What's on your Won't Do list?

[graceanne]

I could never do a drug requiring injection. I'm skeered to death of needles!

I used to be afraid of needles. Spend enough time in the hospital you learn to be less afraid. The first time I was sick I refused pain meds. Then I didn't. Besides, I had a constant IV (which is loads of fun when you have irritable veins and can't hold an IV more than 24 hours).

I still won't let them shoot stuff into my shoulders to numb them. I told them flat out I'm not in that much pain, yet.

It's the Myers-Briggs definition of introversion. It doesn't mean shy or socially inept, it means that when I'm around other people I tend to get more tired and it's draining.

Extroverted people tend to get energized from being around other people.

According to the Myers-Briggs test, both my husband and I are extraordinarily introverted. Opposite in every other respect, I'm INFP and he's ISTJ. But it's the "I" that makes it easy for us to be around each other day to day and feel like we're normal in a culture that values extroversion and considers introversion to be pathological.

For me it's because I'm so very sensitive to everything about people, what they're thinking, what they're saying, what they're doing. I can't NOT put all my attention on anybody around me, and it is like constant juggling. I'm hyperaware and that's exhausting.

I'm a definite IN. It doesn't mean socially awkward even, just what you said. If I have a choice there are no people around me. I don't have issues with little meaningless interactions, I can even have sales jobs, but it exhausts me. It's something I have to have external rewards built into. And certain kinds of interaction are very very hard for me - I'd rather give a public speech than have to say "hey everyone in here, can you listen up? Thanks - I need you to form a line to the right" or something like that. Damned impossible.

It's hard for us to live together and it's impossible for me to have platonic roomates. There's a never. Ugh.

I'm extroverted under all definitions of the word. My mom calls me (and my sisters) 'icebreakers with feet'.

Epidural - worked everywhere BUT where it was supposed. Numb from my ass to my toes, but I could feel everything around my damned knee.

I'm like that. With my first cesarian they had to give me a local, too. Then they put me under after my daughter was born. With my second cesarian they gave me and epidural then a half an hour later I climbed onto the surgery bed thing for them. My doctor said "I AM NOT TOUCHING HER UNTIL SHE CAN'T DO THAT!" LOL They ended up having to put me under. With the third they just went straight to a spinal tap. Which made me HURL.

im allergic to codeine. found out after getting three wisdom teeth pulled, which lemme tell you is a FABULOUS time to find out that codeine makes you violently ill.

i was admitted to the hospital for a bad bad case of strep this past year. along with a high fever and insanely high white blood cell count, i was throwing up nonstop. ignoring the medical alert bracelet on my wrist which led them to the medical card i carry saying among other things that i was allergic to codeine, they put me on percocet. and then proceeded to wonder why i wouldnt stop violently throwing up.

That's because doctors are MORONS. My friend is allergic to vicodin/codeine too. She got a really bad chest cold, and they gave her cough syrup. We thought she had pneumonia, cause she was having so much trouble breathing. Then I finally got a day off work and went over to her house to do some cleaning, and was reading the information that came with her cough syrup. It said, plainly, 'do not take if you are allerigc to vicodin'. She stopped taking it, and suddenly was able to breathe again.

Idiots. (The doctors that is.)

Alcohol, however, turns me into a party vegetable.

I LOVE that line. That's so me. Booze makes me sleepy.

 

[myinnerslut]

I think the problem was more that nobody checked or asked.

precisely.

id think the medical bracelet on my wrist would at least cause some questions. i think what happened was they just stopped asking after they found out about the heart monitor i have implanted in my chest from the surgery earlier this year, and assumed it was the whole reason for it being there. stupid mistake, but i understand kinda sorta i guess.

 

[JMohegan]

Reading this made me happy.

