What does a sensory overload feel like for you?

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For me, I can't focus or maintain concentration, and I either want to run out of the room or curl into a ball on the floor.

You ever get an IV, and you can feel the cold solution running through your veins? It's kinda like that, but with rage...

I don't get bothered by most things that bother Aspies, I get along fine in the big city, concerts, etc. It's loud, abrupt noises that bother me. Those feel like a spike through my brain sometimes.

Social things stack up and I just blow up, but rarely do normal "sensory" things cause me problems, IE sound, light, etc. Stressful events mess with me.

I rarely have sensory overload. I usually only have it when I'm exhausted. Once when I was exhausted I had a rage attack because the TV was too loud. I also get irritated when I'm around screaming children. I think NTs get irritated by that as well.

I either mentally and emotionally shutdown, or go to the oner extreme with racing thoughts in a million directions combined with a major adrenaline rush.

Sensory overloading in my circumstance can be rather jarring. If there is too much noise occurring, I actually have difficulty focusing in on one conversation while hearing someone else's conversations. If there is too much visualization, I change the amount of focus given into my senses. This can lead to problems when trying to contact others when I go through these troubling instances. I avoid any other forms of sensory overloading at all costs, considering it's effect on me.

Well, the only time I can could say I've had sensory overload in so many terms is when I'm in a large group of people, like a LARGE group of people, so it doesn't happen often at all. It needs to be noisy, like a concert or something like that, and it needs to be crowded. The first time I remember experiencing anything like that was going to festival-type thing thrown at school, where there were just crowds upon crowds of people talking loudly and acting up. I liked the sensation, I guess I mainly got light-headed.

But plenty of sensations just irk me. Sounds and smells and some textures. If it doesn't stop or I don't manage to somehow tune it done/out, it can make me pretty angry.

Ah, fire alarms....fire alarms are the only things that have ever caused me to panic. It feels like panic, like fear. As a child I was terrified of dying in a fire, I had nightmares about fires, I didn't like the fireplace at my grandma's at all.
A couple years ago my husband decided to make toast at like 2am when I was fast asleep which set of the fire alarm. I remember dreaming 'I need to scream. No, I need to be louder!'. Then I was suddenly awake and screaming...I was probably louder than the friggin alarm. I bolted and ran into the bathroom and cowered into the corner like my dog used to do when the smoke detector went off. I had turned completely white and it took me at least 5 minutes to recover.

I'm not sure I'd classify any of these experiences, except the large, noisy crowds one, as sensory overload. Sensory irritation and a really strong sense of alarms bringing terror. I don't even like alarm clock alarms, gotta be the radio if I use one, although I can get used to them.

I don't have sensory overloads, only emotional overloads. With emotional overloads, I start thinking and worrying about every social faux pas I remember making and every person that has let me down and upset me, and how my life is going right now - and that sends me into a meltdown. The meltdown involves: screaming, hitting myself, swearing, abusing my life, slamming doors, crying, and threatening to commit suicide.

I do hate getting in that state, but at the time I cannot help myself. I just need to let the anger out. I've not long had an emotional overload, and now I feel rather immune to getting that angry for now, but it will only be a matter of months before it has all built up and will do it again. I am going to the doctors to go on anti-depressants or some other form of meds and hopefully it may keep me from having these emotional overloads. I still might get angry, but not to that extent.

I think an emotional overload is sorta caused by the same thing as a sensory overload. The emotion just arises from within yourself instead of coming from outside...but it's still...something that's being sensed by you that you're not in control over. Emotions could be considered sensations.

Auditory and visual overload are my two worst ones, and it depends on the type of sensory input whether I shut down or meltdown. If the stimulus is overbearing and constant, like a loud restaurant or constant sunlight or fluorescent lights, I shut down, lose all my energy and basically block out everything, at which point conversation is almost impossible and I barely have the energy to move. If the stimulus is too loud, or intermittent like squeaking or scraping chairs, people cheering at a football game in a restaurant that's already too loud, or flashing or pulsating lights, that will send me into a meltdown during which I get extremely irritated, then angry, I start shaking and have to do whatever I can to escape, then I have to run off the adrenaline. Talking to me sensibly at that point is not an option, and anyone who tries to touch me will get shoved off at best and punched at worst (fortunately that's never happened, though I've come close once or twice).

Auditory - if it's mild, I become irritated and have to pause whatever I'm doing; if it's moderate, I cover my ears; if it's severe, I get deeply irritated and end up screaming at people (I really wish I could control that one, at least).

Visual - the only visual issue I have is with lights. If it's mild, like usual daylight, I just cover my eyes and/or wear sunglasses; if it's moderate, I get tunnel vision; if it's severe, besides the tunnel vision, I have splitting-head migraines and become completely worthless: can't think, can't understand what others are saying and can't speak. (Thank goodness I haven't had one of those in a long time. It's definitely my worst issue.)

Tactile:
- Food - I spit whatever it is. If I try to push it, I throw up.
- Skin-related - I feel very irritated. I've always dropped/moved away from the source, so I don't know what would happen if I pushed it. If it's people touching me randomly, it has happened that I've become very aggressive towards the person, but I usually just move away.

Overall, it feels like an itch that I could never able to scratch. Frustrating, annoying, and sometimes painful.

When I no longer had anxiety, it's almost nonexistent.
And before I had any sensory overload or anxiety at all, I was a sensory seeker.
I either shut down, or densensitize before hand or afterwards.


But all of this was about 4 years ago and beyond.

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I feel that there's both a physical and a reactionally mental aspect to sensory overloads, both of which may happen at the same time, but not always. The physical being pain or discomfort or a sensory shutdown, whilst the mental could be a meltdown or an emotional response or a mental shutdown.

My own experiences:

Sound = (Physical:) Every little noise after the overload makes my ears "shiver" internally in an uncomfortable manner for a few minutes to an hour. // (mental:) Increased anxiety and the urge to find a quietish corner and just shut down.

Light = (Physical:) My eyes hurt and I have to look away, then everything suddenly seems too bright and I can't read without feeling pain for a few minutes (or the rest of the day, depending on how tired I am when it happens).

Touch = (Physical:) [Occurs from certain textures] The texture feels like the touch equivalent of the nail-on-chalkboard sound. After that, whatever extremity touched the texture feels tingly for about an hour or two. // (Mental:) [Occurs on sudden unexpected contact] Increased anxiety, huge discomfort, sudden heightened alerted state and the urge to take a stiff posture and stay completely still (though that's impossible if the touch tickles, because that sends me into a flailing frenzy).

Smell = (Physical:) Strong gag or cough reflex.

Taste = (Mental:) Can't eat things I don't like at all. No way.

It is exhausting and it makes me shut down. Usually just hibernate in my room until rested.

When exposed to a wide range of stimulus too long I tend to get more and more fatigued and progressively sicker the longer I remain exposed, the symptoms can range from general fatigue to vertigo and to nausea and migraine like headaches, in several instances I wondered if I might pass out, though that has not occurred as far as I know, it also used to greatly increase the odds of a panic attack, though those are thankfully rare now, after withdrawing from the stimulus it can take awhile to recover depending on how far the overload progressed in severity, typically the further it progresses the more incoherent things will get, a delirium of sorts, and I experience a gradual shutdown process.