Overloaded to the Point of Physical Illness

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Hello all,

A very interesting thing happened to me on Wednesday:

I was at the University I currently work for, and I was walking through the hallway inside. I was having an interesting conversation with one of my female friends, and suddenly three guys walking the opposite way approached in passing. One of these guys, couldn't have been more than 19 years in age, let out this very abrupt, painfully loud yell, for what seemed like no reason. I wasn't wearing my earplugs, because I don't wear them if there aren't any screaming kids in the area, and I momentarily forgot that some college students have the maturity level of a punk junior high student. This outburst made me jump, and caused me to feel unbelievably weary physically.

An hour later, when I left work, as I was driving, my physical state was gradually getting worse. I was surprised that something like that could have such a profound impact on me. I suppose it was the fact a combination of the reaction the outburst had on me physically, and the irritation of a college student thinking it is "cool" to act in such a way.

I have had many moments in life of being being drained physically by screaming kids, or outbursts, but this time seemed to be the most severe. When I got home, I went straight to my bed. I was breathing heavily, and I was having minor seizures. (I only have seizures when I am under a lot of stress, and in extreme emotional pain.) I slept for about five to six hours. When I woke up, my muscles were sore, and I was more fatigued than usual. I didn't last long before having to go back to bed. The next day I felt better, but still sore and weak.

Have any of you had this happen to you, as a result of extreme sensory overload? Is it possible for a person to die as a physical result of that kind of stress?

Yes, I get very drained by overloads. I don't have a lot of melt downs any more, fortunately, but even less emotional situations can take a lot out of me. I try to get enough sleep before having to go anywhere, and then I try to get enough sleep afterwards, too. I tend to feel pretty rotten physically, for several days after any outing. I guess it's just part of being too sensitive to things.

Yeah on top of my aspergers sensory issues, I have PTSD so sudden loud noises are quite fun for me. , seriously though I know how draining that sort of thing can be. And its frustrating, because its not like I can just think my way out of the physical reaction which would be nice.

I try not to feel to bitter about it though, since that usually makes me more frustrated. but considering my sarcasm I don't know I do a very good job of it.

i had this once recently, although in a different situation.

i was at a festival (ascension day) with some of my friends; but the music was turned up to such extremes that i had to double up on ear protection (i took some over-ear protection as a backup to my general gear becouse i had to wear earbuds a lot of time the week before, i feared irritation).
however, as is so often the case, as time goes on, the volume goes up; i felt the skin being ripped from my body at some point, and had to leave the area trough the emergency exit.
when i got home after (a 10 minute walk, at the end of which, the music from the festival was just tolerable without protection); i burst into the living room to hide (i saw there were some other friends there, the lights were on), and i had to calm down for 5 minutes before i could even greet them or go to a chair, and i had another 10 minutes of seizures in that chair before i could explain what was going on...

If something unexpected and sudden like that happens I sometimes end up spending the rest of the day fighting it, if I can't get away somewhere for long enough to 'chill out.' So, I think (for me) that fighting it is what leads to the exhaustion.

Err, by "it" and "reaction" I mean the "skin being ripped off" thing, as izzeme put it. It's like a sudden noise sneaks under my overload-defenses and undermines them, which makes everything even more overloading. So, I have to put out more effort to keep things out to try to avoid meltdown/total-overload.