What's worth what? I love living in small places for exactly the reason above. I know every employee of every shop on this island. It means I sacrifice some privacy, time, money and selection but it also means if I don't have enough money for a purchase, Maffi will just say, "Oh come back later and pay." Sometimes we all sing along to the radio, which is quite hilarious. Me and three Maori women belting out "You've lost that lovin' feeling". We won't be performing in Vegas any time soon, I assure you.

Going back to civilization in October was surreal. I felt so small.

I can't imagine living somewhere without several million people, at least, within reasonably close proximity. I love the energy, and the diversity, and the range of cultural options available in a sizable city.

I know the cashiers where I buy my food, and the ladies at the dry cleaners. The guy who delivers my mail, and the kids in my neighborhood, as well as their parents. Friends, family, colleagues, fellow volunteers. Lots of people.

I feel small at the beach, or in an airplane. In a place like the Grand Canyon or Glacier National Park, I feel absolutely tiny. Not small in a bad way, but small in the sense of keeping things in perspective.

 

[JMohegan]

We have a little three-door Saturn and a motorcycle. I work at home and I get headaches so often and can't really drive myself places, I can't justify having a car of my own. We've weathered all the gas crunches very well and the bike is for stuff like "gotta pick up the dog's prescription..." It's two towns over and we just like hopping on the bike together to go get a little tiny bottle once a month. I just like holding on.

I've never been on a motorcycle, but the riding together part does sound fun.

 

[Netzach]

I generally test 50/50 on introvert/extrovert, or a very slight edge to extrovert if there is a difference. My personality can ramp up or down situationally as well.

Alcohol, however, turns me into a party vegetable.



I actually like this sort of person in the right situation. viv can be this way. I tend to see it less like dragging conversation out of them and more like trying to find a way to get them to talk more comfortably. Admittedly, when it fails, it drives me buggy.

--



I think the problem was more that nobody checked or asked.

--



I've never understood this. It really did nothing for me, right up until the point where I got sleepy. Then it was just going off to sleep. No pleasure high. I've gotten more happy feelings from a balloonful of helium, or too much time spent priming with a rattlebomb.

For me it was a needleful of Buddha. I could see it all, weigh it all, understand it all, and not feel it at all. Or, it still hurt and I didn't care.

Good thing I don't have access to it regularly.

 

[Recidiva]

Is it hard to make close friends because of that?

Nope. Just means that there is no other type of friend other than close.

I'm not a networker and my father would always tell me "Get out and meet people so you know who to go to when your car breaks down. Find a mechanic. Find a lawyer." This idea is alien and "ew" to me. I couldn't possibly do it or know where to start. I would never ask a friend a business favor. That sort of thing, entirely socially normal and expected (I know this is MY issue and not everyone else's) makes me feel like a social prostitute. So NO networking of any sort. There's business and there's personal and never the twain shall meet. I'm polite to everyone socially and I like putting people at ease, I have no problem making friends. I really just "find" friends rather than make them. They click or they don't. If they click, they're welcome to every bit of me with no reservations. If they don't click, I make no effort whatsoever to establish or acknowledge or maintain any level of intimacy. If I were to explain what it's like to be a close friend of mine, it's like recognizing a spouse from another lifetime. I know stuff about them they know I can't know. But I do and if they think that's cool, then good. We're in.

All or nothing sort of person. Though the "nothing" isn't rude or shy or angry or in any way negative, I'm just a polite, solicitous blank wall. If I don't want to be around someone, I'll just make myself uninteresting to them until they move on.

But someone close to me has to get used to the idea that I'll know what they are thinking from the tone of their voice, the way they move, their posture, or just osmosis. I just know or want to know everything with a person I feel connected to, and probably karmically responsible for in some way. Casual people are not good with what equates to the right to read minds and ask every question and know every detail. I don't inflict myself on people. I scare people that don't think that's utterly cool. Lots of people want to keep their secrets and completely freak out if I zero in on their issues within five minutes of close proximity.

