What is sensory overload and overstimulation?

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I've heard of sensory overload and overstimulation many times, but i don't understand what it means. Can someone explain it to me?

When in a bright, noisy environment, like a crowded Wal-Mart, the sensory stimulation seems to build up.
It is almost like water filling up a bucket. It reaches the top and then spills all over the floor. That is what I feel like, I get swamped by the lights and noise and bustle and then my brain shuts down. Everything seems to come from the end of a long tunnel. I can't make out sounds, sights barely make any sense. I end up barely aware of anything and am usually only interested in getting away. I need somewhere quiet and familiar.
The thoughts that I do remember passing through my head are so illogical and not something that I would even consider doing normally. That is one of my biggest fears that I will act on one of those thoughts when overwhelmed.

interesting description kclark. I don't have too many problems with sensory overload. It has happened once or twice, and then so long ago I couldn't give an accurate description. However most of mine have to do with touch so my reaction is to scream and assume foetal. I can't imagine attempting to get out of the situation.

I remember I did one year though. At a family "reunion' geting hugged by every aunt and uncle and cousin and complete stranger at a bbq we had. I ended up SCREAMING and then running and jumping in the pool (fully clothed) to get away from everybody. But, definitely interested to hear other peoples experiences.

From memory (it's been 20 odd years since I've had sensory overload) I remember everything looking like it was kinda over exposed and the hearing sounding like it was muffled and echoy. Of course, that is as it plays in my mind. I was not exactly in a state to make a great memory of those events.

For me..it's like.. when everything gets so chaotic,
like every sight, sound, smell, touch, etc feels like nails on a blackboard..

Loud noise and bright lights mainly, though combinations of things on a lesser scale give a cumulative effect and can have me stressed out.

kclark explained it adequately in my experience. I don't really have intrusive thoughts during such, I just wish to run away and hide in the familiar; I feel a lot better as soon as I hit the car and wind all of the windows up and put the cool air on. I usually become nonverbal until I wind down from such, which can range from minutes to half a day depending on how overwhelmed I am.

Where there's society, in whatever form, the pot fills up, and it doesn't take long to overflow (the environment determines how quickly I hit "shutdown").

It's the greatest problem I have in relation to my ASD.

Sensory Overload is something that happens if you suffer from Sensory Integration Disorder. It is a wide umbrella of issues, one of which is Sensory Defensiveness...which I suffer from. I remember the first time I read that term. I felt immediately like it described what I suffered from.

For some people it's auditory, visual or tactile. Some people even experience Synisthesia (sp?), where you experience colours from sound, or taste from a tactile sensation.

My son and I are Sensory Defensive. One thing we have in common is if, for example, our socks fit incorrectly...the tactile sensation will induce irritability, shaking, and perspiration. No matter how much we tell ourselves that we will get over it, we can't, and it'll drive us to become so agitated that we will begin shutting down. I have a tendency to rock, and indulge in stims, and my little one will start crying and hitting.

Shopping causes problems as well. No matter where we go, we need to pick our time carefully. I long ago realized we had to arrange to succeed. Going at any old time would only lead to failure and a complete meltdown for us. Flourescent lights flicker at 60MHz which is right where the human eye can detect it...which affects us both...and my other son and partner to a lesser degree. The general noise can be tuned out if it's at a certain level and the music isn't too loud. The colours, and displays, and people moving all serve to further cause us difficulty.

When I can't control it, or the stimulus is simply too much I start breathing too fast, I perspire, I shake and get scared/irritable, I might indulge in stims like rubbing my leg with my thumb, I decide that any more shopping is not necessary and may decide what I've put in the basket so far isn't needed either. I sometimes zone out completely and any thinking is prolonged and difficult. My partner will help me refocus by using a method she and I have figured out, or she will simply remove me from the situation (leave the store). When engaged in an episode I am barely able to maintain any verbal communication, and I have a hard time processing what others are saying to me. It isnt' that I don't hear them...I just can't decode it. I want to hide under the rack of clothes, or stay in the bathroom, or go to a corner of the building. I find that I can't really see either. It's all a big sort of visual bright haze of stuff.

Recovery can be a few minutes to the rest of the day in a familiar and relaxing environment.

I am not getting better at it, I'm just getting better at recognizing what it is, and how to deal with it.

I think kclark explained it really well, or at least in an very understandable fashion. I usually try to explain it something like this...

My brain doesn't automatically filter out sensory background noise. Where most people's brains will ignore less important/relevant information (clocks ticking, ceiling fans moving, background conversations) my brain doesn't. In an environment where there are too many stimuli (for me this usually means lots of people, many conversations, fluorescent lights, sudden movements, repetitive but arrhythmic motions or sounds, etc) my brain will simply give up trying to integrate them all, and will start shutting them out. At least for me, my vision starts shutting down first...it's not like I can't see, but more like nothing I see makes sense, and I can't really react to it. If things get too bad, I pass out, and if things are really bad, I seize. The more stressed or tired I am, the less my brain is able to integrate all of the extra stimuli received.

