https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_satiation
A sudden, dramatic shift in the way you process information is probably worth a trip to the neurologist.
this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
56 points (92.4% liked)
No Stupid Questions
35822 readers
1134 users here now
No such thing. Ask away!
!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.
All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.
Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.
If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.
Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.
If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Credits
Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!
The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Is this not something everyone has experienced? If you say a word 2-4 times it loses meaning for a little while? (It sounds absurd when I type it out)
Yeah it's a pretty normal thing to happen occasionally for brief periods. Longer and more frequently I'd be concerned about through.
Happens to me. But we are talking once or twice a month. Yours sounds a lot worse. See a doc, hedge your bets.
I have experienced it. It has mostly happened in my native language, which makes it even weirder. Like, how could I doubt the existence of a word in my goddamn native language?! Why does it suddenly sound foreign / synthetic / artificial to me? I mean, I guess I've always coped with it by attributing it to overthinking things. Haven't had the issue recently though.
Happens to me all the time but not with only 2-4 times. Maybe once ive said it like 15-20 times
Another commenter pointed out that if you induce this through repetition it's called semantic satiation, but the more general case is known as jamais vu. It sounds like yours isn't caused by semantic satiation. Brains are weird and often do things like this for completely benign reasons or no reason at all. Having said that, Doctor Google (who we all know not to trust) suggests causes can include epilepsy or migraine.
In any case, it might be worth looking into, if it's something that's causing difficulties for you. In general if it's some specific medical cause a neurologist would be the relevant specialist but your primary care physician or general practitioner would be your first port of call and might be able to recommend further course of action.
Get a carbon monoxide detector.
But seriously, if it's a frequent problem I think you should talk about it with a doctor.
As an alternative to the neurological issues others are proposing, it could be this weird new disease called crippling anxiety.
I am legitimately asking- is suddenly having a problem processing words attributable to anxiety?
If you are anxious about the processing of words, most definitely this is possible, but I am 100% not saying that it is definitely the cause of your problems.
You are right now highly self-conscious that you might have a crippling brain condition. Also, every time you say something or write something down, you are also monitoring yourself to check out whether it continues to be true or getting worse. In so doing, you might be suffering this effect due to the anxiety that this is causing - you mind is so much more focused on the fear than on the word, which confirms that the word is somehow different in your head now.
I didn’t mean to sound like I was dismissive of your issues. I just think it’s absurd that a bunch of people with zero clinical experience jump to the worst possible conclusions (which, if it is anxiety, will just make this worse)
I just want to say that must be really frustrating. Do you experience it when reading or only when writing? They're different thought processes. Reading is just decoding but in writing you have to come up with the word to express the idea. Sounds like something is interrupting that process and making you doubt your choices. If it's interfering with work it's significant enough to talk to a doctor about.
Aphasia or apraxia resultant of a stroke or a head injury in that occured in the past couple months?
Have you had a head injury or possibly a stroke?
I have not had head injuries lately. I have started a new position in my company as of November, but my work area is pretty well regulated air-wise.. head injuries I've had occurred more than 15y ago. I am just curious if anyone else has had this experience happen suddenly
The phenomenon I think you’re referring to is semantic satiation (thanks Ted Lasso!). It has to do with semantic memory and I think the effect can happen to anyone in the right setting. But if you’re noticing a difference or having trouble you may want to speak to your primary care physician about semantic memory disorders.
It's normal thing most of us experience. I've read a few more recent studies about it, but afaik there is no certaon explanaition yet. Here's an excerpt from wikipedia describing it:
"A study by Chris Moulin of Leeds University asked 92 volunteers to write out "door" 30 times in 60 seconds. In July 2006 at the 4th International Conference on Memory in Sydney he reported that 68 percent of volunteers showed symptoms of jamais vu, such as beginning to doubt that "door" was a real word. Moulin believes that a similar brain fatigue underlies some symptoms of schizophrenia and Capgras delusion. Moulin suggests that people with these conditions could be suffering from chronic jamais vu.[1]" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamais_vu
Just yesterday I was convinced that Josh was fake.