I have been told "get out of my head" lots of times by those freaked out by me, who think I'm a con artist and I must have been sorting through their trash, out to get them or expose them or hurt them somehow. People who fear being "real" socially in any way and I do not mix. Most of the ways people conceal their "inner being" in whatever way I don't even notice or pay attention to.

I just don't have any patience for talking to someone's mask or socially constructed persona. Either let me in or I'm moving on. I feel ridiculous trying to take someone's social sock puppet seriously.

 

[Homburg]

For me it was a needleful of Buddha. I could see it all, weigh it all, understand it all, and not feel it at all. Or, it still hurt and I didn't care.

Good thing I don't have access to it regularly.

Some days it irritates me that I get no enjoyment from things like this. Drinking, partying that involves drinking, going out to clubs/bars, etc don't appeal to me. I just don't get the altered mental states because they just don't feel good.

The only two clubs I will willingly go to earned my patronage by simple virtue of abundant goth/fetish/industrial eye-candy. And I'm always DD when I go.

 

[ZRT]

Most painkillers don't do much for me. The one time I got the morphine, I was like 'That's all?' Pretty disappointing after all the hype.

Demoral, on the other hand, sent me well into the happy place. Scary stuff, there. I've had it twice, both times under extreme excruciation, and otherwise avoid it like the plague. I could so get hooked on that.

I stick to aspirin, usually about twice-recommended, and generally only for headaches. (I get some bangers going up there.)

 

[eastern sun]

I can't imagine living somewhere without several million people, at least, within reasonably close proximity. I love the energy, and the diversity, and the range of cultural options available in a sizable city.

I know the cashiers where I buy my food, and the ladies at the dry cleaners. The guy who delivers my mail, and the kids in my neighborhood, as well as their parents. Friends, family, colleagues, fellow volunteers. Lots of people.

I feel small at the beach, or in an airplane. In a place like the Grand Canyon or Glacier National Park, I feel absolutely tiny. Not small in a bad way, but small in the sense of keeping things in perspective.

Me, too. The sky makes me feel small. And the earth. And the ocean.

 

[graceanne]

I can't imagine living somewhere without several million people, at least, within reasonably close proximity. I love the energy, and the diversity, and the range of cultural options available in a sizable city.

I know the cashiers where I buy my food, and the ladies at the dry cleaners. The guy who delivers my mail, and the kids in my neighborhood, as well as their parents. Friends, family, colleagues, fellow volunteers. Lots of people.

I feel small at the beach, or in an airplane. In a place like the Grand Canyon or Glacier National Park, I feel absolutely tiny. Not small in a bad way, but small in the sense of keeping things in perspective.

That's pretty much me. Although I don't need millions, I just want a decent sized city near me. But, yeah, I know the check out ladies at the grocery store. I know everyone at my bank. I even know the people at the local McDonalds (they have my iced tea). Honestly, I'm very friendly so I know people just about any place that I go to routinely. But, then, I'm very extroverted. I don't make friends easily, but I make acquaintances easily.

...makes me feel like a social prostitute.

It would me, too. I make friends for friends, not so I have someone to use if I need them. And, honestly, I have problems asking my friends for help, I sure wouldn't be able to ask anyone else.

I have been told "get out of my head" lots of times by those freaked out by me, who think I'm a con artist and I must have been sorting through their trash, out to get them or expose them or hurt them somehow. People who fear being "real" socially in any way and I do not mix. Most of the ways people conceal their "inner being" in whatever way I don't even notice or pay attention to.

I get this from people a lot. Or they ask me why they're telling me private stuff, when they just met me. And the more I'm around people the better I know them. It weirds them out a bit, and makes it difficult to make friends. People like a certain amount of privacy.

On the bright side, as I get older it bugs people less. It REALLY bugged them when the teeny bopper had a pretty good idea what was going on, sometimes before they did. LOL

 

[graceanne]

Most painkillers don't do much for me. The one time I got the morphine, I was like 'That's all?' Pretty disappointing after all the hype.

