I wanted to share a little something I have been doing to help with my walking. One of the issues I face, daily, is saccadic movements while in motion. This becomes increasingly difficult when out and about; uneven surfaces, passer-by’s, traffic, shadows and reflections, glint and gleams, litter on the pavement, sudden appearances of people or objects. Combine all this with the cacophony of noises accompanying that visual stimulus. When I was teenager, I used listen to a Sony Walkman with mix-tape cassettes. I would scoot around on my BMX with a soundtrack behind me. In those days, I rode, dangerously, fast through the streets with whatever tune I had playing, hurtling me onwards and making me feel invincible. Fortunately, I rarely came off my bike but I think that had more to do with luck than skill.
At some point, I gave up listening to music as I travelled, I don’t really know why. I would see kids with headphones on, in their own little world, and think nothing of it. I just didn’t do it anymore. Then one day, I found a pair of Soundpeats in the park, little bluetooth earplugs, and when I got home I tested them and they worked. When I’m home, I listen to music all the time to relax, meditate, or energise me. When my symptoms are severe and I have to walk to the shops, the process is quite painful. I sometimes wonder if I’m going to make or not. Each stage of the journey is a struggle. I understood that I could do it without falling in a heap but it’s all the visual stimuli and movement, on top of my own saccadic control and motion that makes me feel that way. So, a few months ago, as an experiment, I wore the little bluetooth earplugs as I journeyed to the shops, and I found the melody of what I could hear buffered my brain from the visual-aural stimulus around me, and the rhythm gave my brain incentive to move my body along with it, improving my gait.
So, for me, this has helped me with my movement. I have an instrumental playlist I use, with tunes like When Johnny Comes Marching Home, Colonel Bogey March, The Gremlin Rag, A Fifth of Beethoven, William Tell Overture, Peter Gunn Theme, Them From Rawhide &c. I also sometimes go out with some classical or popular music playing, but I choose for my mood. The music helps carry me to my destination as opposed to spending every second managing motion which can be painful and bring on early fatigue. It also helps keep anxiety at bay, as when symptoms are acute, one starts to worry that something nefarious might happen, this of course decreases brain capacity and makes symptoms even more worse.
