What are you like during sensory overload?

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I ask this because I'm not sure if I get sensory overload or not. If I do, I'm not sure if it's like other Aspies/autistics or not.

Say you're in a busy supermarket doing your shopping, and you feel you have sensory overload, how do you feel inside and what do you do?

Good question - I'll be interested to see others' answers too.

If I'm in a crowded supermarket and get overloaded, I get really impatient to leave, I get quiet and generally won't bother to make small-talk or eye contact with the cashier. I tend to get clammy and sometimes start sweating. I start to get dizzy and my mouth often becomes dry (which makes normal speech difficult). I can get slightly shaky and I sometimes hear ringing in my ears. I tend to forget what I'm shopping for (which is why I try to keep a written shopping list with me) and I avoid people as best I can. It becomes a race to get out of there and if I get too uncomfortable and overloaded, I skip shopping for certain non-essential items. If it goes on long enough, it becomes increasingly hard to do my 'simulation of normal behavior' and my typically neutral-happy facial expression can drop and be replaced by a scowl, although it's not directed any anyone.

I can also get easily overloaded in a location that's too hot and especially if there is direct sunlight blazing down in my eyes, or too crowded, or too loud and noisy. We had to sit outside for over 20 minutes for a group photo where I used to work in the Colorado summer heat with the baking sun in our eyes, and everyone was happily chatting away, and I was shading my eyes and gritting my teeth and hoping my scowl would induce the photographer to hurry up (not a chance). In the picture I ended up looking miserable and squinting. Crowded social situations with people I don't know, trying to follow the conversation and say something once in awhile, while doing my best to simulate normal/friendly facial expression, body language, tone of voice, eye movements and eye contact can overload me pretty quickly too.

I too become very impatient to leave. I get quiet and very terse. I also tend to fidget more. If I can not get out fast enough I get real hot and start to feel ill.

I get really irritable and impatient when I am experiencing sensory overload. I may fidget more than usual and even if whatever I was doing was something I enjoyed, I will start to dislike doing it for that moment.

The one time I was in such a situation, the store was so crowded that personal space was invaded to the point that bodily contact was avoided by only a few inches, I became so dizzy I thought I was going to fall over. When I realized I had to get out of there, I was way in back farthest away from the door; somehow I made it without going on hands and knees. Once I was outside, it took a couple hours for the dizziness to go away.

Mild overload (whistling coworker level): I can't focus, have trouble completing tasks, might freeze, maybe a little rocking.

Moderate overload (shopping): Measurable blood pressure increase, have to go in with a game plan or I mess it up entirely, need to have some decompression time after.

Maximum overload (express train rolling past the station with horn): It feels like I'm under attack. I feel an odd urge to hit something, bolt away, or yell.

I get really pissy and agitated, I'll probably be stimming a lot or be completely still because a lot of times overloads will lead to a shutdown.
Physically, things become very unbearable and extremely noticeable, sometimes painful. I start to feel like I'm dreaming, and words become difficult to form. Everything also becomes pretty confusing, since there's so much going on.

I was surprised at the answers here. Maybe I do get sensory overload after all, as I find myself getting impatient and irritable in busy places. But I thought a lot of people felt like that. My dad is NT and he is a nightmare to go shopping with because he hates crowds and he mutters and sighs and hates people getting in his way. Or do non-Aspies get sensory overload too?

Usually for me small children cause me to have sensory overload. I feel irritable when they are loud, as I find it hard to ignore. Masking sensory overload can be exhausting. In public being calm and cool is important. Even just tutting under your breath can attract attention, and people tend to either laugh at you or glare at you, even though I see people looking irritable all the time. When someone tuts near me, I kind of know how they feel, so I don't judge them.

I tend to bump into things, make stupid decisions which can ultimately be harmful (though never with that intention), just make mistakes in general.

Say stupid things, punch things, kick things. Sometimes, I hurt myself if I'm in sensory overload. Though never badly, because I do have a sense of restraint even when I'm punching a metallic pole or something.

