Information Overload

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This may be completely rubbish but I was thinking about this a while back and never got the chance to post so this isn't half of what I wanted to say. More than likely it isn't really an AS 'thing' either. Do you ever find yourself having to deal with too much information, sometimes I feel like this, I know it's very easy to blame the media but I feel 24 hour news is a part of it, sometimes it's related to being in contact with too many people, remembering things, juggling various bits and pieces. I accept we all have things to do but sometimes I wish I could switch my brain off.

I sometimes get overloaded or saturated with the world. That is why it is good
to get away and seek some form of diversion. In my case it is bike touring and
browsing antique shops and the internet.

All the time -_-
That's why i find it so hard to finish highschool.

When I am told to do several things at once, when several people talk to me at once... yes... mostly in such situations. I cover my ears and shout.

Yes, for example, on the scary holiday last year I thought to myself, "It's Halloween, and Bob Barker is retiring! Oh, no!"

By the way, are you British?

Lack of responsibilities has kept this in check lately, but this used to be an issue for me, and I suspect someday will be again.

Yes! And it is a typical aspie thing.

It's a big problem for me. Typically at a social event there will be heaps of background noise, different conversations all going on at once, and I cant even hear what people are saying to me, let alone concentrate on it. It's not because I'm deaf, I can hear fine if there is no interference. But information overload is something I can't handle.

My brain always seems to be tuned in for absorbing information and sometimes there's an overload.I find it difficult to have a quick glance at a newspaper and instead I'll read every
article to store up more information.On the positive side,it gives me ideas for things to
slip into conversations if I get the chance.
In social settings,the overloads relate more to different senses being occupied all at the
same time and I have to concentrate really hard to keep track.

Yes, I overload.
Especially if I am being told to do things or two people are trying to talk to me at the same time...that overwhelms me and I end up getting annoyed.

This is the reason i am not going to a family gathering this Sunday! There will be 7 adults and 4 young kids there and everyone talks and nobody listens and there will be arguments and fussing and I just cannot take it.

Yes,I get overloaded.I need to pace my life,as best I can,or I don't do well.

I agree with Methink's wording, it's all about pacing. I can force myself to work, socialize, and carry on the normal trappings of adulthood, but I have to wedge in plenty of time for being alone, day dreaming, etc. or psychosis starts to set in,

I was at a party, wasn't a huge event or anything, just my Gran's Christmas party, and maybe ten people were there, four of whom were my direct family, and the others were indirect family. After an hour or two and maybe two glasses of wine I had to go lie down in the quietest room available, and soon my family decided we should leave because they thought I was incredibly drunk or something. In the car they asked me if I was okay and I spontaneously burst into tears because I was so socially overwhelmed. I was 19 at that time. They stopped the car so I could go out and sob uncontrollably in the fresh air for a few minutes, after which we had to leave hurriedly because four men came to mug us in the dark street. People are so nice!

Anything even on the level of one phone ringing and one person talking to me simultaneously can trigger a kind of hugely paranoid shutdown where I just give up and everything around me is suddenly percieved as a personal threat, and I end up cowering with my face in my hands, if only for maybe five seconds or so. I drop everything and go straight to DEFCON 4.

If often like to think of it as being similar to a computer crash, like when you try to activate ten pieces of software at the same time and everything begins to judder and stops responding properly, and you sit and smash furiously at the buttons in a deranged fit (like me) but in the end you simply lose control until enough time has passed for the information to sort itself out.

Info overload is common with me. I love books, but getting myself to sit down and read it can be so frustrating. One paragraph is such an overload, its like my brain registers it from understanding the flow of thought to..."blah-blah-blah..." Same thing happens when I read the short articles in magazines.

Same thing happens in conversations. Someone will be talking to me and as they progress in the explanation I progressively have to concentrate harder and harder. Sometimes I notice that I scrunch up my face really hard by the conclusion of the conversation. Its like my brain is slowly turning down the comprehension knob.

TV and radio: I'll have it on and I'll start of by watching / listening to it, but then a few minutes will go by and I will suddenly realize the TV or radio program has progressed so far along and I don't know how it got to that conclusion. (I hope that made seance.) Its like I took a nap, but I was awake the whole time.

GOD! Someone take me out behind the barn and shoot me!

I sometimes get it but not much. I can ignore it. It was worse when I was little. My whole family had to talk quiet at the table when we ate because I cover my ears and say they were to loud. So finally my mother told me to bring a book to read or bring something with to do, I think it was a therapist that suggested it and it helped me relax. Sometimes I will get overloaded when everyone starts to laugh at once or talk too loud.


At work I can't stand everyone talking in the cafateria so I go to the locker room instead. I also get overwelmed when I get told do to everything at once. At work, I get told to bring soemthing to the guest and I get overwelmed when I get told a guest needs something else while I am in the middle of delivering something to a guest. It gets worse when I keep getting called to bring stuff to guests as I'm still delivering so pen and paper help. I can just write it down so I can remember. That's typical at work anyway.

In school I could not listen for a long periods of time. I zone out. Even if the teacher is saying soemthing interesting I can't keep up what the teacher is saying. When I watch audio commentaries do you realize how often I hit the rewind button. A lot. You can't do that with a teacher and they certinaly don't like it when you interupt and it's so overwelming to keep ending up with questions to ask and I know they woulnd't want to repeat what they said and I wouldn't be able to hold all my thoughts anyway. I know I should have written down my questions but the problem is, the teachers just don't want to go back and answer them because the kids get impatiant, and the teacher doesn't want to repeat it so I found it useless and never did it. If I was a teacher, I'd let students ask me and I would be willing to go back what I said.