A way to lessen certain types of overload

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I was thinking about this because of the thread title "Can meltdowns be stopped by giving in?" Because I've noticed something with overload that's very interesting. It's not really about "giving in," which is why I made a different thread. But there is something that seems to affect overload:

I've noticed that certain kinds of overload are much worse when my brain is trying to "make sense" of my surroundings.

If I simply stop trying to understand things, then a few things happen. Sometimes it takes a few seconds to a minute before I can manage to stop trying to understand. The attempt to understand things can get up some momentum and be hard to push back against. But when I manage to do it, then there's like... you'd think there'd be an audible click, like when something turns off, but normally there isn't. There's just suddenly, as if you turned off a TV and the high-pitched whine stops. Or turning off anything else. It can feel as if the volume or the brightness or the clutter is turned down to something much more manageable even though none of that has changed. Things still won't make sense, but you don't feel the tension and pressure in your head resulting from trying to make sense of them. And you may even find that a meltdown, shutdown, or other extreme reaction to overload has been postponed or removed entirely from the stuff-about-to-happen list. Or that the meltdown, shutdown, etc. is less severe than it otherwise would be.

I wish it was possible to explain how to stop trying to understand stuff. For me it's pretty easy because I don't naturally try to understand. But I've known other people who do naturally try to understand, so they might find it harder than I do. What I generally do is I concentrate on some part of the sensory experience and avoid thinking of what it might be, just focusing entirely on the sensory aspects, and try to avoid thinking about anything else, including "what does this mean?" But I have no idea how hard that might be for someone whose natural experience of the world includes a brain that tries really hard to understand everything. But I suspect it can be done at least a little if the person works at it long enough, and it might be useful in terms of reducing many kinds of overload.

I focus on things too to lessen sensory overload. It's impossible with things like flashing lights that trigger an electrical storm in my brain.
In a crowded noisy situation like in a cafe I can turn off to the more stressful things around me probably by focusing on my stims or objects in front of me. I'm unable to participate in conversation or even hear what people are talking about but the sensory issues have decreased.
Sometimes under stress I become the opposite and may feel a bit giddy and energetic.

I can internalize my meltdowns too which just leave a stressful feeling and a sore head. I'm really not sure what a shutdown feels like since the seizures. They feel the same but with less jerking and tingling/burning sensations.

Wow. I never thought of that. My natural reaction is to try even harder to make sense of things.
I'll try to remember to try it the next time I'm overloaded.

It is funny that you say that because only recently I have thought that I have AS. My brother has AS and says although he doesn't 'overload' somethings - usually sensory - he just can't handle. We had a discussion tossing back and forth things that made both of us uncomfortable and we had very similar things although through my childhood and most recently I have learnt over come them. Because that is what my life was like and because I didn't know I wasn't normal I pushed myself to be normal.

When I think about it not so much the sensory overloads but when it comes down to the emotional ones I use the same process. To me it is a process of letting go and not caring and just going with the flow.

I think your thread will help a lot of people understand why they might overload and help them overcome some situations.

Still there are a few things I can't handle and that has to do with being touched and being too hot and sometimes too much noise and combination of the 3 will make me completely snap.

I am not sure I have this right. You are saying that when meltdown occurs or just before its likely to happen you have to stop yourself from focusing on the confusion or irritation? I am not sure I could do that.

Since I've been getting overloaded frequently at home I'll have to give this a try. Usually I am trying to ignore or block out the source and make sense of something else, but I always end up shut down.

Yeah, I call this 'going with the flow of impermanence'. It's very tempting to always put your oar in, but it takes a lot of effort. Letting go is often best.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ15Y6WrDTE[/youtube]

That's neat. You've explained much better that I could what I've found myself doing.
I can sometimes get to that state by staring very hard at something, so everything around it goes dark. I try to look through it; to not do my usual "thing" of getting into the patterns/symmetry/relationship, and just stop thinking.
If it works Ok then my relentless analyzing, tensions & anxiety about the overload fade and I calm down, although it depends on the situation and I can't manage to do it where there's lots of noise & light going on. Getting out quickly seems the only way for that.

This may be related to my old technique, tremendously helpful for many years in various cirncumstances, of focussing down and concentrating on reciting memorized Latin poetry.

Not exactly. More like I stop this thing my brain is doing where it's trying to squeeze every ounce of meaning out of things.

I think this is what I mean with "stop caring about the surroundings", its a border I sometimes have to cross if I want to save my self from confusion. It is just egocentric, because I shut the world out and do whatever I please, no matter what people think, so I leave everybody to themselves for a while; they can count me out. Its like I jump over a thinking step in my brain, I just leave everything and go ego; and its great!

Drugs, earplugs, breathing exercises, relaxation techniques. Those things all worked somewhat for me. Avoidance was the best but that's very hard to do in today's fast-paced society.

The hardest part of this approach is actually remembering to let go of trying to understand in the moment.

99% of the time, I completely forget that this is an option.