Demoral, on the other hand, sent me well into the happy place. Scary stuff, there. I've had it twice, both times under extreme excruciation, and otherwise avoid it like the plague. I could so get hooked on that.

I stick to aspirin, usually about twice-recommended, and generally only for headaches. (I get some bangers going up there.)

I hate morphine. It makes me depressed, sad, and sometimes I hallucinate on it. And I don't have good hallucinations, either. It's not worth the high.

 

[Recidiva]

It would me, too. I make friends for friends, not so I have someone to use if I need them. And, honestly, I have problems asking my friends for help, I sure wouldn't be able to ask anyone else.

I get this from people a lot. Or they ask me why they're telling me private stuff, when they just met me. And the more I'm around people the better I know them. It weirds them out a bit, and makes it difficult to make friends. People like a certain amount of privacy.

On the bright side, as I get older it bugs people less. It REALLY bugged them when the teeny bopper had a pretty good idea what was going on, sometimes before they did. LOL

It's a lot easier for me too. I don't make excuses or feel defensive or sensitive about it any more. It's just who I am. I can't help it. I don't try to explain it or find the answer to it any more either. It just is.

Sometimes it's hard for me to tell which thoughts are mine if they're out in the air and floating around. If I'm looking directly at someone, I have a better idea of it, because I'm focusing. But if someone walks behind me, sometimes I might get the urge to sing a song and then the other person says "What the fuck, that song's been stuck in my head for an hour. Get out of my head!"

In short, I've learned how NOT to finish someone's sentences for them (though I still will, just not with a "HAH HAH! I'm so smart..." tone, just helping someone find a word they're struggling to find.) I still do not know and may never know how to not START someone's sentences for them if they're casually just walking by.

 

[graceanne]

It's a lot easier for me too. I don't make excuses or feel defensive or sensitive about it any more. It's just who I am. I can't help it. I don't try to explain it or find the answer to it any more either. It just is.

Sometimes it's hard for me to tell which thoughts are mine if they're out in the air and floating around. If I'm looking directly at someone, I have a better idea of it, because I'm focusing. But if someone walks behind me, sometimes I might get the urge to sing a song and then the other person says "What the fuck, that song's been stuck in my head for an hour. Get out of my head!"

In short, I've learned how NOT to finish someone's sentences for them (though I still will, just not with a "HAH HAH! I'm so smart..." tone, just helping someone find a word they're struggling to find.) I still do not know and may never know how to not START someone's sentences for them if they're casually just walking by.

LOL Amen. With me, I don't normally start humming the song, because I so routinely have songs stuck in my head. I'm not sure why, but music helps me function, I think clearer when there's music. But, quite often, I'll SUDDENLY have an idea, and it turns out that someone else was having the same idea. I used to twist myself in knots trying to figure out if it was my idea, or their idea, or if we just happened to have the same idea at the same time, but I don't care anymore.

And I gotta be careful about thinking loudly around my son. I've lost track of the times I've been thinking 'I hope he'll forget about . . .' or 'I really don't want to deal with . . .' and have him suddenly remember whatever it is that I'm thinking about.

 

[the captians wench]

That's because doctors are MORONS. My friend is allergic to vicodin/codeine too. She got a really bad chest cold, and they gave her cough syrup. We thought she had pneumonia, cause she was having so much trouble breathing. Then I finally got a day off work and went over to her house to do some cleaning, and was reading the information that came with her cough syrup. It said, plainly, 'do not take if you are allerigc to vicodin'. She stopped taking it, and suddenly was able to breathe again.

Idiots. (The doctors that is.)



I LOVE that line. That's so me. Booze makes me sleepy.

See I'm weird. I'm allergic to vicodin, but not codeine. Usually when you are allergic to vicodin, it's the codeine that you are allergic to, because they are so closely related. Not me. I take codeine fine, but give me vicodin and I'm in hives.

