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A brain injury removed my ability to perceive time

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Re: A brain injury removed my ability to perceive time

#81

Post by imperialdrive »

thunkle wrote: post #56

I tried a 5mg THC edible last week (new user) and I lost my short term memory for about 50 hours. It was hell because I could still remember some things but my visual memory was 0, so it was like I was always coming out of a dark cloud that's 15 seconds behind me, but perceiving now in full clarity. It really messed with my perception of time. I wonder how many times I thought: "what's going on... ok you lost your sh…

Very similar happened to me smoking the first time. Mostly due to not knowing limit. Looking back I'd say it was like ~5x what would have done the job. To this day I need to carefully dose. Awesome time vs anxious time is not far apart dose-wise. Glhf!

Re: A brain injury removed my ability to perceive time

#82

Post by corobo »

reitanqild wrote: post #15

ADHD is sometimes wittily described as time dyslexia, and while I haven't met anyone who has described symptoms as bad as this and also know friends with ADHD who play music seemingly effortlessly, this article was still very interesting to me. I have understood and it also observed that meditation can help somewhat, and I wonder what else can help for people otherwise function well who struggle with time?

Having my watch nudge me on the hour has improved my perception of time immensely

Re: A brain injury removed my ability to perceive time

#83

Post by devjab »

512 wrote: post #23

I feel I have a slightly "time-warped" memory. I often can't tell whether something was two months or over a year ago, for instance. I believe this to be caused by depression, as I've seen many similar reports online. Life assumes a sort of "flow" state, as you don't care enough to pay attention to things. It affects my memory in general as well.

With ADHD this is pretty much a thing. If you also get the “funzies” where you sometimes “relieve” a moment in a way that is so real that you end up speaking out loud in response to the relived memory, you should probably consider getting it looked into.

Especially if your depression isn’t a “real” depression. What I mean by that isn’t to minimise it’s impact or how it feels, but I was once in a depression group where I just didn’t fit in. I was in it because I had been suicidal, so, well I obviously wasn’t doing ok, but unlike the other members of the group I could get up in the morning just fine. Long story short, I was diagnosed with ADHD to which depression and anxiety are often “friends” when it isn’t treated. And by treated I don’t only mean medicated.

Anyway, if this isn’t you, then I’m sorry for derailing you a bit.

Re: A brain injury removed my ability to perceive time

#84

Post by corobo »

devjab wrote: post #83
512 wrote: post #23

I feel I have a slightly "time-warped" memory. I often can't tell whether something was two months or over a year ago, for instance. I believe this to be caused by depression, as I've seen many similar reports online. Life assumes a sort of "flow" state, as you don't care enough to pay attention to things. It affects my memory in general as well.

With ADHD this is pretty much a thing. If you also get the “funzies” where you sometimes “relieve” a moment in a way that is so real that you end up speaking out loud in response to the relived memory, you should probably consider getting it looked into. Especially if your depression isn’t a “real” depression. What I mean by that isn’t to minimise it’s impact or how it feels, but I was once in a depression group wher…

> I was once in a depression group where I just didn’t fit in

One of my weirdest thoughts to date has to be "I think this group is for normal suicidal people" haha

Doing much better now! Similar to you my depression was more of an ADHD symptom than "real" depression. Real in terms of end result but treatment for ADHD worked much better than antidepressants.

It's kinda hard to not be depressed when you're not getting any dopamine from doing things I guess

Re: A brain injury removed my ability to perceive time

#85

Post by henearkr »

samus wrote: post #76
haswell wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My brother is dealing with a TBI, and in a nutshell, it’s exactly that. The reason most of us glance at the clock is because we feel the passage of time and wonder what time it must be now. He doesn’t always feel time passing, and he could go hours before it even occurs to him to look at his phone or a clock. He relies on timers and reminders to keep things on track.

I wonder whether my work colleague has that issue. Every 20mins there are timers going off on his phone. On the other hand, he is a smoker, and I imagine that the nicotine dependency ought to act as sort of a replacement for that sense. Not a terribly precise one though.

No I think it's more likely that he is using the Pomodoro method.

Re: A brain injury removed my ability to perceive time

#86

Post by elcritch »

haswell wrote: post #33
ryanSrich wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that work in practice? She can read a clock right? So would she just not remember to look at the clock to see the time? Genuinely curious.

My brother is dealing with a TBI, and in a nutshell, it’s exactly that. The reason most of us glance at the clock is because we feel the passage of time and wonder what time it must be now. He doesn’t always feel time passing, and he could go hours before it even occurs to him to look at his phone or a clock. He relies on timers and reminders to keep things on track.

