40#Wet Finger Feeling

The more tired I am, the more I find synaesthetic hallucinations can get a bit much.

I’m sitting at my laptop hunting for primary sources for a presentation I’m giving soon, and my brain is a bit fried. There is a bottle of water to my left. A moment ago I took a drink (I’m getting to the good bit, honest) and set it back down again. As I was typing, I noticed a horrid, creeping sensation sweep over me,  and felt a wet finger tracing its way down my face, neck and chest. I also felt it on my tongue (where I feel a lot of synaesthetic hallucinations), and saw a blue line. It took me a second to realise it was my brain’s way of registering that a drop of water had slipped its way down the inside of the bottle (this was long after I had swallowed my gulp of water, so it wasn’t related to that sensation). I must have caught the movement with my eye, and this caused me to feel as if the water was actually on my skin. Had I been more lively and less worn-out, the effect probably wouldn’t have been so pronounced. Perhaps its my mind’s way of keeping me alert when I’m super tired. Who knows!

*Drinks more water.

*Eyes water bottle.

* Waits in dread for wet finger feeling..

11# The Sensory Hierarchy

Sometimes, when I’m really tired I can’t tell the difference between hot and cold when I’m running a bath. I’ve burnt myself a few times because I thought the water was still cold. This is because the more extreme the temperature, the more white the colour of the sensation becomes on my hands, regardless of temperature. When I’m really exhausted or run down, even normal temperatures of hot and cold can confuse me.

Experiences like this have made me realise that I actually rely more on the synaesthetic colour/pattern information my brain receives, than on my other senses. I look for the colour/pattern first, and when that isn’t clear, I fall back on just using my ears, hands, eyes etc. But it’s hard to switch because sometimes I forget how that works.

The thought of waking up one day and finding that I no longer have synaesthesia scares me. I rely on it for so much in my daily life, it would so hard trying to adjust to life without it.