Shutdowns, Overstimulation and Visual Vertigo

[Passepartout]

For a few years now I have been experiencing daily shutdowns. Usually after going out walking, driving or shopping. There is just to much information outside in the world for my brain to process. The more I'm moving around and the more stimulation coming in (light, sounds, objects, people etc) the worse it gets.

The shutdowns usually starts with the eyes, I'll need to keep them closed to block out visually stimuli, it's like getting hit with extreme tiredness all of a sudden.

My thinking and brain processing will go very slow, I'll start talking in a monotone voice and be very flat, I won't be able to engage in anything at all. I'll end up just going into a ball on the floor or sofa. I'll usually have a microsleep, but sometimes it can be a longer sleep. Once I come back out of it I'm pretty much back to my self.

If all this starts to build up I'll end up having a long shutdown which can last a whole day or more. My brain will be to exhausted to even listen to music or watch TV, even the sound of my own voice is to much. I'll be pretty my flat and monotone, my posture will change and standing up straight is even to much.

I have always suffered from visually vertigo and photosensitivity all my adult life, which seems to have got worse the past few years (I suspect a vestibular disorder)

Over the past few years I've also developed chronic hypervigilance and sever hypersensitivity.

My theory is the visually vertigo made worse by hypervigilance and hypersensitivity is trigging overstimulation causing shutdowns.


Does anyone here experience anything like this at all? Or if anyone has any feedback that would be so helpful.

 

[FilterFreq]

I'm a lot like this when it comes to external stimuli. Even just going outside, socializing, or driving zaps me. I've always wondered why I always felt tired around groups of people, but the stimuli gets to me so quickly that my eyes start feeling tired / fatigued and I can't stop yawning. Even afterward, I can't unwind or do things I enjoy.

Meanwhile I can exercise vigorously for like an hour in isolation and feel amazing afterward, which would normally probably have the opposite effect on most people.

I don't have any good feedback or tips since I've developed a pretty maladaptive attitude toward all of it, but stimuli and photosensitivity are likely pretty common. We just might have a predisposition to the negative effects

 

[jsilver256]

Yup, I get the exact same thing. Sorry about your struggles but you are not alone.

Edit: I left out a word

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

When I go in to town or have any interaction with others, I pretty much have to lie down and take a nap.

 

[Jumpinbare]

What do you mean by visual vertigo. I have vertigo when I can't see, due to inner ear damage from an infection. My equilibrium has become primarily visual rather than vestibular.

 

[Passepartout]

What do you mean by visual vertigo. I have vertigo when I can't see, due to inner ear damage from an infection. My equilibrium has become primarily visual rather than vestibular.

Like supermarket isles, scanning for things. Spinning. Tracking anything which then causes the background to blur. Anything moving around or behind me in a circular rotation, or me moving in a circular rotation. Flicking of sunlight through trees when driving. To many or complex patterns. Scrolling to quick on the computer. Motion blur, shaking camera work, tilting camera angles etc in films.

It's always been there, even when I was a kid I would get debilitating motion sickness. Visually vertigo probably started (or atleast I noticed) around late teens. Something as simple as a candle at the dinner table would set it off.

From what I gather, it is all related to a vestibular disorder. I've had some ear infections too.

 

[SusanLR]

I get episodes of visual vertigo, and the doctors say it is vestibular.
Everything looks like it is spinning to the left, very fast around me.
Even when I shut my eyes, I still feel like I am spinning around 100 miles per hour.
Benign positional vertigo is what they called it.

I certainly relate to the sunlight flickering through the trees while driving.
Anything like bright flashing lights, strobes. It's overstimulation.
High anxiety and stress bring on the sensations more frequently I've found.
Lower anxiety levels are the only thing that helps for me.
It is a terrible sensation.

 

[All-Rounder]

I didn't have visual vertigo in the past before the event I'm going to describe, but I had a long-term lack of proper sleep at night and a long term sleep full with the whole cycle of sleep. I have literally not slept for months and i started getting these dizzy vertigo states and i felt like I was going to die, it was the worst feeling i have ever imagined. My brain was really unwell, due to stress and lack of sleep, and the stress and vigilance affected my sleep quality as well. Take good care of yourself and your sleep. Exit toxic partnerships that stress you.

I recovered with sleeping earlier in the evenings and trying not to be waking up too early, going back to sleep if its too early instead of starting to do various things.

I would be cautious with elevated head when sleeping as well or positions that impair the circulation to the brain, like sleeping on the belly in some positions with a pillow pushing against the neck.

 

[Passepartout]

I get episodes of visual vertigo, and the doctors say it is vestibular.
Everything looks like it is spinning to the left, very fast around me.
Even when I shut my eyes, I still feel like I am spinning around 100 miles per hour.
Benign positional vertigo is what they called it.

I certainly relate to the sunlight flickering through the trees while driving.
Anything like bright flashing lights, strobes. It's overstimulation.
High anxiety and stress bring on the sensations more frequently I've found.
Lower anxiety levels are the only thing that helps for me.
It is a terrible sensation.

Thanks for sharing. I have had a few of these attacks exactly as you describe, mine lasted several days and either came on sudden at night or I woke up with it. They are absolutely horrifying and traumatizing in everyway.

 

[All-Rounder]

Thanks for sharing. I have had a few of these attacks exactly as you describe, mine lasted several days and either came on sudden at night or I woke up with it. They are absolutely horrifying and traumatizing in everyway.

Agreed. I woke up in them sometimes too, and no matter what I did it wouldn't stop, I couldn't do anything. I was lucky I had no appointments. I thought I would remain that way since I woke up that way.

I forgot to mention I was playing computer games too much too, screen time and long term intense focus could be bad and my eyes would be red.

 

[All-Rounder]

Thiamine deficiency is known to cause such things.

"One presented with an acute vestibular syndrome characterized by acute, persistent, vertigo, with severe vomiting and gait ataxia for 48 hours, mimicking vestibular neuritis or stroke (case 2). The others presented with subacute, progressive symptoms dominated by postural instability (difficulty standing), gait unsteadiness, falls, and oscillopsia. Case 3 had severe lymphedema precluding examination of posture and gait."

Vestibular signs of thiamine deficiency during the early phase of suspected Wernicke encephalopathy