Sensory Overload

Inside the Mind of Sensory Overload

One of the many acknowledged but very often misunderstood aspects of autism is the sensory overload factor. It is common knowledge that individuals with autism have sensory problems. For example, hyper acute hearing is common, as are pressure cravings and tactile sensitivities. Another common problem is the inability to process the amount of sensory input that exists in certain situations. When this happens, the person with autism goes into “overload” and his whole sensory processing system “shuts down” because his (or her) senses cannot accurately process the rapid amount of information that is coming into them.

http://www.autismathomeseries.com/library/2009/08/inside-the-mind-of-sensory-overload/

Yes. Usually resulting in some kind of meltdown.

Yeah, I lost my car in the city due to sensory overload. Hours later + friendly cops = car parked where I left it.

imnotnuts wrote:Yeah, I lost my car in the city due to sensory overload. Hours later + friendly cops = car parked where I left it.

And did you feel slightly stupid? I have an indentation on my bum where I continually kick myself for doing stuff like that.

I've never gone into a meltdown because of sensory overload.
At least, to my memory.
I do know that I had one time where it was so loud that I kept thinking to myself, "GET ME OUTTA HERE" but I never melted down.

Recently I had a similar time in school a few days ago where I wanted the noise to stop but I never melted down (though I think I could feel myself getting on the anxious side).

imnotnuts wrote:Yeah, I lost my car in the city due to sensory overload. Hours later + friendly cops = car parked where I left it.

Bummer, on the upside - at least it wasn't stolen.

God bless the genius who created the car alarm that lets you "beep" your car with a handheld controller. I've spent so much time walking around parking lots holding my handhold controller in the air clicking my car alarm trying to find out where I parked my car. My husband thinks this is very funny.

petrossa wrote:

Inside the Mind of Sensory Overload

One of the many acknowledged but very often misunderstood aspects of autism is the sensory overload factor. It is common knowledge that individuals with autism have sensory problems. For example, hyper acute hearing is common, as are pressure cravings and tactile sensitivities. Another common problem is the inability to process the amount of sensory input that exists in certain situations. When this happens, the person with autism goes into “overload” and his whole sensory processing system “shuts down” because his (or her) senses cannot accurately process the rapid amount of information that is coming into them.

http://www.autismathomeseries.com/library/2009/08/inside-the-mind-of-sensory-overload/

Interesting blog. I related to his experiences in Vegas. I went to Vegas a few years ago and stayed at the Luxor hotel/casino. That city is freaken' insane and EXHAUSTING! All the colors, the people, the flashing lights, the clicking and clanking, and music, and cigarette smoke - its completely overwhelming. And its not like you can escape by leaving the casino either because the strip outside is just as bad as being in the casino (assuming you can find the door out). The best part about Vegas, in my opinion, was sitting quietly in my room with the windows shut. Unfortunately, I couldn't spend much time in my room because I kept loosing it. I'd swear the room kept moving on me because once I'd leave the room, I get completely lost. It was definitely an experience. Next time I have an urge to go to get lost in the desert, I'll go to the Grand Canyon.

Marie2010 wrote:I went to Vegas a few years ago and stayed at the Luxor hotel/casino. That city is freaken' insane and EXHAUSTING! All the colors, the people, the flashing lights, the clicking and clanking, and music, and cigarette smoke - its completely overwhelming.

The best part about Vegas, in my opinion, was sitting quietly in my room with the windows shut.

Next time I have an urge to go to get lost in the desert, I'll go to the Grand Canyon.

I've been to Vegas twice, stayed at the Luxor the first time. We were laying by the pool in early morning when a waitress came by. I asked for a cup of coffee. She had no way to order that, she said, but would be happy to bring me a Bloody Mary. I declined. Guess coffee isn't good for gambling. I mean gaming.

The best part about Vegas was Cirque de Soleil's "O", much better than their other shows. A close second was Penn & Teller. Third, the Hoover Dam tour. There is no fourth I know of.

My in-laws once took all their children and spouses on a Carnival cruise. God I hated that ship. Or rather the people infesting the ship. Fortunately I had upgraded us to a cabin with a balcony. That balcony was my salvation, I could sit out there and read, no other humans in sight. Bliss.

