From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Bob Carlson and this is Unfictional.

Unfictional is KCRW's program of strange stories and fascinating documentaries and today on the program one man

takes a journey to the center of his whirling crushing head. Three trips to the

emergency room in three states, two eye exams, two complete blood counts, three eKG's, chest

x-rays, and two kinds of brain scans. The verdict? I'm in damn good health.

Something in his own brain is spinning out of control

and he spends the next year and a half trying to figure out what the heck is wrong with him.

On Unfictional, it's an episode called

Dizzy. I'm so dizzy my head is spinning. It's a program about dizziness on unfictional, something that's frightening when we're adults,

but when we're kids, we go looking for it.

I remember going on a spinning ride at a carnival that made me so dizzy I couldn't walk.

Plus the whole ride smelled a lot like people had gotten sick on it.

It wasn't even all that fun exactly. Why would I submit myself to that?

Well it's the whole reason we go to amusement parks.

The fun is all about feeling just a little bit out of control.

Or maybe it's more like a simulated loss of control,

because really when you go to a family theme park you know you're really pretty

safe there's harnesses and safety bars the staff has trained for safety the

rides are inspected by a safety engineer but if you happen to have grown up in northern New Jersey in the

80s and early 90s, there was one place where the usual rules of amusement parks

didn't apply. Babies like the take you where the action is hot.

Action, action, action for.

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