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Sensory Binging

I think just by knowing it is unhealthy you know how to cure yourself. That said, there's a ceratin amount of pleasure to testing any bondary, be it noise x or y with Apsergers or x. We just need to find a happy medium where it's healthy, I am a firm believer that a lot of Aneuorotypical can be utilised in constructive ways.
 
Since this has changed to just sensory binging in general, yes! Super loud music on occasion does it for me, but so does vigorous exercise. Sometimes I'll stay up all night recording entire songs out of nowhere (the type of inspiration that only happens in the middle of the night, of course) or working on other projects.
 
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Are you Bipolar? Because this honestly sounds like you're in a manic phase right now.
 
Anyone else sensory binge?

Could you describe what you mean a bit more? I like listening to music very loudly with headphones. Does that count? I don't remember binging on touch and smell sensations. I like good tasting food, but calling it sensory binging seems a bit presumptuous of me. I don't really sensory binge with my sight either, but then I remembered this incredibly impressive music video which I have watched lots of times, sometimes many times in a row due to the "trippy" visuals, and I think sensory binging might describe that behaviour:
 
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Are you Bipolar? Because this honestly sounds like you're in a manic phase right now.

Could you describe what you mean a bit more? I like listening to music very loudly with headphones. Does that count? I don't remember binging on touch and smell sensations. I like good tasting food, but calling it sensory binging seems a bit presumptuous of me. I don't really sensory binge either, but then I remembered this incredibly impressive music video which I have watched lots of times, sometimes many times in a row due to the "trippy" visuals, and I think sensory binging might describe that behaviour:

I would love to expanded on the topic, but certain parties are offering unsolicited and unqualified mental health diagnoses. So, unfortunately I can't as much as I would like to.

It would only be fodder for the behavior.

Apologies.
 
I am not sure what sensory binge means. The translator says things as eating too much cookies in a row, or playing too much videogames or hitting walls. So im not sure what it means, to me those things are quite different.
 
I am not sure what sensory binge means. The translator says things as eating too much cookies in a row, or playing too much videogames or hitting walls. So im not sure what it means, to me those things are quite different.

Some people ride roller coasters multiple times, some people listen to music too loud. Essentially that is what a sensory binge is, simply indulging one's senses to the exclusion of most other things for a fixed (controlled) period of time. It is a process that engages the natural endorphin systems of the brain through the sensory input.

Please note there is a profound difference between a conscious (voluntary, normal) sensory seeking state and true mania, (which is nothing to joke about). The conscious state is all about the control. Mania or a manic state is a serious condition in which the individual has no control over 'exciting or happy' emotion and may need assistance because they are unaware of their own state.


Music as an example, (a favourite composer, but an unknown score, alien patterns to learn). Music is my input of choice, has been for years. Those songs you listen to on repeat a thousand times. This is what it is. It is a sensory seeking behaviour, active listening to find the piece that raises goosebumps. No other senses are actively engaged. So you take a walk, swing on a swing at the park, clean the house, what not. Passive busy work, but the only focused process is the thrum of the music. And when you find the right piece of music something deep inside the brain clicks on.

It's almost its own unique form of meditation, but with motion and sound. The mind will go whereever you want it to go. An active creative matrix. (As a writer this state is honestly one of my most powerful tools and this is also why I listen to so many movie scores. It helps determine the mood and the pacing of a piece.) It is a space wherein you don't doubt that you can write the piece to the level it requires, you just write. All the pieces come together and there is nothing beyond the words and the pressure of the music. This is no uncontrolled state of mania, this is hypercontrolled focus of an HDAutisitc brain.

Emotions and endorphins run high in this state, but you are completely conscious of them because those emotions are the key to everything in the piece. The pacing, the terror, the determination, and need to try to hold the line and see through what you've started. And then its done. You reached the end of the piece, or at least a place that is a reasonable stopping point. Just like the ignition on a car, turn off the music and the process is complete.

