A short extract of a post that features in my book about the Great East Japan Earthquake, The Teas That Bind about the feeling known as jishin-yoi, or earthquake drunkenness:
It usually starts with a jolt. If walking or standing, I notice the ground beneath my feet start to move, or if sitting I feel it along my spine. I brace myself for what is coming, look up at the light switch to see if it is moving…
… but nothing.
Check Twitter but there are no messages saying ‘quake!’ or, as we have got used to them and levity has crept in, ‘first!’ No reports from the Meteorological Agency announce an aftershock has been recorded. If there are other people around, my friends or students or coworkers, they do not seem to have noticed anything amiss. I shrug my shoulders, try to escape the sense of unease and get back to whatever it was I was doing. It must have been what I have started to think of as another ‘ghost aftershock.’
To read more of this post, please download a copy of The Teas That Bind, the story of my experiences in Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, available now from Amazon and Lulu.
3 comments
I get this when I’m laying down waiting for sleep. I always check in the morning to see if there were any quakes around 1-2am (when I go to bed) and usually… nothing. I can’t even imagine what it would be like in the north. Those poor people.
That sounds bad, hope it isn’t disturbing your sleep too much!
I get it the worst when I’m walking down stairs. And the feeling is just like the kind of dizzy spell you would get if you stood at the top of a flight of stairs, in a long skirt and heels, with nothing to hang onto. It’s grim.
But yes, nowhere near as bad as it must be for the survivors in Tohoku.
please read this this is very important information
Jishin-Yoi/Earthquake Hangover Mimic’s the Exact Same Symptoms of Mal de Debarquement Syndrome (MdDS) Proof with links below
Jishin-Yoi/Earthquake Hangover Mimic’s Mal de Debarquement Syndrome (MdDS) Proof with Information Provided Below With Links.
Mal de Debarquement Syndrome
Mal de Debarquement Syndrome (or MdDS) is an imbalance or rocking/swaying sensation often both “felt” and “seen” by the sufferer that occurs after exposure to motion (most commonly after a sea cruise or a flight). Although other forms of travel have been known to trigger it.
After alighting or “debarking” (debarquement) the traveller continues to feel “all at sea”, unable to get their land legs back. Although most travellers can identify with this feeling and do actually experience it temporarily after disembarking, unfortunately in the case of MdDS sufferers it can persist for many weeks, months, even years afterwards.
The symptoms are with you constantly, they never leave, nor can they be alleviated by any anti-motion sickness drugs (eg Stemetil, Serc etc)
“Like trying to constantly walk on a mattress or trampoline”
is a good description of the main symptom, which is usually most pronounced when the patient is sitting still; in fact, the sensations are usually minimized by actual motion, for example driving
http://www.mdds.org.uk/
http://www.mdds.org.uk/symptoms.phtml