Does anyone else struggle interpreting symbols? Noticeably harder than reading words?
When my brain lets me do so without headaches, I can read a book. But I've had several times now when I've struggled to interpret symbols.
The other day it was having to make a conscious effort to understand which shape of stick man meant I was allowed to go through that door for a wee.
This evening it was not realising that the food I've just cooked was still bubbling because the hob was on.
The dial was right in front of me - and I took the sensory input to think, 'why is this bubbling?' - but I couldn't problem solve to think, 'shoot, did I turn THIS ring on accidentally?'. I've done it twice in two days with the oven - not realising that the wrong part of the oven was turned on - and now it's getting me scared. In fact both times my brain leapt to the wrong, and less obvious, conclusion (the oven is on so maybe the hob's a bit warm) - NOT 'that dial is in the on position which you know because you check it before you go to bed every night'!
I know it's a symbols thing as well as problem solving because I can no longer find apps on my phone when they're not on my home screen. Searching through the sea of them draws a blank. (And no, I didn't realise the names were underneath them in little - and alphabetical - text... Presumably my pre-C brain never read that.)
Have others found this, and what helped bring it back? I'm beginning to feel like the man who mistook his wife for a hat...
Not going to lie, this is so disorienting that I feel like I'm going mad. Things like muddling words and getting tired and getting headaches I can cope with, because they mean... I'm tired or my body is in pain. But being this divorced from reality in a way that feels almost akin to hallucinating is terrifying (I don't mean literally hallucinating, though I'm not sure if I briefly did that first thing this morning when I got confused at what was coming up on my phone).
Irony of ironies ...I did my undergrad dissertation on an ideographic (ie little symbols) writing system before the alphabet came to Europe..! Maybe I should have studied psychiatry instead...🤦