How do you cope with a sensory overload?

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Hello everyone.

We are four students from the Dutch University of Technology in Eindhoven and we are doing a project on autism.

We are making a room for autistic people that are experiencing or beginning to experience a sensory overload. The idea is that the room has no sensory input to begin with and will then gradually increase the sensory input back to normal.

This is the general idea and because this is such an active forum we hoped to find feedback but more important, information on how you personally cope with your sensory overload.

so:

When do you get a sensory overload? What type of input are you most sensitive to.
What do you do to make it stop or ease it down?
How long does it take you to get out of a sensory overload?

Thanks for your attention/help,

Greetings,

IDstudents.

Noises and smells are usually the culprits.
With noises I usually will listen to music or if I'm at work noise canceling headphones. Smells I just try to get away from.
It depends with the stimuli how long it takes me to get out of one. Probably a combination with my PTSD, but certain songs will cause me to go into a "shutdown" mode which can last for a couple of hours. Last time this happened was at the mall with my fiancee, I had a flashback and then was in a trance for a couple of hours after that; I was able to walk around and I knew where I was, but if someone asked me something I would either mumble an answer or something. It was like my brain had too much static and I wasn't able to focus my attention on once single thing. In this case, I have to recuperate in a quiet area or nap to feel better again.

When do you get a sensory overload? What type of input are you most sensitive to.

When I enter a supermarket or other store with fluorescent lights, abnormally cold temperature considering the weather outside, a lot of people walking around, music blaring over loudspeakers, and especially the voice of the store manager abruptly cutting in over the blaring music to yell some direction to someone.

When I am driving on the highway amidst many fast cars merging/switching lanes.

When I am walking on city/town streets near traffic and especially when I gave to watch for cars to cross roads.

When I have to put anything on my face. Heavy glasses (any glasses that aren't light) or anything that touches my eyes like a sleep mask or so called "eye comfort pillow". Scratchy pillows are a slighter annoyance.

Crazed commercials/shows on TV (with loud/fast-paced speech and noise).

Water that to most people is not too hot but to me is scalding. Heat from the stove on from face when I open it which is scalding to me.


What do you do to make it stop or ease it down?

Leave if possible or remove the offending thing.

If I am stuck in there for some time (e.g. I must cross a road or buy a product in a store), I chant internally "Don't look at me don't talk to me" over and over while I'm walking. I avoid eye contact with people, walk really fast to get the job done, and cover my ears at any too-loud noises, I don't care how weird it looks. I also may cut my shopping list short. I also use automated cashiers (where no human is present) to avoid human contact. I also take the calmer more scenic route whenever possible to avoid highways while driving, no matter how much longer it takes.

How long does it take you to get out of a sensory overload?

A half an hour or so until I'm no longer breathing too fast/shallowly or feeling anxious even if I've left the situation.

When do you get a sensory overload? What type of input are you most sensitive to?
I've only had a few genuine sensory overloads in my life, but I'm led to feelings of stress and upset by sensory issues fairly often. I'm most likely to have a sensory overload when it's hot outside, when a lot of pressure is being applied to my body, or when I'm in noisy, crowded places like supermarkets, crowded city streets, or schools. This is because the types of input I'm most sensitive to are noise (loudness, as well as screechy-type noises), heat, pressure (blood pressure tests are a good example), and the visual/audial overload that comes with being in large crowds.

What do you do to make it stop or ease it down?
The only things I've found to be effective are earplugs, music with earphones, leaving the area at the earliest possible opportunity, or completely avoiding places that tend to trigger sensory overload.

How long does it take you to get out of a sensory overload?
Usually just a matter of minutes if I'm in a safe place and have some form of comfort or distraction.

When do you get a sensory overload?

When things get to loud, crowded, when there is environmental over arousal, when to many things are happening at once, when someone trys to touch me.

What type of input are you most sensitive to.

Sound and light, sound in particular, I can't stand the sound of forks and spoons hitting plates.

What do you do to make it stop or ease it down?

