OverstimulationTriggers and Cures?

[OkRad]

Please list what overstimulates you, how you react, and how you deal with it.

1. Loud music in public places that I cannot ignore. For instance I could NEVER work at wal Mart or Wholefoods! I become agitated and anxious and urge to self harm. Cure is to stay away or use ear plugs.
2. Odours that won't stop. So working at a place like a fabric store would be hell. Very agitated and anxious and also prone to self harm. Cure is to stay away.
3. Sunlight. Cure: Sunglasses
4. Tight clothes.......avoid.
5. Room full of screaming kids. EARPLUGS because I like kids!
6. Long, extended family reunions with everyone there. Cure: I must suck it up because I love family.

Many times I have to stop talking and be in a dark, cool place for a long time to recover from these events. I am wondering what triggers you guys and how you recover?

 

[FreeDiver]

Sounds like me. At least you are aware of your environment and are managing your sensory intake. That's really all you can do.

 

[Alcyon]

Crowds, fluorescent lights, two or more conversations going on around me, public transit, being too hot...these spring to mind. I check in with myself regularly when I'm out and about; I am rarely aware of the effect my surroundings are having on me until it's too late. I have gotten quite good at forestalling shutdowns.

When things are starting to get to me, I make my plan of escape, envisioning myself as being strong and in control...then I scarper.

 

[Nemo]

1. Crowds, cure: escape.
2. Spelling mistakes: I've learnt over the years to suck it up in order to avoid being "rude" to an NT.
I bite my nails and lip - I would love to hear how to cope in a more socially acceptable way.

 

[Suzanne]

1. Loud music in public places that I cannot ignore. For instance I could NEVER work at wal Mart or Wholefoods! I become agitated and anxious and urge to self harm. Cure is to stay away or use ear plugs.
2. Odours that won't stop. So working at a place like a fabric store would be hell. Very agitated and anxious and also prone to self harm. Cure is to stay away.
3. Sunlight. Cure: Sunglasses
4. Tight clothes.......avoid.
5. Room full of screaming kids. EARPLUGS because I like kids!
6. Long, extended family reunions with everyone there. Cure: I must suck it up because I love family.

1: If the loud music is dire music, then I would react like you, but if it was music that touched me very much, then, if anything, I would be on a constant high. Sadly, though in France, they play music that makes me want to scream and pull out my hair and I even put my hands to my ears and feel I am going into a rage.

2: Oh yes, how perfect you say that: odours that won't stop. I get like you ie want to self harm and agitated and anxious.

3: Sunglasses are my baby and I hypaventilate if I lose them. I had a pair of presciption sunglasses and lost them and was DEVASTATED and my husband looked in his draws of goodies and came out with a pair that belonged to his mother lol and I wiped the copydex off and tightened screws and love them and got another pair too now and they are always where I can see them. I feel as though I am missing a limb if I have not got them with me.

4: Avoid due to ibs and other nasty digestive issues, but well, not all the time lol

5: The only place I would find screaming children is in a very quiet waiting room, other than that, very shrill and that goes for some dogs barking too.

6: Happily I know longer have to worry about that! I have no communication with my "birth mother". If I did, I would be in a mental hospital. I only chat occasionally with one sister, but they live in England and I in France and they are not given to travelling. My issue is with my husband's family. His father died of cancer just before we got married, but I did meet him and liked him and believe he liked me too. But I do not like my husband's two aunties; but do like one of the husbands. Not a good forcast, but at the same time, do not have to deal with them, because of living in France, so can make excuses.

I do not feel guilty for my stance with my husband's family.

 

[Southern Discomfort]

Too many people with too much stuff going on is generally overwhelming to me. I can go some hours with it but I generally keep to myself or the people I know throughout. Afterwards I need alone time to deal with this, this depends on how much time I spend in these situations. This can mean extensive periods of time in my room on my computer. I'm not to sure how I will cope when I eventually start going to work again in the future when I'm well enough and the 'physical' boundaries are lessened.

I do use sunglasses during the day. Just average sunlight can be blinding to me; I can't look up at the sky a lot of the time. I've never had to wear them inside and fluorescent lights doesn't bother me though.

I'm somewhat hyposensitive to my olfactory sense. I tend to seek out smells even if they're horrendous ones. I like the smell of maple quite a lot. When I buy a car I'm getting myself a maple scented car air freshener! I think seeking out smells must help me in regulating myself because I do it a lot. I'm a very stressed and anxious person so anything where I'm not clenching my teeth must be a better alternative.

 

[xudo]

Too many people with too much stuff going on is generally overwhelming to me. I can go some hours with it but I generally keep to myself or the people I know throughout. Afterwards I need alone time to deal with this, this depends on how much time I spend in these situations. This can mean extensive periods of time in my room on my computer.