That sounds very familiar. As someone with ADHD when I get hyperfocused I can completely loose track of time. It’s a large part of why many ADHDers struggle with being on time to things.

However it can be great for getting into the flow programming.

Re: A brain injury removed my ability to perceive time

#87

Post by Doxin »

elcritch wrote: post #86
haswell wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My brother is dealing with a TBI, and in a nutshell, it’s exactly that. The reason most of us glance at the clock is because we feel the passage of time and wonder what time it must be now. He doesn’t always feel time passing, and he could go hours before it even occurs to him to look at his phone or a clock. He relies on timers and reminders to keep things on track.

That sounds very familiar. As someone with ADHD when I get hyperfocused I can completely loose track of time. It’s a large part of why many ADHDers struggle with being on time to things. However it can be great for getting into the flow programming.

> It’s a large part of why many ADHDers struggle with being on time to things.

The group of ADHDers that can be on time on the other hand will often accomplish this by spending the time up to an appointment doing nothing but worrying about being on time.

Re: A brain injury removed my ability to perceive time

#88

Post by rabite »

GistNoesis wrote: post #77
rabite wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was imprisoned on false charges and tortured by the United States government. A precedent-setting appeal freed me, but not before I spent a long time in solitary confinement, much of that on a hunger strike. Solitary confinement causes brain damage so severe it is visible on a CT scan. The area that it damages is the hippocampus, which is key of in the perception of time and spatial memory. I can still perceive tim…

Thanks for your feedback. I feel sorry for you. Malnutrition probably didn't help with respect to the CT injuries. Does in-person conversation help to stabilize your flow of time ? Can piggybacking on someone else (like a helper, or group activities) help you recover your own sense of longer term coherency by synchronizing your flow with others ?

> Does in-person conversation help to stabilize your flow of time?

No, it makes it a lot harder. It's easiest on a short-term basis if I constantly echo a phrase over and over in my head, like an internal metronome. I can't do that and talk at the same time. Nothing really helps, it is actual physical damage to your brain and nobody knows how to fix it. The best thing is to just accept that your brain is really broken and start finding mnemonics and workarounds to get by.

Re: A brain injury removed my ability to perceive time

#89

Post by jen729w »

grogenaut wrote: post #22

After my mom's stroke she basically lost the concept of time. Apparently it's relatively common. Kids don't get the concept of time until an age, and you can lose it. Amazing how much you need it how things fall apart in this modern life without it. Didn't help that she decided to use a 2017 calendar in 2018, I questioned my sanity as I unraveled the mess. It very much impacted her life. About the only good thing was…

Ha! What a lovely way with words you have. That made me laugh.

I’ve recently ‘gone solo’ and I decided to experiment with caring a little less about time. The only starkly visible clock in the house is on the oven, so I reset it. But it still tells a time, and I knew I’d eventually figure out the delta, so I covered it with tape.

It’s funny how lunch is supposed to be at ~midday, but when you don’t know when midday is, does it really matter when you eat lunch? It’s a really, really hard habit to kick. Gradually I get more to the stage where I eat “when I could eat”, but still. Lunch is at lunchtime.

This experiment did make me realise just how much I looked at that clock. Check the time, check the time. To what end? I can’t tell you. That habit does appear to be on the wane.

Re: A brain injury removed my ability to perceive time

#90

Post by dendrite9 »

abrookewood wrote: post #42
js2 wrote: post #19

Diane Van Deren is an ultra runner who had part of her brain removed to treat her seizures. It also affected her ability to perceive time and to read maps. She originally started running to self-treat her seizures, but eventually running no longer staved them off. Oddly, not being able to perceive time may have benefitted her running: > Dr. Gerber credits her endurance in part to her brain limitations. He says runner…

There's a book by Oliver Sacks that covers people affected by strange neurological disorders and it is fascinating [0]. I can't recall any of them being viewed in a positive light, but it's still worth a read. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63697.The_Man_Who_Mistoo...

That book helped someone I know he was mostly face blind.

Recently I was listening to a discussion where someone was trying to explain her synesthesia about time to a bunch of people who didn't experience that. I found it really hard to wrap my head around, but there is a picture in this article of how one person visualizes time over the course of a year. The idea is just so far from what I think of as normal that it is difficult to really grasp.

"I thought everyone thought like I did, says Holly Branigan, also a scientist at Edinburgh University, and someone with time-space synaesthesia.

"I found out when I attended a talk in the department that Julia was giving. She said that some synaesthetes can see time. And I thought, 'Oh my god, that means I've got synaesthesia'." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8248589.stm

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