Video/Movie over 1hour and sensory overload..

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I have a question about ASD and specifically the 'sensory overload' in this category... If i watch a movie or video thats about 1hour long I am fine. If it goes to 2 hours or over tho when the movie stops i feel like i have to 'come back' because everything from the nerves in the surface of my skin to my brain is very 'numb' (i cant really describe it with a better word).. and i have forgotten parts of the movie... and long term memory storage of this movie is out of the question. This weird 'effect' has been creeping up on me worse and worse over the last 3 years and currently im 39... Is it age related? Is it something else that i do not know?

I desperately seek Knowledge and Advice on this subject, anything from links on the internet to your own words are appreciated highly..

very strange, never heard of this condition though. Sorry

It sounds like a combo of sensory overload and hyperfocus.
I get that feeling after concentrating on anything for a long time.

When I go down a rabbit hole I can check out from "real life" for several hours.
I forget where I am and what's happening around me.
The house could catch fire and I likely wouldn't know.

It's like I dissociate from my physical body because I get stuck in my head.
Sometimes I can't even walk or speak afterward, because I get so dizzy.

I have ADHD so I've never been able to focus on TV or movies.
I can't say that applies for me but if I did focus I'm sure I would react like you.

Thank you Isabella

You are right, its a long time that i have to stay focused on and follow along with the story and remember what all is going on... I guess.. I just cant do movies anymore.. between youtube and that damn device my family just loves called a 'roku' my brain is done and needs a break..

Will a break cause the overload to go away?

Tonight I discovered I can watch YouTube on my Roku TV.
I've only had it for about four years without knowing.
I made it about half-way through a movie.

A break will reset you, but only to your default focus level.
Mine isn't great to begin with.

I have trouble following movie / TV series plots because they often go too fast for me and I can't remember the characters' names (and faces unless they're strikingly different from each other) unless there are only a very few of them. I've never measured how long I can keep my attention on them, but I expect it would vary depending on the video and my state of mind. I don't start feeling physically weird or uncomfortable though, I just feel frustrated and annoyed at myself for losing the plot.

It usually helps if I give myself a break ever so often when it's a long film, and that would seem a logical way for you to avoid those unpleasant sensations you're getting. They say it's bad for anybody's health to sit still for a long time anyway - this web page recommends taking a break every half hour:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-life ... q-20058005

For live television, a video recorder would get round the problem, and breaks could be taken during the ads if there were any, which would also have the advantage of missing the ads.

no, the opposite here. I have no trouble watching long movies, it's short episodic ones that are hard. cause it takes me some minutes to get into it, but then the episode is over, and I need to start watching the next one and I feel out of loop

It happens to me rather too often.
Except I was conditioned to ignore it.

As a child, I keep chosing to finish watching or listening something regardless of what come out of it.

It's not limited to overstimulation.
This extends whether I'm too sick, too sleepy, or too overwhelmed and in sensory pain in multiple directions.
Sometimes to a point other people would have to try and stop me.

Even if my head couldn't take it anymore, I'd still watch/read/work through the whole thing whether or not I'm able to absorb or comprehend as long as I am going to finish it.


Too bad this doesn't work with my emotions.
And no one's teaching me the concept of regulation and monitoring -- all I know was that limitations are frustrating and are liabilities.

No one taught me management and balance.


Sometimes I wonder, too, if it's age related or something to do with childhood habits and "abusing" focus in teenage years affecting adulthood, or something else entirely.

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I hate interrupting films. The only good reason I might is if it's like The Deer Hunter at something like three and a half hours. I might have to split it into 2 sessions. Can't sit on my ass and pay attention for that long. I've long considered 120 minute films superior to 100 minute films. It's the same plot arc, but those extra 20 minutes provide crucial character development that so many films miss on.