Acedia and lightheadedness

I learned a new word today, or rather I learned the meaning of a word I'd seen before but didn't really understand. Acedia.

Acedia was described by the Desert Father John Cassian in the 4th century AD as an illness specific to monks. A monk diagnosed with Acedia would find it impossible to read, although perfectly capable of reading. The monk would instead attempt to distract himself with gossip and would be unable to connect to his fellow monks or his surroundings except with a feeling of disgust. 

"He looks about anxiously this way and that, and sighs that none of his brethren come to see him, and often goes in and out of his cell, and frequently gazes up at the sun, as if it was too slow in setting, and so a kind of unreasonable confusion of mind takes possession of him like some foul darkness."

In other words, a kind of depression. I think if we substitute an endless perusing of the internet for the latest news for "gossip", and self isolation for being a monk, we could be talking about depression brought on by pandemic.

The proposed cure for this diagnosis is: "...he should be reproved a first and a second time. If he does not amend, he must be subjected to the punishment of the rule so that the others may have fear." So, first public criticism and then physical blows; psychic pain must be driven out by physical pain lest the contagion spread.

I learned this from a book I am currently reading, The Swerve, by Stephen Greenblatt.

Another thing I learned is that you can do some serious damage to yourself by practicing the breast stroke while swimming. I learned this one the hard way. 

I am not a great swimmer so mostly I do a combination of breast stroke, side stroke and back stroke. The back stroke is my favourite because it is very relaxing and I get to look up at the sky in a comfortable way. The only problem with it is that I go swimming in the late afternoon and the sun is right there in my view so unless I am swimming westward, I can't gaze at the sky. 

I had a back ache, I thought due to gardening or some such thing. Then I had lightheadedness, which was a real bother and I couldn't think what was causing it. Was I dehydrated? I started drinking a lot of water and taking an electrolyte supplement. It didn't help. Then last night, while indulging my Acedia on the internet I came across a reference to dizzyness caused by neck injury, possibly from swimming. This morning I looked into it more closely and sure enough, it is a thing. And the back ache is related.

The proper safe way to do the breast stroke is to keep your neck and back straight, which means you are spending a lot of time with your face under water. I watched a couple of videos explaining the technique, it looks complicated enough that I don't think I am going to try to learn to do it. They recommend a swimming coach.

So, …well I'm not sure what to do about that. Do I have to quit swimming or what? Will the lightheadedness go away on its own or do I have to do something about it? And if the latter, what? One of the few pleasures remaining with an old dog in hot weather during a pandemic, and it turns out it's dangerous. Can't win for losing as my father would say.