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.