"Got up too quickly" for different cultures

December 30, 2015 1:16 PM

Yesterday I stood up too quickly, got a bit lightheaded and had to sit down again. My Mexican hosts were concerned and I tried to explain. At this point that I realized that "got up too quickly" is really not that descriptive and in fact borders on idiom. So now I'm curious what the Mexican Spanish idiom would be for that particular event (technically orthostatic hypotension). And while I'm at it I'm kind of curious about other cultures as well. Please help me sate my cultural curiosity.
posted by Tell Me No Lies to Society & Culture (7 answers total)

A Google search has plenty of matches for things like "me mareo al levantarme rapido." Perhaps the disconnect isn't cultural, just that your hosts don't really experience it.
posted by vunder at 1:40 PM on December 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

You might be interested in the Appendix to the DSM V, which includes a brief "Glossary of Cultural Concepts of Distress", or as they called them in DSM IV, "culture-bound syndromes". Veeeery broadly speaking, it's basically culture-specific ways of describing "nervous breakdowns" and other mental illnesses, controversial (like everything DSM) but really interesting reading. "Idiom of distress" also looks like a potentially fruitful search term for further research.
posted by yeahlikethat at 1:50 PM on December 30, 2015 [4 favorites]

Best answer: there's nothing special in colloquial chilean spanish (i don't know of anything personally and i checked with a local speaker). all you say is "me mareé al levantarme demasiado rápido" (i dizzied myself when i got up too quickly, roughly; same expression as vunder above, just i'm using a past tense).
posted by andrewcooke at 2:36 PM on December 30, 2015

Best answer: Ha! I have had this exact experience in Japan. "Tachikurami/立ちくらみ", or standing-darkness, is it, and when it happened the person I was with figured out what had happened from the context and said, "tachikurami?" So, I assume it's pretty common.
posted by chocotaco at 4:02 PM on December 30, 2015 [11 favorites]

I think "got up too quickly" is quite descriptive, actually. Usually this happens to people with low/low-normal blood pressure, so maybe that will help explain?
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:43 AM on December 31, 2015

Best answer: "Tachikurami/立ちくらみ", or standing-darkness,

Ha! In German you say "mir wurde schwarz vor Augen", = it got black/dark before my eyes.
posted by ClarissaWAM at 1:08 PM on December 31, 2015

Best answer: Mexican here. "Me levanté muy rápido y me mareé", or any of the variations vunder and andrewcooke suggested, are quite normal here. I also think your hosts didn't understand or have never experienced this.
posted by clearlydemon at 3:15 PM on December 31, 2015 [1 favorite]