I Had No Idea What My Brain Just Did To Me (Non-fiction)

Image Credit : Kadin Eksteen (pexels)

Dear reader,

I'm Clint Aribs from Warri, Nigeria. In November of 2021, I was really feverish. I was perspiring a lot and had a fairly high body temperature. I was alone in my apartment in a neighboring state from where my family lives.

To help me get some medical attention, I asked a friend to come over. He arrived and drove me to his personal physician. Malaria and typhoid were found to be present in me.

I told my mother how I was feeling over the phone, and she decided to come pick me up and take me home. The next evening, my parents picked me up and drove me back to our state. We experienced a flat tire on the way home and became stranded in the middle of the road at night. The tyre burst, and I believe I struck my head somewhere. I'm not positive.

Nevertheless, we succeeded in replacing the tire and continued traveling. On our way home, I was a little queasy but not nearly as bad as the day before. We arrived at our house, and after I showered and made an effort to fall asleep, the strangest thing began to happen to me.

First, I noticed that when I closed my eyes, I kept getting visions of being hit by a number of cars, and each hit turned into another hit, and another, until I opened my eyes. When I shut them again, I also began to see strange images, such as frightful hands with protruding claws, which started to morph into the inside of the mouth of some repulsive animal, which morphed into pictures of heaps of naked people, which morphed into images of me on the road being struck by cars and another car, and so on.

I had no control over my thoughts anymore. It seemed as though my brain had forgotten how to unwind and simply drift off to sleep. So there I was, struggling to sleep, on my bed, next to my younger brother who was already asleep. I was suddenly startled by a loud splashing sound next to my head. I abruptly got out of bed. I asked my brother if he heard the noise after waking him up. "What noise?", he questioned.

I immedia closed my ears and told him to stop shouting. He clarified that he wasn't speaking out loud. The moment he stood up and went to the wardrobe to get something, I realized something was seriously wrong with me. His footsteps seemed to be right next to my head because they were so loud.

I ran out of the room in terror and went upstairs to meet my mother to explain what had happened. Life's sound seemed to have been amplified, as if by someone. I was so afraid to even knock when I arrived at her door. I then covered my ears to brace for when she opens the door.

It was indeed very loud when she opened the door. Additionally, I observed that covering my ears was ineffective because the sound of my hands rubbing against them was causing havoc inside my head. I went into her room and told her what was happening. I had to tell her to speak in a whisper. She picked up the phone and called her pastor.

She informed him of the situation, and when he picked up the phone, I could hear what he was saying. She wasn't even standing close to me, and the phone wasn't on "speaker". A few meters separated us. I began relating to her what the pastor was saying. I wept and said, "I can hear him! He's telling you to put a wet cloth on my head".

Her room's ceiling fan started to whirr louder and louder. Another jarring splashing sound rushed into my ears. It was coming from the backyard where my mother was raising catfishes downstairs. It seemed as though the fish were in my head, as though my head was the pond itself. My father and the other five members of my family were all awakened by the commotion. I broke down once they were all in the room.

I begged them to be quiet. I began sobbing uncontrollably at this point. My head felt like it was about to blow up at any second. The sound of my family's presence was killing me even though I desperately wanted them all to be here. My mom brought a bucket of water and a towel. She attempted to wet my head.

As soon as it touched my head, I yanked her hands away from it because I suddenly realized that I could not only excruciatingly HEAR it all, but also excruciatingly FEEL it all. I could sense the smell of everyone's breath, the ground beneath my feet, the clothes on my body, the tongue in my mouth, my eyes in their sockets, the organs inside my body, everything. Everything!

The visual effects of this experience gradually started, as if all of this wasn't enough. Everyone started to slow down gradually each passing minute. "This is it, I'm dying," was my exact thought. It seemed as though no one was listening to me as I kept attempting to explain what was happening.

My father and I were attempting to hold hands. Until, "woooooosh," everything reached a turning point. I screamed beyond my lungs.

When I opened my eyes, everything and everyone were moving so quickly. Like 40x faster than what I would consider to be the average speed of reality.

They gradually returned to their normal speed after starting to slow down a little. I warned them not to touch me. They didn't pay attention. To ensure that I didn't hurt myself or flee, my father and older brother held me. They probably believed I was crazy at this point.