I cover my ears and close my eyes and find a dark quiet place if possible, if there is none available then I will shutdown as per defence mechanism and become hypersensetive for the next few hours..

How long does it take you to get out of a sensory overload?

If I am able to find a quiet place to recover then about 30 minutes, if I am forced to stay in the overloading area then I will later shutdown and not recover for the whole day.

I can't stand crowds, being jostled and pushed. I also have difficulties with loud noises such as alarms and timers. For a short while, I had a job where the entire place was painted "biohazard" orange, I had to quit because the environment made me blind.

Usually I avoid such circumstances, if I can't, I just leave. PMS magnifies the stress to the point where I have vomited and abandoned my groceries before I was done shopping. (I won't be shopping there anymore)

I have over 40 years of dealing with this sort of difficulty and have learned a few things by trial and error. If I excuse myself politely before leaving, I recover much more quickly. If I can't leave an alarm, I absorb the sound; analyze it, break it down into patterns and form it into organized waves of color. By diffusing the chaos, I am able to eventually ignore the sound. This process took years of practice. If I can't leave a situation, sometimes I can escape the stress by focusing on relaxing my hands. (This I learned from a PTSD therapist)

I hope some of this is useful

Thanks for all the replies up and until now and thanks you for taking your time and the detailed descriptions!

More reactions are of course welcome!

IDstudents

When do you get a sensory overload? What type of input are you most sensitive to?

In large rooms with lots of people, such as labs and offices with fluorescent lighting, background noise, constant activity.

What do you do to make it stop or ease it down? How long does it take you to get out of a sensory overload?

In my experience, sensory overload is a problem processing the incoming stimuli, so I combat the incoming with the outgoing. I generate my own outgoing stimuli to feel better and help my brain process the incoming. I take a walk into the hallway and start humming or outside the building and start singing. It makes me look like a weirdo, but I don't care. I will skip down the street or spin around in circles in the bathroom. Not doing anything and simply getting away from the incoming is not enough for me. Must generate the outgoing to process the incoming!

I get sensory overloads when in crowds, places I'm not comfortable, and when there are repetitive noises and/or loud noises.

My children give me at least one overload a day with their noise. Usually I have to walk outside or I hide in my bathroom and take deep breathes.

I don't stay in public places for long because I can only take so much. I prefer to be home.

Honestly, when things are really bad, I smoke weed. Have for 18 years. I haven't found anything else that calms me down like it does.

I don't deal with sensory overload very well. I close my ears, wiggle, start stimming, run away, cry, moan, etc. Not all at once, but these are all typical responses. Loud and/or unpleasant noise sets me off the most. I don'y usually seek silence, but I will seek pleasant music and/or the,texture of my blanket. The textured blanket is very soothing to me.

I get a sensory overload when having been around many people for a long time, especially if it's many people talking and I can follow more than the conversation I am participating in, and it gets difficult to concentrate. Or if the conversation I participate in involves many questions in a row, things it's difficult how to answer in a proper way, many interruptions from others, or such. When I begin to get overloaded, unexpected touch, sudden sounds etc. bother me more than usually. Walking through big crowds or many fast changes after each other are stress factors too.
I am most sensitive to what happens in the "confusing" conversations as described above, but not sure if that counts as "sensory" as such?

If it is possible, I try to get away from it and find a quiet place. Get home, if possible (if I am out).
If I have to go back to the people, I try to calm myself down by breathing deeply and "think out loud" about the next thing I may need to do.
When I get home, I am very tired, till the bone, so to speak. This can last some hours. It helps to do some embroidery or knitting. If it's possible to bring the needlework with me to the social situation I am going to, it is a great help in order to not get overloaded in the first place. It provides a point of focus in the midst of the social chaos there might be. In fact I think it works like stimming does, as it has a kind of repetitive character.

When do you get a sensory overload?
anywhere there is loud noises or bright lights.

What type of input are you most sensitive to.
Sound and light.

What do you do to make it stop or ease it down?
I go to my happy place, and get away from whatever is causing the problem as soon as I can.