The process is not without its own set of challenges. The mental focus it requires is immense and it is a total energy burn. (The brain uses more calories in a day than any other part of the body.) To get the resources other interests (reading for me) will fall into significant neglect. (e.g. I may finish only one book in five days, when usually I finish four books in five days.) Usually a resource divert will be triggered by some small thing that sparks an idea that will require a lot of work. e.g. The Speed of Dark (A tercet poem featuring a pack of African Wild Dogs on a hunt. That was blood and mud and an insane pace.) It is also noted by a fixed obsession with a single piece of music, on repeat and way too loud in the ears.

It is a hoarding of spoons, like a spring consistently, tightly wound. That energy is stored and as the music builds and repeats, it coils tighter, but the time isn't right, so while you get a small rush off the music, it isn't the full engagement of the brain, just a mild hyperfocus moment. Maybe fifteen minutes. Because real life is still going on and that cannot be ignored.

There is a major transition between switching from just active listening to the writing phase of a binge. This is when emotions and endorphins are at their height, the most tangible and flexible. This is when the shift happens and all those hoarded resources are unleashed with an intensity and speed that no neurotypical could ever understand. This deep into the zone is a fine line between an overload and a meltdown. Overload, you know you are pressing the edge, sensories at maximum capacity, but still in control. Meltdown only occurs when that control is shattered because of an outside interruption.

Meltdowns are often a result of a sensory misfire, launching one's systems into an uncontrolled burn. It is the other half of sensory binging. When one is pitched into overload without warning whether it is trigger by stress, fear, environmental stimuli, what have you...It functions on the same system. And out of control...A majority of us have been there.

But just as an interrupted binge can trigger a meltdown, sensory triggers can be used to pull a meltdown out of crash and burn. Yes, there will still be searing, but the total burnout will be far less. It can be used to regulate and ground one when one's senses are in chaos. (Personally, my migraines are hardwired to my sensory issues. No painkillers will touch them, and these are pain to the point that it is blinding. My god, does it hurt. But I've learned a few things from working with my systems, a deliberate overload of music with all other senses forced down will focus the systems to the point where I can fall asleep and reboot.)

This is no manic state, it is comprehensive work with one's nervous system when there is no owner's manual. It is an intuitive, lifelong process unique to the individual. Music is the key to mine. It allows me to indulge, to excel, and to ground myself when I know I am in a burn.

This is not a pathology. This is active self awareness. IT IS ACCEPTANCE OF A FULLY FUNCTIONAL SYSTEM AND ADVOCACY OF AUTONOMY.

We are our first, best line of defense to ourselves. Science has proven that when autistics deny their sensory drives it causes damage and disregulation which leads to and deeply impacts the well-being and mental health of said individuals.

66% deal with depression and the rate of suicide in the ND community is nearly four times the national average. 33% of those depression cases do not respond to standard treatment.

Yet we get relief from stress, emotional overwhelm, etc...through stimming and sensory input. An inherent, often effective system, but how many of us feel shame or are weirded out by the drive of these regulatory behaviours.

Ignorant opinions would label it a form of mania, a pathological issue that needs to be erradicated from the brain, we've even seen suggestions of ECT...and replaced with what?

How many autistics actively engage a sensory binge? And if you are among the number, consider how you, your brain felt afterward. It is the same place that distance athletes click into a place of grounded elevation when the mind is on point, balanced and the endorphin systems are at peak function.

It is the system as it should be, but again, control is a big part of the story. And without it the system is just a latent property of the brain.

I've engaged my sensory needs on a lifelong basis and for me it has been a godsend. Like driving a manual transmission you learn when and how to engage the different gears, what the different settings do, and how much they can handle.

I wrote my own damn owner's manual and systematically it works. Even when given what was at the time a terminal diagnosis I didn't get depressed. I got angry and anger is one of those emotions I long ago learned to channel through my sensory excerises. Lay down and die or do something about it.

I was furious so I turned my systems on and pushed them as far and hard as they could go. I finished my BA, applied for and was accepted into an MA program. I did NaNoWriMo. I did NaPoem. (Basically Ironman competitions for fiction and poetry). And I finished every time I entered.
 
