I had to be in a very big shopping complex in Bondi this morning and started feeling unpleasantly disoriented. The visual busyness, the bright lights and colours, the noise, the flashing ads, but above all, the vast expanses of dazzling floor that were not flat. It wasnāt a bumpy floor but a floor that gradually changed gradient at certain junctions (not my imagination!). In the lift an older man with his arm in a sling told me that it was the second time he had broken his arm in this shopping centre falling onto the floor.
Shopping centres need to change their ways. These high stimulation methods might have worked to make consumers spend more in the 1980ās but we are way more savvy now and these devices are just an irritation and a health hazard.
In Canberra in a Woolworths supermarket I spotted a sign that said āQuiet Hourā. I had to move a box of nappies to see that it runs from 10.30 ā 11.30. It was 10.29 am. I waited 5 minutes but nothing changed. If Iād removed another box of nappies I would have seen that itās Tuesdays only. I asked a passing store assistant what Quiet Hour meant. āThey turn the lights down for an hourā she answered brightly. āIs that it?ā I asked, listing a few other things that they might do. āNo, just this. But it does seem to make people quieten down. Itās a start anyway!ā. No, I thought, itās mere tokenism!! My daughter told me later itās probably for autistic customers. Woolworthsā can tick a box ā āsupporting people with special needsā.
Oh for a quiet place where I can shop in peace, with no overlay of artificial excitement, where I can take my time, where no shop assistants hassle me ā¦. Wait! ā¦. there IS such a place ā¦. online shopping Watch out Westfield ā change or die!
Oh, weāve got an even better one here in the UK. Weāve actually got a big hospital modernised and extended about 2012 where to align the old and new parts they built a very wide meandering corridor where the floor slopes invisibly to compensate. Just to add to the confusion the walls both sides are lined with huge colourful murals for distraction. Iād never been so disorientated by anything as that floor. Designed totally without consideration for people with balance issues. A hospital. Only advantage must be if you break a limb you donāt have far to go to get it fixed. Helen
Yes, that thought did cross my mind too. But I can see how it might be hard to complain about falling on a vast expanse of floor that has no steps or obstacles. We need to speak out about the negative effect of floors that arenāt flat on people who are āvestibularly challengedā.
Just be well prepared to receive That Look yet again. You know the one. The āIām placating this maniac as best I canā look. All these type of things just go to show how unusual it really must be - how few people worldwide - suffer all this hypersensitivity. It just isnāt thought of by designers because 99.99 recurring of the population have just never heard of it in any form at all. It really cannot be that common. I know Iām only one individual but Iāve never yet met (and, birthday looming, Iāve been around a good while) anybody apart from the people on here and two neurologists who suffer from it or knew it existed. Helen
I can no longer tolerate the supermarket. I order all my groceries online and then go to pick them up, the lighting is just awful but I only have to stand there feeling dizzy for a couple of minutes then they give me my trolley and Iām outta there!
Yes, sadly I have to agree. I was telling my sister about this website today and the amazingly compassionate, well-informed (strong!) people on it. She clearly associates the words vertigo, migraine, tinnitis, no caffeine and no alcohol with my state of health but she had no idea at all about my shopping centre/supermarket sensitivity or that there is a small army of people out there in the world that also has these problems. Too much invisible suffering. Spread the word! Get people to understand. Itās the squeaky wheel that gets the oil after all
Brill thing, on line shopping. Iāve started that this year but I go the whole hog and a burly fella delivers it right to my kitchen table. I couldnāt tolerate supermarkets. Never entered one at all for maybe two full years. I can and do now again. Initially wearing dark glasses and a brimmed hat but no dark glasses these days. Restaurants are the other main trigger for me. Not surprising. They are like an extended stay in a supermarket (same type artificial lighting and āspaceā) except you are sitting down. Iām still getting around to restaurants. These days Iād be OK in daylight without artificial lighting. Iāve always felt it was the artificial lighting that did it for me. Particularly once the meds controlled the visual vertigo optical flow (stacked shelves both sides of your vision) stuff. Iām all for Trigger Avoidance. Depends how symptomatic you can get but I never saw 10-15 minutes supermarket shopping a worthwhile experience for the resultant 8 days in bed unable to stand which was what it would do to me every time come to escalation pre-meds. Helen
They recently ārenovatedā my local Woolworths store which I discovered simply meant squeezing more products into more aisles so that the corridor between them is very narrow. Now if you encounter someone in an aisle you both have to flatten against the shelves to get past the other person. Ridiculous. No such thing as lingering to browse either because a queue of people starts to form all wanting to get past you. Yes, online grocery shopping is looking like an exceedingly better alternative.
Iām really glad about that. I often think itās just my down to earth, two feet firmly planted on the floor (Thx Dad!) outlook on life and my sense of humour thatās kept me going. Oh, and Iāve had plenty of time to think about it, all these years of MAV. I rather enjoy trying to work it all out. Not the technical stuff, just the practicalities. These seemingly āout of the blueā surprise reactions most often arenāt anything like that at all. Not when you really look in to it closer. Not if you try to think like the sensory bit of a brain. My balance has been so affected by all this I get the feeling itās now slowly rebuilding from scratch and Iām watching it from the side. Bit like watching a new house go up next door! I wish I had the patience to try to record it all for posterity so to speak. Helen
OK folks. As links canāt be included in messages, Iāll start a new thread. Am not having a good day today so leave it with me.
TexOkie. Thanks for the ācheatā. Might explore that at some point. Re āsupermarket syndromeā, I found that I was regularly feeling ill after visiting supermarkets and garden centres especially those with high ceilings. When I told my otolaryngologist about it, to my surprise, he said it wasnāt unusual in people with vestibular disorders. He explained that in such cases the brain is struggling to make sense of possibly differing balance signals received from the vestibular organs in the ears and other parts of the body (eyes, joints, muscles). When you walk down a supermarket aisle you take in lots of visual information in the form of rows of images, labels, etc. and the brain simply gets overloaded and canāt cope. Thatās why you get dizzy. I find wearing sunglasses helps, keeping my head down as far as possible and getting out quickly! Try Googling the term, you should find plenty of hits. There is also a condition called ātall building syndromeā. I get it in warehouses and other places where there is a high roof. I think the explanation is the same ie. the brain tries to process lots of visual information and canāt cope. Hope this helps.
Also wanted to ask knowledgeable people on here, one area I definitely notice breakthrough symptoms is supermarkets and other shops. Which have been an issue for me from day 1. Going into shops really aggravates the symptoms of imbalance, even though walking around outside and at home is easier on my current regimen.
I know this is a very common MAV/PPPD symptom, but do you get it with other vestibular disorders like secondary hydrops, Menieres or vestibular hypofunction?
Watch out Westfield ā change or die!