I began to doubt my own existence. I wondered, "Am I dying?," and "Is this how death feels like?" I felt so helpless and alone. I've noticed that after I say something, it takes a while for anyone to respond. They appear to have slowed down once more.

As I wanted to lay down on the bed, I begged them to let me go. They did. My body temperature had been reaching dangerous levels the entire time, and I had already started sweating profusely. Soaked. While I was still lying on the bed, they all began to pray. "Try not to touch me", I instructed everyone. I was still seeing very graphic images, making it impossible for me to close my eyes.

If you aren't from this region of the world, you might not be aware that we don't typically say "I love you" to our families. We exhibit it. but not today. For the first time in my entire life, I had to express my love to them all. I wasn't sure if I would live to see dawn.

We all continued to sing and pray for what felt like a long time. It was the first time I saw my dad cry. My sister left the room because she couldn't stand to see me like that. I asked someone to call her back, but I didn't notice anyone doing anything until a short while later, when everyone suddenly turned to face me as if to pay attention to what I had already said moments ago.

[I'm making a valiant effort to refrain from using any foul language in this article].

Totally out of it, I was.

After some time, everyone and everything became stable. Everything synchronized, and things went back to normal. My senses of sight, hearing, taste, and touch. When I could finally unwind a little, I believed it was over. When I inquired about the time, they replied that it was 2am. About two hours have passed. Since the entire ordeal seemed to last only about 45 minutes, I was somewhat alarmed.

My perception of time had just been completely altered at that point, leaving me unsure of what to believe in any longer. I had no idea what my brain just did to me.

I had to change out of my sweat-soaked shirt. Then, as everyone went to their rooms, I tried to sleep with my parents nearby.

It started happening again after about an hour as I slept next to my father on the bed. As my mother moved around the room, I saw her accelerating. Relatively loud noises are returning. I told them about it right away. We had to start heading for the hospital, it couldn't wait till morning any longer.

After my father changed, we went downstairs to the car. When I first stepped outside, my head was being torn apart by the sound of nearby buildings' power generators. My mother and older brother came along. As soon as my father entered the vehicle, I had to tell him not to shut the door too loudly.

As we drove to the hospital at around 4am, I started feeling everything so intensely again. I was extremely irritated by how often the collar of my shirt kept brushing against the back of my neck. My vision became extremely sensitive to anything and everything, especially trees or people in motion. Even the far-off LED signs on distant buildings could be read clearly.

My dad's driving appeared to be accelerating quickly over time. The sound of the car engine was so loud that even though I knew it wasn't actually happening, it still terrified me. Are we going fast?, I enquired of my brother who was seated next to me in the back? Yes, he answered me. It was comforting to hear him say that, even though I knew he was lying. I got the impression that I'm not the only one who suffers from this.

I still vividly recall the morning anxiety. If I'm still in this much suffering at this time of night, when everything is normally quiet. The world at day time would kill me, I thought. There would be more people, more traffic, and more noise!

My situation had worsened by the time we arrived at the hospital. I was unable to tell everyone to be quiet because the hospital is a public area. Back and forth went the nurses. Some people's feet dragged as they walked. Sound of a baby crying, a fan running, a TV on, people talking—I was losing it, and I screamed once more right there in the hospital.

My family and some medical personnel had to rush me to the emergency room and wrestle me down so that they could give me a shot that effectively knocked me out.

When I opened my eyes, it was afternoon, and my mother informed me that I had received several medication drips. Everything was back to normal. I ate and asked what the doctor had said was wrong; they said I had been diagnosed with malaria II and typhoid II.

WTH, all that was was malaria?!

I did not accept it. The doctor may not have understood what was happening. After everything was said and done, I was released the following day. The trauma I felt kept me up at night for weeks after all that. Any sounds would cause me to wake up, even if I did get any sleep.

Even after leaving the hospital, things were still somewhat loud.

It took quite a while to be fully myself again.

A few months later, I was looking up what had happened to me online. I came across something called Tachysensia. When I looked up the symptoms, they coincided with my experience. It isn't yet well-known, as I've noticed.

I then made the decision to blog about my experience. I hope someone reads this and realizes they are not alone.