Vertiginous optimism

[mrissa]

The great thing about vertigo is that it makes the word "adventure" apply to so many more situations than it otherwise would! Taking a juice glass and a dirty towel downstairs simultaneously: what an adventure! Feeding the dog: adventure! Taking a shower: wheee, adventure!

You can tell that the vertigo is really going when you have dreams of space travel instead of sea travel, because even when a boat pitches around, you know which direction down is, mostly, sort of. Dreams of space travel, yay!

Also, um -- um --

I'm sorry, I've been sitting here for ten minutes trying to come up with a third positive, cheerful thing about vertigo to make it a nice structural pattern, and I've still got nothing. Oh, I know:

People with vertigo are more creative than people without vertigo, and also we have stronger senses of hearing and of smell!

Yah, okay, so it's not true, but it's not true of blind people or depressives, either; why should they get all the unwarranted good press when I can have some unwarranted good press all my very own? I'll bet people with vertigo are the next stage of human evolution! See ya, suckers! You'll be having your stable little lives, able to maintain the strong sense of local vertical that has kept you down, while we will be ruling the universe from our...um...well-padded ranch-style houses? Well-padded ranch-style houses in space! Yeah, that's it!

Comments

[zalena.livejournal.com]

I've always though vertigo might acclimate people for space travel. Feel free to use that in a story.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Was just thinking along those lines myself, yes.

And of course in zero gee, falling is not an issue, so the harm from vertigo is partially eliminated.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I can't tell whether it would eliminate falling or make me able to fall in six directions instead of one. But I'd sure be willing to give it a try and find out!

[eposia.livejournal.com]

While the issue itself is no laughing matter, I found myself chuckling quite a bit at how you write of it here. Especially the cool points for space travel dreams and the humorous third positive.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm glad -- I'd far rather make people laugh than make people sniffle and say, "Poooor, pooooooor Mris...oh, how the sweet little thing suffers!" I am frustrated but not particularly upset today. It's just -- something to deal with in as positive and productive a manner as I can.

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

People with vertigo have better sex. It's a fact.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It's very true, but I was too Scandosotan to brag about it in public. Now that you've let the cat out of the bag, however -- yes. Entirely true. We are also better to have sex with.

Also our hearts are filled with more loving kindness.

Also we are 17.4% more likely to recycle aluminum cans and 42.2% less likely to wear too much perfume in public places.

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

REALLY? (on the sex)
when i'm feeling vergitinous, the last thing i want to do is Go There.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Okay, here's your rule of thumb: anything I say on lj about sex is not to be taken seriously. Might be true, might not, but certainly isn't meant to be informative.

I do, however, recycle aluminum cans. That part was totally straight-up 100% true.

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

But, but, does that apply to Ellameena too? ;) Since that was the original context!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I suspect so, from knowing her several years. Yes.

Evolve or Die?

[mackatlaw.livejournal.com]

Yes, vertigo is the next stage of human evolution in the same way depression and ADHD are... That is, not at all. (Though possibly caused by cultural evolution -- more humans in tighter spaces with more environmental stressors meaning too many variables to pin the donkey on any one of them, plus the whole genetic factor.)

Yes, that sentence should be broken up into two and un-parenthesized; I wouldn't let my students try that at home, if I was teaching again!

There is something called the "Indigo Children" movement, which is a whacky, inability to conform and ability to have learning disorder, label, that means you must be a higher-stage primate. Google if you need more skepticism to arise in your system.

Many famous artists may be depressives, but I don't think they're happier people. I think they do art to keep from clawing at the walls or laying in bed, but that's my own perspective. Depression is usually a big wet blanket on getting art done except for the truly driven.

Mack

Re: Evolve or Die?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's what I was mocking.

I digress...I'm good at it

[redbird]

I read a claim recently that blind people actually do have better auditory awareness/processing, because parts of the visual cortex get remapped to processing sounds. [I haven't tracked down more information on this, so I can't swear to anything--it was a book review, and I'm now number 83 or some such on my library's list to borrow said book. ]It doesn't improve the actual ear, but, if true, it may give them more useful information from the same amount of sound coming in.

Not that this benefits people with balance problems, of course.

Re: I digress...I'm good at it

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I would be interested in how much this gets per unit sound, and also how soon the rewiring happens compared to the blindness, and/or how blind they'd have to be.

I suspect I'd be interested in all sorts of details they haven't found out yet.

From the personal experiences of two friends, blind since birth...

[akitrom.livejournal.com]

It's not how blind they have to be (the answer is, total), but how early it has to happen (which is, either before birth or within the first few months after birth). the visual cortex is an enormous chunk o' brain, and if it isn't told to do something useful right away, it wanders off to find something useful to do, usually supporting hearing and tactile functions.

How much more acute does hearing get? It's hard to measure exactly, because you don't have a personal baseline to compare an unsighted person to, but hearing gets more sensitive (able to hear quieter sounds), more discriminatory (able to pin-point where sound is coming from, and usually developing perfect pitch), and more capable of memorization. It doesn't get a greater range (ultrasonic is still ultrasonic, and age diminishes range as usual).

Re: From the personal experiences of two friends, blind since birth...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Clearly this didn't happen with Helen Keller; I'd be interested in seeing how much they've studied processing in cases where a blind or severely visually impaired person had impairment in the mechanism. Also I'd be interested in how "usually" the "usually developing perfect pitch" is: 50% more often than in the rest of the population under consideration? 75% more often? "All the time" to within the data set they've been able to take? That'd be interesting to know.

[howl-at-the-sun.livejournal.com]

Are you also more likely to aim for the ground and miss?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I can neither confirm nor deny that report.

[kaellem.livejournal.com]

delurking...
I suffered from vertigo for about 7 years, no rhyme or reason to why it left but the doctor's opinion was that it started because of a virus that affected my inner ears. I still occasionally get dizzy looking from heights; I need to hold railings when descending stairs.
The most 'interesting' event(s) was/were when I felt like I was falling UP.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yah, I've had some "falling UP" as in the space dreams. Sigh. "Interesting" is right.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Well, there's the Robert Louis Stevenson effect: it keeps butt in chair and encourages fingers on keyboard.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I find it doesn't have a strong effect that way: I'm usually pretty motivated to write, and feeling like I'm tilting forward at 45 degrees doesn't actually make me write faster.