Most of the time, I'm able to cope...my friends all know not to touch me without asking, or without giving me lots of visual warning first (i.e. never giving me a hug from behind). Even if I'm a little overstimulated, my brain doesn't usually shut down...I just get really cranky and snap at people for chewing too loudly^.^

I've heard that sensory overload is like an acid trip...I don't really have any way to confirm this, since I don't do drugs (good lord can you imagine?). Besides, my perspective seems perfectly normal to me, so I have no way to judge.

I get the same thing in supermarket and crowds, again this is all new to me but makes sense. I've never been able to tolerate crowds too well, but sometimes I just can't handle it and I have to get out.

Once was at a Radiohead concert there were 10 000 drunk and boisterous people around me, they kept bumping me and I got more and more upset, and the noise of all those people and the stage lights was all too much I had to leave it, I was just shaking and crying and still being jostled and I just couldn't handle it.

I get the same thing in supermarkets, and I can't go to them at busy times, so many people, trolleys moving about irrationally, then getting boxed in by strangers, again the colours in supermarkets are always too loud I think they must use some odd lighting in there.

All I can do is get away when this happens, but I do find that wearing big cans and listening to my mp3 player makes for auditory blinkers which helps distract me from the chaos.

When I get to overload, I'm told I jump about in seemingly exaggerated and theatrical ways, if someone comes near me I jump like that to get away, then I cower behind my partner who is a foot shorter than me, talk staccato and make little sense, and I honestly can't think until I get out of the situation, I get so upset I can't even think to get out if I'm left like that too long, and then the silence I don't speak unless prompted I just feel quite unnerved for some time after.

foxman: I've had acid and shrooms lots of times, the bad trips were so bad I had to stop doing it, I would lie curled in a ball with some snuggles crying for 3 hours until it wore off, I used to think I could feel how people were seeing me and it terrified me so bad (plus the fear of being busted tripping) that I now have a bad trip because I think I am going to have a bad trip. Not nice!

Thanks guys! I now understand what it means. I have never had this though.

You guys hate florescent lights? Nice! Me too. Well, because I thought I had a problem.

kclark explains it brilliantly.

I <3 fluorescent lights, maybe I'm weird. I've seen ones that are bad but electronically ballasted ones don't have nearly as much flicker (but yeah, it's at 60Hz still). For me it's bright sunlight and/or loud noise. Trouble comes from the fact that my off campus house at school is from the 1800s and you can hear EVERYTHING. Couple that with a rommate who doesn't walk, only stomps, and it's LOADS OF FUN. I spent hours trying to nail down floorboards on the stairs and upstairs hallway to make it much less quiet when he stomps up and down the stairs but it didn't help all that much. It's weird though, I can tolerate music very well. I actually feel awkward if I'm in my room and not listening to music. The trouble comes when there's overlapping sound, like if I'm listening to music and can hear a roommate playing a video game or my two roommates are in the living room talking very loudly. My headphones are open ear so they don't keep the outside sounds out. If I ever say something about it (Very, very rarely, I'd rather just sit in my room and grumble) I'm just told "just turn up your music".. it doesn't work though, if I can hear the other sounds they're maddening and I just can't focus. Basically any overly complicated, multi-source noise gets to me.

other than moving out I can't really think of a way to deal with it. Only two people in my life know that I have aspergers (aside from my parents) --I don't really feel comfortable telling my roommates.

im not as bad as some previous posts. however if i spend to long in artificial light or in too brighter place, i get a headache, start to sweat and shake a lot, as well as breathing faster. this is the same when im in a socially insecure environment, such as some classes in college. in fact, some days i cant wait till night time when i can turn all the lights off, because then my headache goes away instantly, and i feel at ease.
often during the day, i have a pretty much permanent headache, i also find fatigue an issue. however, i find music helps absolutely loads, and i feel much more comfortable with headphones in. this is the same with natural light, that doesnt bother me at all.

I had to go to a luncheon yesterday for a coworker's goodbye party. I realised about 5 minutes into the whole thing, that I very unwisely chose my seat. I was up against a wall in the middle of the table with no way out. I actually found myself obsessing about how to get up without causing some weird upheaval. Then there was the salad which appeared to have dandelion greens and I had to ask if it was (I'm highly allergic). The restaurant said that it wasn't, but I broke out with hives, so now I know that it was. Then there was the spider that dropped out of the sky and landed on my menu causing me to scream and jump up (I'm intensely afraid of spiders).

Then there was the moment I drewaded, here I was in that weird nothing space of being in a large group in that excruciatingly long period of time between ordering and actually getting food and I was having to continually shut down everything because it was intensely overloading me. Then somone would ask me something or say something to me and realise that I wasn't listening at all. always uncomfortable having to repeat an entire conversation to some idiot that wasn't listening (namely me). then the inevitable. "What's wrong? You're a million miles away." Yeah, well, it's safer there, sorry. Ugh!

So I got back to the office and had to turn off the lights and sit in the quiet with my MP3 player blaring in my ears just to feel like whatever it is I am again. that is sensory overload!

high pitch noise make me paralized and hurt me more than the time i sprained my hand from jumping out of a tree