Can One Be Overstimulated by Their Own Stims?

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thewrite1
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10 Nov 2015, 2:04 pm

It's something that I heard about while at a lecture about helping people with developmental disabilities, and I was wondering if it was true, if you really can be overstimulated by your own stims. I've never experienced that myself (although, every once in a while I can get tired if I stim for too long).



Edenthiel
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10 Nov 2015, 2:32 pm

In my experience, yes. Both my mother and daughter vocally stim - loudly. And both have auditory sensory issues. Because of my mom's auditory sensitivities, I wasn't allowed to be loud, ever. While this sounds cruel, it was decades ago and I now understand - and, it gives me the perspective to recognize what I see in my daughter and help her learn how to deal with both issues / find workarounds / balance the two / recognize when one issue has needs that aren't fulfilled and satiate them without triggering the other to the point of stress or agitation.


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LupaLuna
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10 Nov 2015, 2:42 pm

I though that whole reason behind stimming was to regulate the amount of stimulation you got. So you never got too little or too much. But always got the right amount because your in control.



Edenthiel
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10 Nov 2015, 3:03 pm

LupaLuna wrote:
I though that whole reason behind stimming was to regulate the amount of stimulation you got. So you never got too little or too much. But always got the right amount because your in control.


In the case of a single issue, that would/should be true. With two issues that conflict, though, I'd think that if that regulation happened correctly the person would be more relaxed / less stressed when they found a balance. Sadly, that's not what we've experienced - and that might be important to the discussion; my family's experience may not be typical. Perhaps some people can actually have something broken - especially where two such needs conflict - where they cannot auto-adjust to always get the right amount? It's like the two issues have different balance or "right amount" levels...


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