 

[Recidiva]

LOL Amen. With me, I don't normally start humming the song, because I so routinely have songs stuck in my head. I'm not sure why, but music helps me function, I think clearer when there's music. But, quite often, I'll SUDDENLY have an idea, and it turns out that someone else was having the same idea. I used to twist myself in knots trying to figure out if it was my idea, or their idea, or if we just happened to have the same idea at the same time, but I don't care anymore.

And I gotta be careful about thinking loudly around my son. I've lost track of the times I've been thinking 'I hope he'll forget about . . .' or 'I really don't want to deal with . . .' and have him suddenly remember whatever it is that I'm thinking about.

I'm the same with music. I tend to think in words and in emotions and there's always a song playing in my head. I don't think in pictures or physical symbols. When I close my eyes, it's entirely dark and I can't visualize a thing. I can feel it, though.

Whether or not that's the reason why, because my brain's built that way and focuses on emotional content or intention instead of appearance, I dunno, but that's my theory and experience. I pick up emotions and intentions somehow in the framework of my brain, however that's processed. It isn't visual, though. I don't pick out complex clues from the way someone looks and form a logical conclusion. Fear and anger and scheming are as distinct to me as hot and cold and sharp and dull.

I could probably tell if someone's cheating at poker, but not because they have a physical tell. I could just...tell. Can't explain it, it's like trying to explain music to someone who is deaf. There's absolutely no way. And I don't know how it works. I was just born with it, so I can't teach it to anybody.

I just get it or I don't. I can't show my work and it's not a logical process. It's just sensing something that I can't explain how or why, but there it is.

My son's the same way. If I think about something, he'll pick up on it. We bought him a bike for Christmas last year and he came home from school and just started talking about bikes all of the sudden. He could pick up on the "bikeness" in the air. Whatever it is, you have it or you don't. I'm not sure it's a skill you can learn, and if it is, I don't know how to teach it. I can't hang out with anybody who wants me to explain it or wants a logical explanation. There isn't one.

I also can't call on it or rely on it in any way to absolutely get me through a situation. I watched "America's Psychic Challenge" and there were a lot of people who said the same thing when confronted with a specific test. "Um...it doesn't work that way." Empaths aren't precogs. Precogs aren't empaths. Clairvoyants aren't healers.

My daughter's precog. I'm not. I'm empathic. I can't tell you what will be, I can probably give you a pretty accurate read on what's going on right here, right now.

It will always, though, give me a sense of a person if I shake their hand. If I get the sense to get away from someone and never touch them again, I'll go with that.

It's a nice filter that way at least. I'm a good judge of character in person, if not always at a distance.

 

[intothewoods]

This is interesting because I hate talking to people when I go out. Introverted personality type. Shopping is something to do quickly and efficiently and finish as soon as possible and get home.

But for me also I have possible migraine triggers of strong perfume, strong lights, smoke and loud noises.

Human contact makes me sick?

I love talking to people, except when I need information from someone and they're telling me a whole story to get there. I'm learning patience though. Really, I am.

My biggest problem with Home Depot is that, to shop there, I have to drive through miles of cultural and aesthetic wasteland, filled with car dealerships, fast food joints, strip malls, traffic, and gargantuan asphalt parking lots.

By the time I get there and back, half my day is gone and I'm ready to start smashing things or ripping my eyeballs out.

The local alternative is to hop on my bike and head over to the neighborhood store, pick up my caulk, chat with the owner about how his kids are doing in college, hop back on my bike and come home. At the end of which excursion, I'm happy, relaxed, and ready to work on the shower.

I may lose a few extra dollars, but I save a significant amount of time and there's no eyeball gouging.

I hate traffic. HATE. Do you remember that whole gaff with McCain's brother calling 911 when he was stuck in traffic on the beltway? He was an asshole, for sure, but part of me felt like, I hear you, dude. I think we all discussed this on the Hillary thread, come to think of it.

