Overwhelming feelings

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Hi,

(suspected Aspie and gifted - untested, yet)

I don't know if this is where I should put this, but oh, well. The older I have gotten, the more apparent my problem with being overwhelmed gets. For example, if I read a book or watch a documentary on a subject I care a lot about (if I can manage to start), it gets to be too much. I don't really know in what way, emotions , I assume, and I have to stop entirely. It took me three months to work up to reading one page of a Tumblr on Autism and the BBC show, Sherlock. I have many books on subjects I love but can't handle reading more than the front and back covers. I have to bookmark for MUCH later articles that might be upsetting (like the theory that James Holmes might be on the Spectrum, the Sherlock article I mentioned), etc.

I managed to get through undergrad by pure luck. Grad school was too much for me. There were way too many interesting things that I felt strongly about. I recently had to quit entirely. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to get through my life like this. I think I only got this far because I was so ... Brain dead, essentially, from depression since I was about 10 years old that I couldn't care about much. I didn't really function or process much.

I try to explain getting overwhelmed to people and they don't understand. Even thinking about taking it paragraph by paragraph or minute by minute on something audio/visual is stimulating.

Does anyone else experience this? Can anyone help?

--- EDIT --- 3:11am EST
I actually have to have friends or my partner screen certain emails for me and give me a brief summary of if it is good, bad, etc.

Hi polarbeareyes.

I don't experience anything like that NEARLY to the same degree that you do, but I do get overwhelmed by things that most people seem unaffected by. I've also become more sensitive with age.
Do you know if it's mostly anxiety, happiness, or sadness? Do too many thoughts just come to mind?

I'm curious of what others might have to say about this...

Sometimes it is anxiety, sometimes I am so happy and excited and enthusiastic, sometimes I get mad (if it is someone writing and article and they are bigots, for example). So, all of the above? It is ideas and thoughts and feelings, all at once, I think.

And if I do get very interested and enthusiastic and start talking to someone about it, my speech goes all wonky and stilted while I think of how and what to say and where to go in my explanation. Example would be like: pause at each comma:

There are, three, , main components, of, a, syllable. You have, first, the onset. Then the, rhyme, and, finally the, coda.

It sounds ridiculous and I know it does.

I do this in therapy/talks with my psychiatrist, too, when I am upset in some way.

I know my level of curiosity here is probably going to far exceed any amount of advise I can provide, so I'll resist the urge to poke at you for a little while...

Embarrassingly, I don't really know what that means. Specifically the resisting the urge to poke at me for a while. I think you mean ask questions? It doesn't bother me if you ask questions, if that is the concern.

This is also possibly the very first time I have admitted I didn't understand what someone said to me, other than to my partner (which is a multple times a day thing).

I do not get this at such an intensity. But I do get extreme high stimulation and sometimes I get overwhelmed by reading a book, watching a movie, looking to a piece of art or listening to music. The emotions - positive or negative - are very strong, whereas most people around me take it lightly. It's usually not that strong as to prevent me from doing these activities, in fact I seek them out because they bring stimulation to my dopamine-deprived ADHD brain. But I once entered into sensory overload after spending a day the Orsay Museum and the Louvre Museum - the next day, I simply couldn't process any visual sensory input. You seem to have a more severe form of it...

_________________
Probably 75% Aspie, 25% NT... and 100% ADHD

Aspie-quiz results:
Aspie score: 138 of 200 / NT score: 78 of 200 => Very likely an Aspie.

I have emotional regulation dysfunction.
Many of us with AS do too.
It effects me in the following ways.

Any more than half an hour on WP just want
to explode......to much stimulation.

Seeing my father dying, I get overwhelmed
and see suffering everywhere and want
to cry for hours.

Seeing films that convey suffering can
be overwhelming

In fact the list is too long and I'm getting
overwhelmed now.

I have been dx with AS and had much
help with my emotional df, the most
effective help being my buddhist practice
and Mindfulness.

I actually had to cut down on the amount of time I spent on economics and politics because it was making me too depressed or angry. It may be that I was already dealing with too much emotionally and it put me over the edge, so to speak, but I have learned that limiting the amount of time I spend on certain emotionally charged subjects is necessary for my mental health.

That seems to be my only coping strategy is to just stop and involve myself in something entirely different and with a low possibility of stimulation, but still interesting.

Yes, sorry. Poking = nagging, asking questions, etc.
I said that because I felt embarrassed asking questions yet not really having anything to say that could help. I figured I would wait a bit and give it some thought.

Has your psychiatrist not given any good advice on this then? I mean, have you tried different things already to fix the problem?

To A_Floating_Moon

Ah, all right.

And no, nothing very helpful at all. Reading/listening/watching only small parts at a time isn't working. I am no longer in psychotherapy but I see my psychiatrist at the end of August. I may ask to go back into therapy because I clearly still need help with life.