In order:

Lose concentration
Become agitated
Become very agitated, lose sense of reason... eyes clamped shut, fingers in ears, people noticing me
Have to get the hell out/away
Defcon 1

When I first start to become overloaded, my attention feels spread thin and I have a hard time processing information and staying on task. With auditory information, I can't help but concentrate on all the noises around me, visualizing their source and placing them spatially in my mind. With visual information, things become blurred and my response is to stare at the ground until (and if) I can adapt to the barrage of colors, details, and motion in front of me. This is my typical response to any kind of stimulation, but I can usually prevent it from progressing past this stage.

If my methods of coping don't help deescalate the problem, though, I begin to react emotionally and become irritable and withdrawn. I don't think people notice, as I don't tend to express emotion on these occasions. My ability to process information will also decrease exponentially and eventually everything will be dark and quiet. That's when I enter "shutdown mode" and it becomes difficult to speak, move, and think.

It can only vary on my current level of tolerance and threshold.
Commonly -- Very confused, very prone to mistakes and even more prone frustration.


The quickest way one would know if I'm overwhelmed enough would be me pausing from an action and/or hesitation. The first thing I'd ever do is avoid touching on something else other than my own or make any more noise.
Depending where and who I'm dealing with, it may or may not escalate/deescalate. Best done alone and without a 'goal' -- I'm a wanderer.

Never bolts out or leave, never sought 'safe places', not even to the point that I'd start shaking and becoming more vulnerable for losing my guard. May pace, would likely freeze or fight than flee.
Eventually recenter/ground myself in midst chaos, how quick would depend in the circumstances regardless the intensity.

Hours long alone and in a chaotic sensory environment may never put me into a shutdown, let alone a meltdown.
If I have to accompany someone else, I'd likely end up in a forced a shutdown. So yes, I can definitely take care of myself alone. But not really much if I'm with someone else, more so for the sake of someone else -- even if the company is good, or that I sought said company.

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I seem to be less prone to sensory overload if I am with people. Yesterday I met my friend in the town, and it was very busy because it's the school holidays, but because I was talking and laughing to my friend the whole time, I felt more relaxed and more able to block out the crowds. The only noises that distracted me were loud motorcycles and noisy kids and babies. But otherwise I was pretty relaxed. But when I'm out on my own, I feel more prone to feeling irritable, impatient and hypersensitive to noise and crowds. I love shopping but if I'm alone I prefer to go out shopping during less busy times like when kids are at school or early in the morning.

But the noise of small children really causes me sensory overload. My brain just cannot shut them out. I panic when someone comes and puts their toddler next to me on the bus. I have to get away. I just think they're going to start having a tantrum, or fidgeting, or yelling, or even being sick or something. I get very agitated.

I think of loud settings with a bunch of people and all of them are talking and cackling. Like a queue waiting in a building hallway and I'm in the line as well.

I try to listen to who I'm with but after a few minutes I can't.

I start to stim by rocking back and forth while standing, forward and backward pivoting my hips and folding my arms. About a year ago I realized, to my dismay, that to others it must look like I'm slowly humping the air. I can't help it. I think I've always done this in those kinds of situations.

If the situation continues, I go nonverbal. It's like brain just "throws in the towel".

My translucent earplugs help with those kinds of situations now.

I'll try to find a quiet place as quickly as possible in order to calm down. I won't initiate any conversation when overload happens, I just want to be left alone for a while then. Prolonged exposure with an inability to escape can make me aggressive, I can feel the urge to punch people even though I've never done so.

Crowds and noise are a nightmare for me. The only way I can go out is by drinking alcohol, which makes me not care about people constantly walking into me. Not an ideal solution, but the alternative is staying at home.

- go nonverbal
- start feeling irritable and impatient
- hyper-focus (can't see, process or think about anything else)
- repeat phrases in my head or under my breath ('oh my god', 'shut up', you've got to be kidding me', 'stop', 'WTF')
- block input (fingers in ears, plug nose, close eyes, purse my lips tightly)
- look for escape
- tonic immobility (difficulty moving)
- sit on the floor if I must (I've done this in shops)
- stim in whatever way possible (walk in circles, tap toes, twist fingers)
- put my phone in my face (just as a diversion)
- if it gets bad I'm like the others -- I'll have a lot of pent up aggression
- I'll want to hit something but I never have
- feel heartbeat and blood pressure going out of control

When I get out of the situation I have the urge to tell someone about it repeatedly, or ruminate to myself how bad it was