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Having read through all that it illustrates a difference between casual 'normal' stimming or sensory stimulation and an ultramarathoner level of precision. Some people are gifted athletes, some people have amazing memorization and recall skills, I have a tessallative writing matrix.

One of the better examples of what a multifaceted focused stim can look like is from a conversation with one of my professors during my graduate work. He told me my autism was rarely apparent, invisible in fact, to those who didn't know. This was thesis presentation work, so there were a number of us in a fairly large conference room and I had hard copy of the work I was presenting with me.

I asked for the floor and spread out everything I had in the tessellations of the poetry types, the storylines, and recurrent characters and themes. It was a twisting double helix that wound all over the room. I didn't say anything, just asked if anyone noticed any patterns. Visually it stopped everyone and then people began to look at first the poetry types, the transitions and how deep the patterns went. It was a virtual rendering of the construct space in my head.

The all roads lead to Rome saying, this is what they mean. No matter the input, the situation, or environmental triggers, it all relays over the same system. How that system responds determines how the individual responds. Positive sensory exposure allows us to explore and learn our systems in a controlled manner, which in turn teaches us what our trigger switches are and when and how to control them. While it is no cure for anything sensory exploration builds tools that give us more control.
 
Thanks for explaining. I can identify something "similar?" on me, to a lesser degree I think.

I will try to write about it when arriving home. Just in case it add something to the topic.
 
Something neurologists talk about is neurons that fire together wire together. Music being my sensory trigger wired with my hyperlexic splinter skill set (documented at savant level). An inherent ability extrapolated by a sensory key.

This is one of those things that when you flip the key you are going alone. A creative process on an epiphany moment rush.

Few understand it because it is a very hard place to reach by accident, being able to deliberately trigger a conscious return is even harder.

Artists. Writers. Musicians. Be they ND or NT are often searching for those moments of the endorphin rush (the goosebumps reaction.) And many people seek sensory input through outside substances (food, drugs and/or alcohol).

Keep in mind that those input points are still aimed at gaining positive response from the brain. (Endorphin reaction).

Sensory work utilizes these same pathways. Fire to wire. This is how and why habits form and why they can be so hard to break. Easy gratification access. This is why the sensory keys matter. What the key is and how it impacts the individual is everything.

We're talking about addiction in its most basic format. Action and reaction. It is a sensory seeking and is at the root of the whole spectrum of the behaviour.

Having said all that how is having a hypercontrolled sensory network pathological or manic, when the probability of negative impact is near zero because the mind is in complete, conscious control? Moreover, when a meltdown happens (and given the nature of the autistic neurotype it will happen), these same keys can be used to counterbalance disregulation.

(No outside drugs, medications, alcohol, or illicit substances. Food abuse is not an issue.)
 
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Please excuse me If what I write is not what you expected or its not usefull. Im not used to talk about this topic and its rather new to me.

My main senses are sight, hear and touch.

- Hear is quite a distractor for me. If I listen to music It becomes monochanel, it eats all my processing power and I lose my concentration on any other task. So I cant listen to music while I do any other thing. I cant even listen to a song while I understand the lyrics. On the other hand If I listen to non lyric music my mind can fly. I have done it with videogames music, celtic music, nature sounds, and specially with Tibetan Bowls. The experience with Tibetan Bowls its similar to what you describe but at a lower level. I feel the vibration on my whole body and my mind cant think. I am just there at the moment, I tend to fall sleep. I use Tibetan Bowls music to recharge, it feels like it heals my mind when I am emotionaly exausted.

I have no problems doing other things while I listen audiobooks or podcast, so I do that when driving or cleaning the house.

Practical Tip: Never put music while I am driving.

