"5 Things I Want You to Know About Sensory Shutdowns"

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One of the best descriptions I've ever read...this is exactly what it's like for me:

http://themighty.com/2015/09/5-things-i ... shutdowns/

That just described my whole summer.
It's been record-breaking heat in the Pacific NW.
I slowly imploded.
Then completely collapsed all the way through the black hole to the other side.

It's as if decades of holding all the sensory stuff back failed.
I think of it like a buffer over-run failure.
I'm getting a much high data rate on sensory stuff, internal & external, including internal processing loops.
The brain can only keep up at a limited rate, eventually, systems fail.

It's like an overall lifetime shut-down.
As I get older, my body bugs me more and more, as any aging body does. My back is not well.
That makes keeping up with the outside sensory stuff , and processing all the backlog even tougher.

I also think as autistics get older we find was of "shutting down" more than "melting down" as often.
I'm sure many of us have controlled collapse strategies.
Fortunately, I have a good living situation allowing me to back off if I get over loaded.

I kind of have to plan all my outings anticipating various sensory levels.
It took years of all kinds of total "big kid" meltdowns.
Substances, running across the country, walking out on jobs, getting fired from jobs.

But the thick sensory world is all I know.
I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have that numbed.
I'd feel so disoriented and lost.
I can close my eyes, and almost "see" the audio world around me in 3D.
My color perception is amazing.
My sense of smell.......ok....really good, but not really a good thing though.
And my internal body senses help keep me on top of my health.

So I'd never want my sensory levels to decrease.
I just want to figure out how to live with them better.

That really is an eerily accurate description & a very well written article. Thanks for posting Conundrum.

What you said Pete1061, about having 'controlled collapse strategies' for when this happens is so important. I know I have a few strategies in this vein, but they don't cover all contingencies, which is something I think I will work on.

Before I ever knew what sensory overload was. I always thought I was getting hyper tired. My years in elementary school where the worse. Unlike middle and high school, where you have multiple classes a day with a 5 minute break every hour. In elementary school, you could be in class for up to 2 1/2 hours at a time, and that just built-up the tension with me. It was sooo bad, I had to ask the teacher if I could go to the restroom, just to relieve the stress. I was always getting recess time knocked-off for doing this, but I really had no choice.