When I have to solve a given problem, how I approach it depends on what the problem is. If it's something I've had experience with before, I might have an idea where to start when trying to solve it. For example, if my cat got something in her fur that needed to get washed out, past experience tells me that trying to get her clean using a bathtub will only result in an angry, writhing cat and my arms becoming covered in scratches. So if I'm in a situation like this, past experience tells me to try something different due to a previously attempted method not working very well (using a washcloth works much better for the record, much less angry animal attacks). If a problem is completely foreign to me, then trying to figure out how to solve it could become harder. I’ve had multiple problems occur in my everyday life and while some issues were quick to fix, others took time to figure out. I would believe that most people like me prefer the quick to solve problems a lot easier, but sometimes you get thrown a problem that you have to think on to try and solve in life. In other words, it's far from simple.
I have good story about how I’ve used different tactics to try and solve a complex problem. Fitting for Halloween, it's something of the bizarre mystery kind that might scare some people. Something I've had a long trial and error process with figuring out how to solve is a certain issue I have with my health. I noticed many years ago that at random times at night (and only at night), I would get these horrible stomach aches that made me feel as if I had swallowed a ton of needles. I unfortunately still have them happen today. The only way I can make the pain go away is to lay down on my back and press something weighted like a pillow down on my stomach. I have to stay in this position for at least a half an hour and if I get up too fast the pain returns quickly.
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| What my stomach pain feels like |
I couldn't figure out why this was happening, so I started thinking. Looking back on this issue now, I realize I was using analytical transfer to try and solve this problem. Based on how I have gotten stomachs in the past, I first tried to apply knowledge of my past source problems to my current situation to solve the new target problem. My past experiences would say that I would be having the stomach pain because I had gotten sick, I had food poisoning or it was a symptom of my period arriving soon. However, none of these source problems were behind why the pain was occurring and my attempt to use analytical transfer failed. When I realized none of my past experiences could explain what was happening, I started paying attention to what I was doing right before the stomach aches started up to see what new elements that were not factors in my past experiences could be in play.
Eventually, I noticed a pattern occurring. The stomach aches only happened when I drank water later at night. It wasn’t caused by drinking any other liquid such as juice, milk, or even tea (which is just water infused with leaves!), just normal water caused the stomach aches. Back then when I figured this out it baffled me (and it still does). I tried applying more information from past source problems to try and explain this bizarre occurrence, but again nothing made sense when up against the target problem. The water wasn’t contaminated with bacteria, water from different sources had the same effect and it was a consistent occurrence only at night (this has never once happened during the day). So when I couldn't figure out what was causing it, I switched gears to “how can I prevent this?” as an attempt to solve the problem.
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| According to my stomach after a certain hour, it is deadly |
It took more trial and error to figure out, but eventuality I found that to prevent the stomach aches I had to do one of two things. I have to either constantly eat small snacks as the night goes on because even if it was something as small as a cracker, the pains would not occur if I drank water right after. Or I would have to make sure I constantly drink water all night around every fifteen minutes to half an hour to "keep my body used of drinking water" (that is the best term I can come up with to describe it. I don't really know what else to label it as).
I have talked to doctors about this issue and none so far can tell me why this could be happening (as soon as I mention how tea doesn't cause the aches, they have no idea what to tell me). So to spare myself nights of pain, I had to be my own problem solver and find a solution to it myself. Realizing now that there is name to the process I used to try and solve this issue makes me feel a little bit accomplished with how the problem was solved the best it could be. While this experience was unlike anything I had dealt with before, figuring out that my past knowledge wasn't helping me assisted me in solving the bigger picture by making me develop new problem solving skills. Sometimes when it comes to solving problems, especially the complex ones, you never know what information will help you solve it whether it be known or unknown.
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