Reading this made me happy.

What's worth what? I love living in small places for exactly the reason above. I know every employee of every shop on this island. It means I sacrifice some privacy, time, money and selection but it also means if I don't have enough money for a purchase, Maffi will just say, "Oh come back later and pay." Sometimes we all sing along to the radio, which is quite hilarious. Me and three Maori women belting out "You've lost that lovin' feeling". We won't be performing in Vegas any time soon, I assure you.

Going back to civilization in October was surreal. I felt so small.

I can't imagine living somewhere without several million people, at least, within reasonably close proximity. I love the energy, and the diversity, and the range of cultural options available in a sizable city.

I know the cashiers where I buy my food, and the ladies at the dry cleaners. The guy who delivers my mail, and the kids in my neighborhood, as well as their parents. Friends, family, colleagues, fellow volunteers. Lots of people.

I feel small at the beach, or in an airplane. In a place like the Grand Canyon or Glacier National Park, I feel absolutely tiny. Not small in a bad way, but small in the sense of keeping things in perspective.

I love community but I also love living in a city. I really like living in an urban neighborhood. Feels like the best of both worlds to me.

That's because doctors are MORONS. My friend is allergic to vicodin/codeine too. She got a really bad chest cold, and they gave her cough syrup. We thought she had pneumonia, cause she was having so much trouble breathing. Then I finally got a day off work and went over to her house to do some cleaning, and was reading the information that came with her cough syrup. It said, plainly, 'do not take if you are allerigc to vicodin'. She stopped taking it, and suddenly was able to breathe again.

Idiots. (The doctors that is.)

You've said this before and I know it's how you feel, but I do disagree. All doctors are not morons. It's like any other profession; there are bad doctors and there are good doctors.

 

[graceanne]

You've said this before and I know it's how you feel, but I do disagree. All doctors are not morons. It's like any other profession; there are bad doctors and there are good doctors.

Yeah, so I hear. I haven't found any good doctors, yet, and I see A LOT of doctors.

 

[graceanne]

I'm the same with music. I tend to think in words and in emotions and there's always a song playing in my head. I don't think in pictures or physical symbols. When I close my eyes, it's entirely dark and I can't visualize a thing. I can feel it, though.

Whether or not that's the reason why, because my brain's built that way and focuses on emotional content or intention instead of appearance, I dunno, but that's my theory and experience. I pick up emotions and intentions somehow in the framework of my brain, however that's processed. It isn't visual, though. I don't pick out complex clues from the way someone looks and form a logical conclusion. Fear and anger and scheming are as distinct to me as hot and cold and sharp and dull.

I could probably tell if someone's cheating at poker, but not because they have a physical tell. I could just...tell. Can't explain it, it's like trying to explain music to someone who is deaf. There's absolutely no way. And I don't know how it works. I was just born with it, so I can't teach it to anybody.

I just get it or I don't. I can't show my work and it's not a logical process. It's just sensing something that I can't explain how or why, but there it is.

My son's the same way. If I think about something, he'll pick up on it. We bought him a bike for Christmas last year and he came home from school and just started talking about bikes all of the sudden. He could pick up on the "bikeness" in the air. Whatever it is, you have it or you don't. I'm not sure it's a skill you can learn, and if it is, I don't know how to teach it. I can't hang out with anybody who wants me to explain it or wants a logical explanation. There isn't one.

I also can't call on it or rely on it in any way to absolutely get me through a situation. I watched "America's Psychic Challenge" and there were a lot of people who said the same thing when confronted with a specific test. "Um...it doesn't work that way." Empaths aren't precogs. Precogs aren't empaths. Clairvoyants aren't healers.

My daughter's precog. I'm not. I'm empathic. I can't tell you what will be, I can probably give you a pretty accurate read on what's going on right here, right now.

It will always, though, give me a sense of a person if I shake their hand. If I get the sense to get away from someone and never touch them again, I'll go with that.

