Is this the kind of thing that would calm you down?

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At my old job (which I hated) I was washing semi trucks. I normally do not experience sensory overload, as my sensory issues are relatively mild, but every day working there by the end of the day I would feel absolutely horrible, and I'd have to take at least 20 or 30 minutes before leaving because my mind would be shut down.

During my last two weeks working there, I discovered a little trick I guess that would help me get through the end of the day without wanting to kill somebody. I would still feel mentally exhausted, but not quite as bad. We used these pressure washers, and I found that I could calm down a bit if I focused on watching the tip of the spray gun, just following it back and forth as I sprayed, following it with my eyes and sometimes moving my head too. I still felt really out of it, like I was in a trance or something, but if I hadn't have done that I probably would have had a meltdown one day and just totally quit.

It seems like an extremely odd thing that it actually calmed me down, of all the things I could have tried. I don't even know what made me start doing that.

Yes that is exactly the kind of thing that would calm me down.

Yes, I often find that focusing on a single item/ detail helps relieve a lot of the tension that can build when being overwhelmed/overstimulated. There is nothing wrong with it as long as you're not doing it in a situation that requires a broader attention. (In a crowd focusing on the cracks in the sidewalk is ok compared to being in a burning building and focusing on the number of tea cups hanging in the cupboards. )

Yes.

I very very rarely have felt "meltdown overwhelmed" at any workplace, but observing repetitive mechanical processes and/or water flowing can both be quite calming. For mechanical things, it's because I can focus right in on the engineering that went into the device and distract myself thinking about modifications or improvements etc. For water.. well, water is just calming for most people.

And I can certainly relate to focusing on pressure washer tips & water jets as I spent a couple of seasons pressure washing houses/businesses/concrete etc. One pitfall is slowing down too much and wasting time, though. I had to keep focused on moving at a steady quick pace to get our jobs done asap so we could move onto the next vs. lose myself in thought about the physics of it all or due to the calming nature of water flowing.

There was also a period where my executive functions were so poor, in particular time perception, that apparently my speed would increase & decrease without explanation.. as it was pointed out to me. I didn't realize I was doing it, but accepted my friend's observations of me and realized it must be neurological and then made a much more concentrated effort to maintain a consistent pace of work as best as I could. Really, though, that was only an issue on one or two days ever in that job so, fortunately, it wasn't that big of deal.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

Certain things similar too calm me down. Including Engines, machies, buildings, and odd numeric writings but that was more of a stresser. If I didn't do somthing to destract myself, that would of gave me some issues with the people around me.

Yes, though I am not sure I am AS.

I wiggle my fingers in front of my face and the motion of it calms me down, similar to what you experience.

I like to look for numbers or letters and then running some math through them, I find that helps. So, yeah, focusing on the little details is a way I cope. It's probably somewhat similar.

Getting entranced in something like a spray nozzle and it calming you, is total stimming I think. For me it's watching anything that spins or twirls. Especially anything shiny.