I noticed something yesterday

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I was sitting down having something to eat at Target, and a woman walked into the eatery with some kids. I was barely paying any attention to them, but then one of the kids walked right behind me and was being really loud. It made me feel really spaced out and disoriented. Suddenly I noticed I was beginning to rock back and forth slightly, and just as soon as I started doing that, I realized I was also automatically trying to stop myself because I was out in public, and feeling conflicted about it.

It was so fast...just a few seconds...I just had this weird feeling that I do that a lot and have never really noticed it before because it's so automatic.

I catch myself stimming a lot when I didn't notice at first I was doing so, or other people sometimes ask me why I'm doing it, but I guess I just never noticed before that I had that urge to rock in response to a loud noise. It was very weird to experience that.

Yes I think coping strategies can often be developed unconsciously. And it can feel weird when you notice one for the first time. Good to heighten the awareness of these things though. That way you can use conscious reasoning to evaluate it.

It sounds almost like the "aura" some people get before a migraine comes on.

I have learned how to sense when I am approaching sensory overload, but in the case that you describe that sounds like a sudden event. But if you learn to recognize the signal that you are wanting to stim you might be able to stop yourself when you don't want to stim. Cool!

Coping with sensory overload.

I just never realized I had any tendency to rock back and forth. I guess I have the habit of automatically stopping myself before it becomes really noticeable.