It's a nice filter that way at least. I'm a good judge of character in person, if not always at a distance.

I don't know if I consider myself psychic. K says that I'm just REALLY observant and smart. *shrugs*

 

[Recidiva]

I don't know if I consider myself psychic. K says that I'm just REALLY observant and smart. *shrugs*

I'm not that observant or smart.

 

[graceanne]

I'm not that observant or smart.

I'm not saying that you aren't. Quite honestly, no one really knows that but you.

I'm just saying I don't know if I am. Mostly, I guess, cause I'm very fallible. for instance, I don't like to be touched, so just because I don't like a person touching me doesn't mean they're bad.

 

[Homburg]

And I gotta be careful about thinking loudly around my son. I've lost track of the times I've been thinking 'I hope he'll forget about . . .' or 'I really don't want to deal with . . .' and have him suddenly remember whatever it is that I'm thinking about.

An old friend of mine, Mac, did this. Usually not even remotely sensitive or observant, sometimes his brain would just turn on and other people could hear him think. One evening, Mac, myself, and my friend AP were sitting in the basement of Mac's house painting, and AP looks up at Mac and answers a question. Mac hadn't asked it, just thought it, but AP "heard" it and responded. AP called him a liar when Mac told him that he hadn't said anything. They actually started to argue until I stepped in and confirmed that nothing had been asked.

I won't even get into Mac's telepathic cat calling people from beyond the grave to open the patio door. CREEPY. It's one thing to get up for no discernable reason to open the patio door and find Dunkin sitting out there looking at you like "What took you so long, monkey?" It's another thing entirely to do the same thing and realise she's been dead for nearly a year. That happened SO many times for the first year after she died. They moved after that, and I still wonder if the house's new owners ever find themselves at the patio door wondering why they opened it.

*shudder*

--

I'm the same with music. I tend to think in words and in emotions and there's always a song playing in my head. I don't think in pictures or physical symbols. When I close my eyes, it's entirely dark and I can't visualize a thing. I can feel it, though.

Whether or not that's the reason why, because my brain's built that way and focuses on emotional content or intention instead of appearance, I dunno, but that's my theory and experience. I pick up emotions and intentions somehow in the framework of my brain, however that's processed. It isn't visual, though. I don't pick out complex clues from the way someone looks and form a logical conclusion. Fear and anger and scheming are as distinct to me as hot and cold and sharp and dull.

A certain small percentage of people cannot think visually. They tend to have a rather different set of competences from those who do think visually. Dennett talked about it "Consciousness Explained" (a fantastically interesting book on the mechanics of thought).

I just get it or I don't. I can't show my work and it's not a logical process. It's just sensing something that I can't explain how or why, but there it is.

I read some novel once that had a bit about intuitive thinking. The explanation went something like normal thinking processes A then B then C then D to get to E. Intuitive thinking goes A then E. But the author's theory was that the intuitive thinker goes through the same steps, they just process so quickly as to not be noticed.

I don't know that this is a valid premise, but it is the one I keep to. I've spent far too much time in my life knowing things about other people that I should not know. I prefer to think that I am picking up on multiple cues that I am not consciously noting and constructing a pattern from which these conclusions are drawn. It's easier on my brain than thinking I'm empathic or somesuch.

He could pick up on the "bikeness" in the air.

Coolest sentence in the thread.

 

[Recidiva]

I'm not saying that you aren't. Quite honestly, no one really knows that but you.

I'm just saying I don't know if I am. Mostly, I guess, cause I'm very fallible. for instance, I don't like to be touched, so just because I don't like a person touching me doesn't mean they're bad.

I think it's a normal sense, like a sense of smell or sense of touch or taste. Sensing something ral. Prone to mistakes and weirdnesses. I just tend to think of emotion as a "thing" in the way that light and heat and radio waves are things.

