Sensory Overload?

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I've heard the term used quite a bit, and I've heard a few things about it. But I still don't quite understand what sensory overload is about really, or really what it does. Can anyone shed some light on the subject for me? I'm greatful for those who do in advance.

Sensation: Messages about the environment arrive at the body's nerve receptors: heat, cold, pain, noise, pressure, light/colours/images, etc.

Perception: These messages arrive at, and are registered in, the brain.

Cognition: The brain processes all this information, and begins to make decisions about how to respond.

Note: Much of this sensory input never reaches the conscious mind, as for example we are not always consciously aware of such things as our breathing, ambient noise, and so on. The mind "filters out" a great deal of this information, especially if there is no immediate threat to our well-being involved.

Sensory overload can summed up as: The filters aren't working properly, and the conscious mind is overwhelmed with too much input, and although we may not be in any physical peril, our body responds as if we were.

I wasn't sure what this meant, but I don't have this problem.

Tim

Well put, SleepyDragon.

There are two perspectives here.

One is Tim_Tex's point that it occurs when your natural filters aren't working properly, so you get overdosed with sensory input.

But your filters can be working quite normally, but you get overdosed because the environment you're in - and it is almost always a human created environment - overwhelms you with input. If you're unsure what I mean, go to a large singles bar on a Friday night. If you're the sensitive kind (which means your filters are more open than those of most people) you'll be overwhelmed in about 15 min

One of the reasons that NT's are at home in places like busy noisy singles bars is that they are much less sensitive.

But that sensitivity of ours is valuable in other places - a forest for example.

Agreed, AC, that people vary enormously in their tolerance for "noise" of all kinds.

I should add, for the sake of completeness, that the "overload" response may occur even when the sensory data are not making it all the way into the conscious mind. Daniel Goleman has done some interesting writing on this.

It's like filling an already filled to the brim bucket and the hose is pierced in a hundred different places so the water is sprinkling all around and the bucket is overflowing and the water has no where to seep into on the ground so it's creating a flood and the water can't be shut off.....

Yeah, that's what it's like for me exactly!

Is it sensory overload, when you're sitting at a table with a few more persons who talk about a lot of different things and you get totally confused when you try to participate in the dialogue, and the subject is changing all the time instead of getting one done before beginning with the next, or you're just not sure, who's talking now and about what?

Or when you just talk to another, a third person comes in, the second person begins to talk to the third about something totally different, and you get confused and frustrated because you were interrupted, and even more if the person you first talked to, returns to you with... whatever... and you get even more confused?

It's that way with me sometimes.

Mvh. EdnaPenna.

It's like the onset of a migraine.
(Just as a comparison, I don't get them.)
You've taken all the stimulus you can take.
Too much conversation, too many people talking, too many subjects being discussed, too many people asking you too many questions ...
Or it can be any sensory overload, too much bright light, too much noise, too much movement, too much smell ...

And then it's quiet time. With the blinds drawn. Phone disconnected. No TV or radio.

Okay, then that is sensory overload, I didn't know, but thanks for the information... I really can relate to the thing about "too many people asking too many questions" too, or sometimes it's enough with one person asking too many questions, and / or not getting time for answering the first question, before the next one comes...
But I don't have sensory (overload) issues with light, noise, smell, touch or things like that.

Apparently there is some debate amongst/between psychiatrists and Occupational therapists whether the sensory issues associated about 75% of the time with AS should be considered a separate disorder in its own right; Sensory Processing Disorder, (or Sensory Integration Disorder), or whether is so much part of most peoples experience of Autistic spectrum disorders that should be treated as simply another aspect of AS.
So it is interesting that you say you do not suffer from the sensory problems, AnnePande, because that puts you in the 25% of people with AS who don't , and why Occupational therapists think its worth treating SPD as separate issue!
I'm a standard issue ASD with SPD included, and I wish wasn't! Though cutting out opiate-similar food-opioids of gluten ( wheat etc) and dairy does seem to help a lot to reduce SPD symptoms. Like I get more reliable information, or more "steady"/balanced or normally regulated data through from body or something. Which maybe isn't so surprising seeing what effects taking opiates as recreational drugs is supposed to have, and how much more grounded would feel once stopped!!

