One second I’m walking my dog with my girlfriend complaining about a mild stomach ache, the next second I’m blind, deaf, and collapsing under the weight of my body.
Glued to the ground, unable to hear or see my girlfriend screaming and crying, all I can manage to mutter is “I’m okay, I’m okay,” because for me it was strangely peaceful to surrender to the sensation of my body shutting down. The silence and darkness that engulfed me was everything I’ve imagined reaching a deep state of meditation might resemble.
However, I had forgotten that my body had decided to shut down in the middle of the street and if it wasn’t for my girlfriend dragging me out of the way of traffic I might have not made it home safely.
Up until this point in my life, I never really believed any serious harm could come from eating hot peppers. I’ve been doing it since I was a very young child and had only experienced tears, sweating, and next-day-spicy-diarrhea in response to consuming peppers such as jalapeños, habaneros, ghost peppers, etc.
So it was quite a shock when this all happened in response to eating a measly habanero. It really wasn’t a big deal, I just randomly popped it in my mouth like grabbing a handful of grapes or crackers or whatever normal people mindlessly eat as they leave to take their dog on a walk.