How long does it take you to get out of a sensory overload?
It depends, normally only a few minutes, though sometimes it takes a day or so.

Thanks for all the replies!

This topic has been very helpful for us to understand how you cope with a sensory overload!

thanks again!

IDstudents

When do you get a sensory overload? What type of input are you most sensitive to.

After a certin loudness or amount of non harmonic noises, light, color and movement. On the highway lots of cars and bright traffic lights overloads me. Seeing those Hi-Def pictures of flowers or that kid font where every letter is a differnt color, also really broken beat music, or loud crowds oh and when there are like 15 conversations going at once, like the cross talk in a crowded restaurant.

What do you do to make it stop or ease it down?

Depends how severe. If its a light overload, or on the smaller end like seeing a picture full of bright differnt colors, i refocus and im fine in a matter of minutes. If its a medium overload, like a crowded restaurant or traffic i use music to lessen the over stimulatation. If its really bad, Like your at a heavy metal band that just did a rainbow light show in your face, or like going to a crowded mall? Generally i gotta return to my comfort zone, which is video games. About an hour or two of video games i am good as new.

How long does it take you to get out of a sensory overload?

Depends on the amount and frequency. Small time 0-10 minutes. hearing a temporary screaming match? probly 10 minutes maybie a bit more. Worst case i've had i was out for 3-4 hours. Again video games rock.


What kind of sound our you guys usings? random bleeps or actual music and what type? I'm interested in the study.

When do you get a sensory overload?

I am prone to two input type overloads.
Light; Normal daytime levels of light are completely intolerable. I can barely see during midday outside, everything begins to go white. It is painful. I have blacked out. I am uncomfortable in any bright lghting however. And doubly so if it is flourescent.
Sounds; A moderate to high volume, but more important characteristic would be multiple sources. Many overlaping sources of noise, especially if there is not explicite patterns, ie the sounds come in random or sudden, and unpredictable timings. Ex. a crouded room, a busy street. This doesn't cause pain, just an overwhelming sense of anxiety and disorientation. The longer I am exposed the more likely I am to become irrationally hostile. Loss of focus, inability to think clearly....unpleasant.

What type of input are you most sensitive to?

I would have to lean towards bright intense continuous light. It is agonizing, and eventually overpowering into unconciousness.

What do you do to make it stop or ease it down?

I don't go outdoors during the day. I have stuctured my life around not needing to. This allows me to generally avoid both bright lighting and busy streets/crowds. Nights are quiet, dim, and tranquil. There is no way to make it stop or ease it down other than plain avoiding the sensory input in the first place. Or escaping it if exposed.

How long does it take you to get out of a sensory overload?

Varies, I've passed out while walking outdoors during the day due to the intensity of the light, and then came to, and became overexposed again and passed out again. I managed to walk about a half mile during the course of that day, until I found sufficient shade behind a large rock cropping to wait until nightfall. This particular event occured in a desert region in Arizona, and was fairly extreme.
It really depends on the intensity and duration of expose. If the exposure was mild and brief I would recover nearly instantly upon removal of input. If more severe or for an extended period of time a short time would be required to recenter myself. Although I prefer extended periods of time spent in non overstimulating environments.

When do you get a sensory overload? What type of input are you most sensitive to?
Daily. My biggest problem is misophonia: severe irritation to particular noises and visual inputs. This is how it's been described:

These “irritations” can enrage me. It’s almost like a switch is flipped in my brain. It feels to me as if there’s literally a physical nerve path in my brain that’s burned into place and somehow all these stimuli find their way onto this burned in path that goes straight to my centres for rage. Here's a link with some of the therapies tried: http://www.misophonia-uk.org/index.html

What do you do to make it stop or ease it down?
Mostly avoidance or trying to block the noise with other background noise.

How long does it take you to get out of a sensory overload?
I try to get away as soon as possible or else I end up hating/feeling rage towards the person making the sounds. When I explain to them my problems they don't seem to understand and take it personal.