Monday, July 22, 2013

The tale of the GO bus skeptic

The scene: I'm sitting in a GO bus, putting on my seabands in the hope of warding off motion sickness.

Guy next to me: "What are those things?"
Me: "They prevent carsickness. I put them on my wrists, and this sticky-outy plastic bit presses into an acupressure point that relieves nausea."
Guy next to me: "Those are a scam, you know!  They're totally unproven, they don't do anything at all, it's all in your head!"

Now, it is true that I can't say for certain that the seabands work.  I've never thrown up while wearing them, but I also haven't thrown up on many many occasions when I wasn't wearing them.

But this guy was about to sit next to me for a long bus ride. If it were true that the anti-nausea measures I'm taking are entirely psychosomatic, he would have an immediate personal investment in my believing in them!  Why would you try to convince the person next to you on a long bus ride that their psychosomatic anti-carsickness measures are all in their head?

4 comments:

laura k said...

Ha ha. Motion sickness is awful but I almost wish he had convinced you, and then you made him sorry. Somehow if that could happen without you going through the awful nausea.

CQ said...

I wear cord connected foam ear plugs when I find myself riding public transit buses. It doesn't drown out everything, but it takes the edge off - as emanating from various fellow noisy passengers.
Some years ago I ordered an entire box of these items from a Workplace Safety business. Originally it was just for typical urban apartment-life sleeping.

impudent strumpet said...

@laura: Making him sorry wouldn't be worth breaking my non-vomiting streak for. If I can make it a few more months to either January or February, it will be a glorious and hard-won 20 years!

laura k said...

20 years without vomiting is unprecedented. You are truly a master.