After sitting down to begin the experiment, I was fitted with goggles which blocked out part of my vision, headphones to drown out sound and plastic gloves to diminish sensation in my hands.
Some of my fingers were also taped together to simulate the feelings people with arthritis encounter.
Once all the equipment was in place I was given a total of five tasks to memorise:
Sit on a bed, find a belt and put it on.
Sit on a chair and find a glass of water.
Find a piece of paper and write down what I ate yesterday.
Find a tie and tie it.
Fold a pair of socks.
It sounds simple -but was far from it in practice.
The first proved exceptionally difficult because I could hardly see where I was putting the belt and it was hard to control with the gloves.
Having seen the people trying to pour water before me spill it, I did it extremely slowly to ensure it all ended up in the glass.
I found the piece of paper and the tie but struggled to remember what I had eaten yesterday and found it impossible to tie a knot.
And by the time I was done with all that, the pressure meant I had completely forgotten about the socks.
The physical and visual impairments made each simple task seem longer than you could possibly imagine and being unable to do them only added to the sense of frustration.