I just don't think I'm observant or smart in any way. A radio didn't write the music it's playing, can just pick it up. I just know a lot of songs from picking them up.

There ARE people who are very good at observation and human nature and can explain their logic. I can't and I don't. A person with both abilities would be great, I'm sure. I just don't have much belief in, and in fact I'm suspicious of appearances. To me I think they can be faked more easily than the underlying emotional state. And people who can fake and generate their own emotional state do exist. I'm one of 'em.

I'd never claim I was psychic in any way, as that's all occult and otherworldly. This is entirely this-worldly.

Hell, there are "super tasters" that can tell what kinda flower honey was made from. To me, that's magic.

 

[graceanne]

An old friend of mine, Mac, did this. Usually not even remotely sensitive or observant, sometimes his brain would just turn on and other people could hear him think. One evening, Mac, myself, and my friend AP were sitting in the basement of Mac's house painting, and AP looks up at Mac and answers a question. Mac hadn't asked it, just thought it, but AP "heard" it and responded. AP called him a liar when Mac told him that he hadn't said anything. They actually started to argue until I stepped in and confirmed that nothing had been asked.

I won't even get into Mac's telepathic cat calling people from beyond the grave to open the patio door. CREEPY. It's one thing to get up for no discernable reason to open the patio door and find Dunkin sitting out there looking at you like "What took you so long, monkey?" It's another thing entirely to do the same thing and realise she's been dead for nearly a year. That happened SO many times for the first year after she died. They moved after that, and I still wonder if the house's new owners ever find themselves at the patio door wondering why they opened it.

*shudder*

Things that make you go 'hm'.

Once I woke up, at least twice, in the hall way on my way to sleep in the living room. K really doesn't like it when I do that (sleep in the living room), so each time I'd stop mid step and turn around and get back in my bed. Then I dreamed that he TOLD me to go sleep in the living room, so I did.

I never did figure out why I was in the living room. I woke up a few hours later, and thought 'huh?' and went back to bed. But the urgency to sleep in the living room was gone.

A certain small percentage of people cannot think visually. They tend to have a rather different set of competences from those who do think visually. Dennett talked about it "Consciousness Explained" (a fantastically interesting book on the mechanics of thought).

I read some novel once that had a bit about intuitive thinking. The explanation went something like normal thinking processes A then B then C then D to get to E. Intuitive thinking goes A then E. But the author's theory was that the intuitive thinker goes through the same steps, they just process so quickly as to not be noticed.

I don't know that this is a valid premise, but it is the one I keep to. I've spent far too much time in my knowing things about other people that I should not know. I prefer to think that I am picking up on multiple cues that I am not consciously noting and constructing a pattern from which these conclusions are drawn. It's easier on my brain than thinking I'm empathic or somesuch.

I don't think visually, either. I hate those tests where you're supposed to say the first word that comes to mind in reply to whatever word. I don't THINK in words, I think if feelings, sign language (which is weird), and stuff.

 

[intothewoods]

Yeah, so I hear. I haven't found any good doctors, yet, and I see A LOT of doctors.

I've had both good and bad doctors, and doctors who were really good at one thing and not another (my previous OB, for example). Also, you can be a genius and be terrible at what you do. I see this with lawyers all the time. My guess would be it applies to doctors as well. On a personal level, my grandpa was a doctor and he was no idiot. He was great at what he did and saw patients for years after he retired.

 

[graceanne]

, my grandpa was a doctor and he was no idiot. He was great at what he did and saw patients for years after he retired.

That's awesome. I wish I could find a doctor like that. I could go on for days about moronic doctors. I've been nearly killed enough times to be angry and bitter. My current doctor's an idiot, but he's an idiot who does what I tell him to so I put up with him. (To be fair, he's barely out of school, and he might some day be a good doctor.)

Good doctors are like stories you hear of people getting rich selling Mary Kay or Tupperware. You know they're out there, but haven't had any experience with it personally.