I wonder if those who say they don't have sensory issues do, it's just they're very minor. For instance, I would have said I don't have sensory issues, except a few weeks ago, I was at a wedding reception and the lights (chandeliers), light level, noise, movement, it all started to overwhelm me. My heart rate jumped through the roof, it felt like there was pressure inside my head, it became harder to see, it took more concentration to listen to my wife... I'm sure it's not the first time it's happened, but it must be incredibly rare for me. Incidentally, the event also proved to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that alcohol can "switch off" any sensory issues I do have.

Maybe overboard ... but ...


Sensory Overload

Imagine a bunch of sirens blasting straight into your ears, being sprayed with an air freshener you hate every 3 seconds, being fed the most vile concoction

of seaweed, unsweetened chocolate, and salsa, constantly being stabbed by the barbs on a hedgehog, and having a very bright flashlight shined into your

eyes!

This is sensory overload.

A combination of unpleasant sensations so overwhelming, that, it's just about impossible to stand.

The difference for those with Asperger's syndrome is a sensation that is not anything to you may be make-or-break for them.

Something very pleasant will be appreciated greatly, however the unpleasant is much easier to encounter.

Any smell, sound, sight, taste, or touch can be a trigger. If it is unpleasant to the person, it could really affect their functioning!

If you do irritating things to them on purpose, you may be thought of as an aggressor.

For now I will leave it at that. Ponder how it would feel! If pondering isn't enough...

Find siren sounds on your computer and play them, add in a smell you hate, eat a food you dislike, poke yourself with rough bristles (a pet brush or older-style

hairbrush will do - but press HARD!), and shine a flashlight into your eyes.

Not pleasant is it?

NOW ...

Imagine if this had all been against your will ...

That's interesting, in fact.

mmaestro, you wrote: "I wonder if those who say they don't have sensory issues do, it's just they're very minor."
Well, I don't know... I can't recognize the descriptions of sensory issues which I have read. I've just read Liane Holliday Willey's book "Pretending to be normal" (in Danish), I liked it very much. She writes a lot about sensory issues, but I've never experienced anything of what she describes.

The most close I come to something a bit similar is that as a kid I preferred to have my sleeves rolled up, having them rolled down was uncomfortable. (It's not like that today).
Or when I sleep, I always take the quilt over my head and wrap my arms around myself, lying on the stomach. I like it that way, it feels comfortable. I've done that since childhood. (My sister used to tease me a bit, saying that i was "making an igloo" ). Don't know if that could be something?
Sometimes when people touch me unexpectedly, I may think it's a bit uncomfortable, but I guess it's rather a question about it being an interruption in what I imagine is going to happen, not something sensory as such.
And sometimes (seldomly) as a kid I might give a more loud that normally expression of pain (or surprise) if one stepped on my foot unexpectedly e.g., but again I think it may be about the interruption rather than a sensory thing.

This has been an informative thread for me. Because my experience of sensory overload and even meltdowns has been somewhat different from what most have discussed. To explain this let me first point out that at most times I am aware of my senses picking up things that most people would not. I hear and discern much fainter noises, I can stand less intense light. My response to pain stimuli is out of proportion to what others appear to experience. I find many scents and aromas overwhelming.

Given this level of sensitivity, I react by removing myself from the stimulus when it approaches the level where I can do nothing else but sense that thing whatever it is. Alas, I cannot always remove myself from what is causing the pain. And a curse upon those damnable boom cars that pervade the enviroment for a half a mile or more with their base that penetrates even into buildings. If I get too close to one when the brat who wants attention is there and there are loose rocks around I fear that there will be trouble.

If I cannot relieve the sensory overload by leaving there is going to be a meltdown. It won't be pretty and it won't be pleasant, so far it tends to be loud and profane and that is enough to warn people to back off if they are the cause.

My own chosen location to live is in a rural area where I have my own woods and field. I go there and I am like the animals. I have acute hearing and sight and smell. I can stand and be quiet and the animals who are trying to be quiet and hidden I can hear and see and smell. Their quiet secretive ways simulate my senses at only a reasonable level and I am in one of the few places on this wrong planet which is like the planet I belong on. And I am at peace.