The Grand Canyon is wonderful, by the way, especially the north rim in fall, just before it closes for the winter. Not crowded like the south rim.

Interesting how there's such a huge amount of sensory information in the outdoors, yet it never results in overload. Only people seem to overload me.

Pet, can this be triggered by pain too? I've experienced something that was unfamiliar and unsettling a couple of times recently as a result of intense low back pain. I also have fibromyalgia so I'm already at a disadvantage when it comes to pain processing. The best theory out there so far is that it's a CNS disorder that makes you hypersensitive to painful stimuli and non-painful stimuli can cause pain as well. There's a bunch of info about chemicals in the brain and spinal chord, but that's beside the point.

Here's what's happened:

2 separate recently times I've reached a point where the pain in my lower back was so intense that it abruptly stopped and I felt no pain at all. The first time I was driving down the interstate on the way to a doctor's appointment and digging my fingers into another muscle to cause pain there and try to redirect my focus from the intense pain in my back. I didn't expect the complete cessation of the back pain though. It only lasted 10-15 minutes (until I reached my destination and got out of the car, then it was back, like someone dumped a bucket of water on me).

The second time was at another doctor's office to get a cortisone injection in that spot. He had to poke around a little to find the most painful spot so he'd know where to place the injection. Logically I know he wasn't poking me that hard, but my lower back (right side just above my rear) is the most painful spot on my body and is always very sore to the touch, no matter how gentle. He found a spot, left the room and came back maybe 2 minutes later and started trying to find it again. He really should have marked it with a pen I'm thinking, because I was sitting there bracing myself with my hands on either side of my hips and I now had a pretty obvious tremor in my right hand that I could not control, what was more interesting though, was that I could not feel him touching my back. It wasn't just a matter of it not being painful this time, I literally could not feel it. Between the tremor in my hand and the fact my hip had locked and I couldn't lean forward very far, and couldn't feel him poking me in the back, he was trying to back out of doing the injection because he didn't want to hurt me too badly, so I had to improvise and point out a spot with my left hand. It took another 5 mins after that before I started getting feeling back.

Do you think things like that fall into the "sensory overload" category? They're honestly the most obvious examples I can come up with of my body/mind not being able to handle sensory input and shutting it down for a while. I've had struggles in classes at college with noisy ceiling fans or air conditioning vents, where i will hear them loudly drowning out the professor and fight to focus on his voice, then i'll be able to hear him for a few words and block out the offensive background noise, then it takes over again; that would go back and forth in waves for the entire class period if i let it, so i just stopped trying to listen to anything until i could get the professor to make the noise stop.

This quote can set you on track faeriefly:

With research, I learned that Dr. A. Jane Ayers, an Occupational Therapist, was working on her Post-doctoral work at UCLA Brain Research Institute in the mid 1970’s. While there she was the first to identify Dysfunction of Sensory Integration (DSI) and became the originator of Sensory Integration Theory. She described Sensory Integration as the body’s ability to perceive external stimuli and respond to the stimuli in an organized, purposeful, manner. It is a neurological process of organizing information received from outside the body and integrating it into meaningful information. To integrate stimuli, the body must:
Alert- attend or orient to stimuli
Select- filter out non-essential information
Protect- defend or protect itself if stimuli is overwhelming or dangerous.
Organize- into meaningful information

As humans, we are bombarded with over 2 million sensory stimuli every second. Some stimuli we are aware of and some we are not. For example, as you read this article, you may not be aware of the temperature in the room, the pressure of the chair pushing against the back of your legs, the shirt touching your arms, the paper in your hands. They are all sensory stimuli and your body must process them in some way.
DSI exists when the body is unable to perceive or respond to stimuli appropriately. It is a common, but misunderstood problem that can impact children greatly. DSI can affect children’s behavior, influence learning, impact movement and coordination, interfere with relationships, lower self esteem, and affect children in the health care setting.
DSI is important to recognize and understand because it impacts the child’s behavior and understanding of the world around him. When a child does not respond to sensory information in an appropriate way, the child does not behave in a meaningful consistent way. It is recognized in a large number of disorders including: Autistic Spectrum/ PDD/Aspergers; Speech/ Language Disorders; Downs Syndrome; Cerebral Palsy; Learning Disabilities, developmental disabilities; ADHD; and many others.