" in social situations and need to withdraw and be alone, without any rational explanation for your reaction (that is, there is nothing stressful about the situation and a moment ago you were feeling fine). Emotional empathy ("feeling" other people's emotions and experiencing them) is also a symptom, although ordinary people can be highly empathic.

"Secondary symptoms" might include sun sensitivity and nocturnalism, migraine headaches, and a high degree of psychic ability, especially tending toward the psycho-kinetic area. You may notice that things seem to break or fall on the floor around you a lot, that clocks and electrical equipment stop working--or start working well when they didn't before--and that people tend to hear strange noises in the house when you're there. Some Energy Mediums were the focal personalities of poltergeist activity as adolescents.

Unfortunately, the ideal solution for Energy Mediums is a type of training that is best done with a live teacher in person. It's possible to teach yourself physical mediumship disciplines but very difficult to get feedback on what you're doing. If such training isn't available, some form of body-work that utilizes Asian traditions of Qi and "meridians" in the body will be extremely helpful, as will learning about the structure of the human energy system and how to see/sense auras and work with them. Some types of useful body-work are Touch For Health®, reflexology, acupuncture, acupressure, or reiki. Martial arts can also be an excellent way for Energy Mediums to channel their dynamic abilities and help balance and center their own energy systems.

Google can be an invaluable tool in finding resources for training in your local area. Adult Education and college extension programs frequently offer classes in these techniques under the umbrella of "New Age" or "stress management" categories. I would not recommend discussing vampires with the instructors of these classes, however.

The primary indication that you might be a True Vampire is the inner certainty that you are not truly human--a certainty shared by those who define themselves as Otherkin. True Vampires share the blood-craving or blood-obsession of Sanguinarians, but for a different reason, as explained in the article about this type. It is, however, at least as pronounced as the blood-craving of the average Sanguinarian. True Vampires also share the energy-working abilities, and the symptoms these create, of Energy Mediums, but their talents are slanted toward a more solitary practice than the very social and healing gifts of Energy Mediums. Generally speaking, True Vampires don't arrive at adulthood with any serious doubts about what they are. It's a condition that tends to make itself known quite forcefully. There aren't many other information resources for True Vampires besides this site, but you might find it helpful to read more information about Otherkin, and consider the training suggestions given above for Energy Mediums and the practical blood drinking guidelines for Sanguinarians.