Dizzy and Fuzzy

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Gold Forest English podcast. My name is Jordan.

Last week, I didn't record any episode of the podcast because I was very sick. I was feeling really, really sick and very uncomfortable, and so I didn't want to do a podcast—I didn't have the energy. So I apologise for that. But today, I'm feeling much better. So today, I thought I would talk about some vocabulary that we use to describe some of the feelings that I experienced, some of these sick feelings.

I'm going to divide these vocabulary words into two categories. The first is physical. So we're thinking about our body, our balance, our strength—the physical things. And the second is more mental. It's about how we think and the clarity (understanding) that we have in our mind. So, I'm going to talk about these different vocabulary words and their differences, their nuances—the small details that make them different from each other.

But before I talk about the words, I should talk about why it's important to learn these different types of vocabulary. In English, we've got lots and lots of adjectives to describe feelings, and especially these kinds of negative, sick feelings. But it's important to know the correct vocabulary for the correct situation because using the right word will get you the right kind of help. If you're talking to a friend, a colleague, or a doctor, the right vocabulary will get you the right help. And that's very important. So if we are going to be precise and accurate with our vocabulary, we should learn some of these different words.

Let's jump into the physical category. The first word is a very common one; many students know this word already. The word is dizzy. Dizzy is an adjective. Dizzy has the meaning of feeling like the room, or you, are spinning around and around in a circle. It's unbalanced. Everything is spinning. This often happens if you are sick, or if you have been spinning around on a ride, for example, in an amusement park—it might spin, and you feel dizzy afterwards. But it can also happen if you stand up too quickly. If we're sitting down and we stand up too quickly, we might feel dizzy. Things are spinning around. This is a very useful word, but it has got that specific meaning of spinning and turning.

This is different from the next adjective, which is lightheaded. When you feel lightheaded, you feel like you're going to faint, like your brain is going to suddenly turn off for a short time. When you faint, your brain is off, but your heart and the rest of your body continue. You might fall down and everything is black. This might happen from a big surprise or from very low blood sugar. You feel very lightheaded.

Commonly, when we're feeling physically ill in one of these ways, we might also feel woozy. Woozy has the additional feeling of sickness—nausea. We might be dizzy or we might be lightheaded, but we're also feeling sick, like we want to vomit. This might be from a virus, or from motion sickness on a boat or in a car. People often feel woozy after traveling in a car or on a boat, especially if they're not controlling it.

This past week, I had these feelings: I felt lightheaded, I felt woozy, and I also felt dizzy. I had a problem with my inner ear. So, this physical problem with the inside of your ear—the balance centre of your brain—when you've got a problem with this inner ear part, it's called vertigo. Vertigo is the specific medical word for this medical condition. You are not just dizzy from standing up too quickly or being on a roller coaster; you have a medical issue with your inner ear. It's called vertigo. And this is the problem that I had last week, and so I felt very sick and uncomfortable, and I didn't want to do the podcast. But today, I'm feeling much better. So here we are again.

Moving on to our second group: mental feelings. The most useful one might be fuzzy. Fuzzy is when your thoughts are not clear. It's difficult to focus. This might happen when you're tired, you've been working too hard, you've been looking at your phone too much, and your brain can't focus easily. Saying that you feel "fuzzy" makes a clear communication that your brain is not working well and you can't focus, you can't think correctly.

This is similar to groggy. But "groggy" is a similar slow feeling, difficult to focus, but it happens specifically after you wake up. If you've recently woken up, you might feel groggy. You've got a slow, heavy brain, difficult to think, difficult to focus. Or, maybe you haven't been sleeping enough and you feel groggy. So it's often connected with this sleeping issue—maybe not enough sleep, or you've recently woken up. You feel groggy, you feel unfocused and slow.

These two words are about difficulty of thinking. But similarly, we've got words like confused, which I'm sure you know. The word "confused" means having very mixed-up ideas. Your thoughts and ideas are mixed up; you can't understand things clearly. Another word which is very similar to "confused" is muddled. You've got too much information in your brain; it's not organised. You're feeling muddled.

So, this is just a quick overview of a couple of the vocabulary words that I've written about in this week's blog post. If you want more information about these words and several other examples, I definitely recommend checking out the blog post on GoldForestAcademy.com.

And as I said before, having correct vocabulary is especially important when we're talking about medical problems or physical issues. If we can use the correct vocabulary, other people will be able to give us the correct kind of help, whether it's just sitting down for a short time, taking a break, having a glass of water, or whether it's more serious like medication. But the right vocabulary will get you the right help. So it's very important to learn this kind of specific adjectives, these specific words.

I hope this episode has given you some new ideas to think about and some new vocabulary. I hope you are having a good week. I hope your last week was better than mine, and I hope we both have a great week next week. So, thank you very much for listening. I'll see you in the next episode. Goodbye.