This is exactly what I'm like too. I also cannot stand being too hot, certain types of music (usually played in certain shops, and usually too loud) children in general (I don't like children) strong smells (I can't walk through department store perfume sections, or the fish section of the market).

Like Southern Discomfort said, I can sort of put up with it for a while but then I'm just exhausted afterwards, and it's only when I get home and that hits me that I fully realise the stress that being out in a crowd or whatever has had on me. Things like clothing I don't like I just avoid, and the same with smells, but there are times that I can't avoid going to things/places that will cause over stimulation. This is why I never go anywhere alone, always with my husband, because he knows when I'm getting really stressed or anxious and will get me out of there, even if it's just for 5/10 minutes to go have a cigarette and calm down.

Unfortunately, today is one of those days where I can't avoid a situation. My husbands step-dad's Mum (looks stupid written down ha) is 80 today, and her husband has been in hospital since before Christmas as he had a massive stroke. So his Mum and step-dad and all the kids they have between them are taking her out for Sunday lunch. We won't be going for the food because husband is in work til 4, but we're going up there after he's home. It'll be busy at the pub, and his whole step-family are big huggers. Plus I know there will be kids everywhere running about and being loud.

 

[fuðflogi]

Loud banging (neighbor always dropping the toilet seat and washing machine lid.)
Lights ,bright bulbs,fluorescent, I spend most of my alone time by led Christmas lights,it's more than enough.(And I sooth myself with laser lights with or without fog.)
Sex! This one is so bad for me, I used to love it, even if it's only mechanical because I just can't figure out what the other(s) want, or what to do and when so I over analyse and ruin it.
I hear everything in my environment all at once and have to actively sort through it all, I hear way more than any person I may be with. Add to that all the voices I hear and still not sure if it's in or outside of my head.
Texture keeps me from eating some foods, sometimes smells,can't stand to be in a public restroom.
Many conversations at once, listening to a car radio and conversation messes me up.
I'm sure there are more but enough is too much.

 

[fuðflogi]

Oh and crowds.

 

[OkRad]

A common theme is the need to decompress. That is where it gets hard. I am not sure I know how to do so. It used to be the gym but since they started to play that HIDEOUS music I am in a bind. Andit is that crap. I agree with Suzanne. If it was even good music or even without lyrics. But it's that 80's crap like Spice Girls and OVER NAD OVER AND OVER. And people screaming into the mic.

WHO LIKES THAT CRAP.

It was off yesterday and some guy with tats all over and yelling aroung climbs up on the railing and reaches over to turn it on, he was SO DESPERATE for non-silence.

NTs are so weird. I swear.

 

[xudo]

And people screaming into the mic.

WHO LIKES THAT CRAP.

Depends what sort of screaming/who the artist is. I like quite a lot of music like this

NTs are so weird. I swear.

I concur, and I think most of us here would

 

[toothless]

1.to many people-visually and information overloads me,its partly why i like wearing baseball caps as the lid of the cap can hide a lot of the 'visual noise'.
2.multiple people talking at the same time.
3.flashing light,fluorescent light,strobe lighting,bright light etc.
4.rain on my skin,makes me very overloaded as i struggle to deal with the feeling it gives me.
5.my nieces [or any other children] screeching or otherwise making higher pitched sounds.
6.dogs barking.
7.hearing the washing machine/dryer running in a distant apartment really overloads me-especially at night because its when im recovering from the days overload.
8.drilling or constant banging.
9.lawn mowers and other garden tools like hedge trimmers.
10.people who dont walk straight and to the side when theyre walking towards you,they walk the same way you want to walk and it gives me significant information and visual overload and i have to stop with my walker and let them pass as i physically feel terrible and it usually makes my vision disappear temperarily [sensory scrambling].
11.typing on my laptop or watching tv and someone starts talking, it overloads me to the point of collapse,i get agressive and my senses scramble.

my way of dealing with stuff is to avoid it-to go away from it very quickly, or to kick off [involuntary] or complain there and then,or to take a lorazepam,or to go to bed to recover.

 

[dragonwolf]

Loud music in public places that I cannot ignore. For instance I could NEVER work at wal Mart or Wholefoods! I become agitated and anxious and urge to self harm. Cure is to stay away or use ear plugs.

One thing I've been keeping an eye on is the Here system (Here One | Wireless Smart Earbuds and a Connected App). It's earbuds that allow you to change the volume of the world around you. They're pricey right now, but I look forward to their progression as they get better and are able to reduce the price. They have so much potential for anyone with sound sensitivities (with the caveat that they're able to tolerate earbuds).