Discerning distinct experiences
Mar. 9th, 2011 10:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pandora_parrotIt's really interesting to me how one's ability to discern between different experiences is developed. You go through life experiencing some diverse set of things as one homogenous thing, until something or other happens and you realize you're looking at a heterogenous set of experiences.
Take, for example, my exercise induced asthma. Up until a few years ago, every time I tried exercising, after a while I would experience a collection of sensations. Fatigue, shortness of breath, wheezing, headache, etc. I referred to it as "being exhausted" and that was it. It was one homogenous experience.
However, when I received my inhaler this past summer, I discovered that I was actually experiencing two different experiences. Actually several experiences. One experience was muscle fatigue, which is where a particular muscle starts getting harder and harder to move. Another experience was general fatigue, where my body is out of energy and needs food, water, and rest before continuing. And still another experience was asthma attacks, where I was out of breath, wheezing, etc.
Nowadays, I'm starting to be able to tell the difference between these various things. On the way to work today, I started feeling the familiar burning in my lungs coupled with short, shallow breaths, lung pain, and wheezing, and I knew that I was starting to have an asthma attack. Years ago, I would have assumed that this was just exhaustion, and the fact that it came on so soon after starting out meant that I was really out of shape. I would have beaten myself up for not working harder on losing weight and getting in shape, and then pushed on in pain, stopping every few feet to gasp for breath and wait for oxygen to return.
Nowadays, I know what's going on. I stopped, whipped out my inhaler, took a few shots, and waited. After a while, I could feel my throat relaxing and air flowing normally. Once I was taking deep breaths again, I hopped back on and rode off. No other feelings for the rest of the 10 mile ride.
This is a completely different experience from what happened the other day when I did 20 miles on my bike to go to a friend's house, and found my body shaking with exhaustion towards the end. I wasn't wheezing or having trouble breathing. My body was simply out of energy. I needed to collapse on a couch and rest for a while.
And both of those are completely different from a time early when I was hiking where I felt my leg muscles become harder to move despite the rest of me feeling fine. I wasn't out of breath or tired, really. I just couldn't really push my leg muscles any more.
I was unable to discern these experiences from one another until I could experience them separately and name them as distinct experiences. Yet I've been experiencing all of them all my life.
It's just something interesting to think about. What experiences have you had that are like this? Where you've discovered that experiences in your 'verse are actually more distinct than you realized previously?
Take, for example, my exercise induced asthma. Up until a few years ago, every time I tried exercising, after a while I would experience a collection of sensations. Fatigue, shortness of breath, wheezing, headache, etc. I referred to it as "being exhausted" and that was it. It was one homogenous experience.
However, when I received my inhaler this past summer, I discovered that I was actually experiencing two different experiences. Actually several experiences. One experience was muscle fatigue, which is where a particular muscle starts getting harder and harder to move. Another experience was general fatigue, where my body is out of energy and needs food, water, and rest before continuing. And still another experience was asthma attacks, where I was out of breath, wheezing, etc.
Nowadays, I'm starting to be able to tell the difference between these various things. On the way to work today, I started feeling the familiar burning in my lungs coupled with short, shallow breaths, lung pain, and wheezing, and I knew that I was starting to have an asthma attack. Years ago, I would have assumed that this was just exhaustion, and the fact that it came on so soon after starting out meant that I was really out of shape. I would have beaten myself up for not working harder on losing weight and getting in shape, and then pushed on in pain, stopping every few feet to gasp for breath and wait for oxygen to return.
Nowadays, I know what's going on. I stopped, whipped out my inhaler, took a few shots, and waited. After a while, I could feel my throat relaxing and air flowing normally. Once I was taking deep breaths again, I hopped back on and rode off. No other feelings for the rest of the 10 mile ride.
This is a completely different experience from what happened the other day when I did 20 miles on my bike to go to a friend's house, and found my body shaking with exhaustion towards the end. I wasn't wheezing or having trouble breathing. My body was simply out of energy. I needed to collapse on a couch and rest for a while.
And both of those are completely different from a time early when I was hiking where I felt my leg muscles become harder to move despite the rest of me feeling fine. I wasn't out of breath or tired, really. I just couldn't really push my leg muscles any more.
I was unable to discern these experiences from one another until I could experience them separately and name them as distinct experiences. Yet I've been experiencing all of them all my life.
It's just something interesting to think about. What experiences have you had that are like this? Where you've discovered that experiences in your 'verse are actually more distinct than you realized previously?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-03-10 03:59 am (UTC)I expected the meds to help me with my studying..and focus at work, it never occurred to me that many other problems were connected with it as well.
Before the meds, I couldn't hit a softball, I thought it was a separate problem, bad co-ordination/slow reflexes. I also would lose my car in parking lots,get lost easily, lose my keys, etc - i thought it was just a memory issue. I would also lose hours and whole days staring at the wall, thinking about something. I would have lots of "Wake ups" where I was suddenly aware and lucid for short bit and then would get ditsy again. I also drank huge volumes of caffeine just to keep calm. I also had missing time alot, that was always upsetting - I would have an empty glass and think about going to fridge to fill it...then look over and suddenly it was full again, and i didn't remember doing it - much like when your driving you don't remember everything along the way - your mind goes into auto, and your like "oh im here" I also had lots of mental noise.
The meds made it all better. I realized my disorientation is because I don't remember landmarks, which I effortlessly note and remember when medicated. The softball, it's a matter of focus. Losing the car, keys, etc it's a matter of paying attention which is focus. My appetite for caffeine went down and I didn't have those "wake ups". The missing time went away. Mental noise went away, like going into a quiet room, it was comforting.
I thought i had a lot of little problems that might not be fixable. But what i had was just a few big problems that had lots of effects all over my life. So fixing a few big problems, made a huge difference in a short period of time.
Now I understand where the different problems come from better, I can work with them more effectively unmedicated and know that the med helps that.
that were fixable with the right meds and some were only temporary issues that were fixed long term from only a month on a particular med.