- Sight is the opossite to hear for me. Its a focus. When I look I focus. Thats seem to be a very INTJ thing. When I am concentrated at the computer people ask me if I am planning to kill somebody. I know the MBTI is not scientific, but It happens to be 90% true with me:
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So when I am walking on the street some part of me is auto focusing on whatever that I am looking at. I look the dog, then for that second a part of my mental attention is focused on the dog. I may be thinking about what present I should buy to my daugther, but if I see a tree I will focus on the tree accidentally. Most of the times its not important (just another tree), but maybe there is some fungus on the tree and I start focusing on how the fugus is invading the tree or how its just on the outside and could be symbiotic or any other random stuff. Of course this also happens when somebody is talking to me, so I try to look at the person who is talking to me as much as I can. Usually I just lose like 10% of my mind attention but if something/someone very interesting/atractive apears, Im fried. Like a cat following a laser spot my mind focus on what I am looking at.

Practical tip: I have to turn off music and TV when I am talking something important with my wife.

Touch: Touch is very important for me, I would say that its my self regulating sense. I like having some kind of toy or thing on my hand like a carabiner, a pencil or things like that. I love walking with five fingers to feel the street with my feets, I like walking close to walls so I can touch the wall with the back of my nails, so I can feel the vibration. When I take a shower I love scratching my back, my daugther and wife ask me if I had a figth with a tiger. o_O

I also love massages and the feeling of physiotherapy electrodes. I also enjoyed my tatoo to a certain point (afer 1 hour it started to feel more like pain). When I was younger I took out my eyelashes because it felt better that way. When I was studing for long periods I took out my legs hair without noticing. My main way to show love to other people is by touch too, I do small massages on their necks/shoulders with my hand and that means that I appreaciate them. Its also important for me to touch the hair and head of my daugther to express my affection. There are some other examples, but I think its already clear.

When I combine touch with sight I may enter into flow mode. When I draw, when I paint miniatures, when I am making a model or working with wood. Then its like I stop perceiving the time, and I cant forget to eat or sleep for hours. It doesnt happen with every activity but with some of them.

The other way I enter flow mode is when some topic becomes really interesting and I need to "absorb" it.

Not sure if it is related to what you wanted to know, but hope it helps.
 
I have been running at a full system burn since last Sunday, my last actual day off. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...24 hours. Thursday was Thanksgiving. Made it throught the gathering, half dead with overload. Back at work at 6:30 am. Eight hours frontline on Black Friday. Full shifts the rest of the weekend and tomorrow marks eight days of eights.

My brain is absolutely screaming. I pulled my entire music library up and built a new playlist. Something I rarely do because when I do I play it on repeat for weeks, often months at a time. 3/4 count, four chord mega medley (definitely not easy listening)...like winding an internal spring, the pressure builds at the back of my head. It doesn't hurt, as the brain has no touch receptors, but I know what the coiled tension presages...

Either a quantum leap forward in my writing or total system shutdown...(I've been reading the same book for almost three days, the week prior I binged five in 24 hours). Subconsciously, my systems are diverting resources and chances are good the homestretch endurance sprint will hit tomorrow late afternoon.

It is like when I was swimming competetively in the 500...the last 100 meters (2 laps) was a flat sprint, often leading to a lapping of most of the other swimmers. Then cue up the 100 meter freestyle relay less than thirty minutes later. I was the anchor swimmer, last leg, but our team won state and regions in that event every year. When you think you have nothing left to pull on somehow you shift into a gear you forgot you had, so you slam down on the accelerator and ride the tsunami surge of sheer will power.

The pressure is gone once you finally slow down and for once you don't have to battle with your brain about shutting down. At that point sleep is the only thing that matters, the only thing you truly need. It is the bladed edge of proving naysayers wrong because they have no clue about the true depth of your ability to come roaring out of nowhere when things really matter. It is the point beyond thinking and just doing, whether swimming or writing, I have a warp drive feature that is hardwired to my sensory reserves. I stop doubting myself and switch to autopilot and do what feels right. I know the caliber of what I can produce when I shift into these warp zones, so I tend to save it for when it counts the most (battle sequences, conclusions, problematic transitions that cannot be overthought).

The next 24 hours are a countdown...
 

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