What are you like during sensory overload?

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Like a lot of the replies. I get impatient and quiet and I cant think very clearly.

I just get very slow, and my control over linguistic ability diminishes. I can talk excessively or I go mute. Mental processes that are more complex, involving something like executive functioning, end up collapsing and I am in a dazed state for a while until I have a chance to catch up to my senses in a less excessive place.

For me, it's like being in pain.
Actually, pain can overload me and it's much worse than the pain alone.
I started to use the word "pain" to describe it to others - I say "this noise is painful for me" or "the bright light here hurts".
It's not literally pain but it's the closest generally well-known sensation.

For me it feels like a white hot irritation that makes me want to lash out and break things. My stimming and avoidance behaviours get much worse. If I can’t get out soon enough I have a meltdown and get violently angry and aggressive with myself, and will push, hit or bite people who try to interfere or interrupt me. It’s just instinct and I can’t control it.

I am still unsure if my... don’t even know what to call them... are sensory overloads or not: they tend to come in busy shopping centres (especially if no windows or exits nearby), cinemas/theatres, transport (buses, aeroplanes, tube trains).

I had one in the cinema today when I was with my youngest child. The cinema example does seem to involve sensory input, though maybe GAD also has a hand in it. I find the sound when there are loud deep noises extremely uncomfortable, like there is something deep inside me being physically harmed by the noise. And I find the images on the screen move too quickly and are too large. It is just a terrifying feeling. I feel like the sights and sounds are totally overwhelming me and I cannot bear it. I now know (as I am 42 and have been this way my whole life) that I will be okay, I just have to try and breathe and stay calm and it will end. My instinctive reactions are to stop breathing, and to try and freeze myself inside to cope. I will fidget a lot with my hands and tend to press an area under my collar bone hard which seems to help a bit. I look at the floor or my lap to reduce visual input. I cannot easily talk. There are slight differences for different places but it’s basically the same feeling of total overwhelm and an incapacity to cope with it.

With shopping centres and planes/buses there is definitely something about the sounds and the air pressure... I don’t know quite how to describe it, but it’s something about how the sound feels like it’s in a bubble bouncing around and around a bit like when you’re underwater and the pressure and sounds around you are different. It makes me feel really awful.

I get angry. The worst is when several people are yelling at me at the same time, that's the worst. Then I explode.

I long developed that "sixth sense" so to speak which is usually helpful in avoiding environments of sensory overload! At I've become conditioned to quietly, and promptly distance myself form such overwhelming environments.

At very least, I've learned how to promptly deconstruct (for lack of a better word), both my own sensory overload, as well as the specific situations interpreted as overwhelming.

As mentioned, handling, and better yet avoiding overwhelming situations in the first place becomes "second nature" - that is it's unnecessary to overthink potential overwhelming situations!

Sorry for bumping this old thread. I was going to start a new one but then I came across this old post.

It's mindboggling to see so many people having the exact same sensory overload symptoms as me! But to answer the question:

1. I get super quiet during overloads. No small talk, no eye contact, no pleasantries, no nothing. Just leave me alone!
2. Start snapping at people and get super cranky and mean.
3. Find it impossible to put on the 'mask'.
4. Start fidgeting and playing with keyrings, pens, phones etc. Whatever is in my hand.
5. In severe cases, I get a stress headache.

As for how I deal with it... well, I take beta-blockers (Atenolol), which my doctor originally prescribed for my heart tremors but I found the drug to be highly effective in dialing down my sensory overload.

I'm not sure how or why, exactly. It just seems to work, for some reason. I also Googled it a bit and from what I gather, beta-blockers in general and Propranolol in particular are indeed somewhat effective at controlling certain ASD symptoms.

Has anyone else tried beta-blockers or planning to?

I get it sometimes and it like my brain is on fire & one more sensory input is gonna make my brain pop.

I don't remember feeling much except discomfort, a kind of woozy feeling, and a strong desire to escape which I usually gratify ASAP. I guess I've somehow learned how to avoid anything really nasty, and I can't remember being absolutely stuck anywhere where I couldn't get out pretty quickly if I felt I needed to. I probably put a lot of thought and effort into staying reasonably comfortable and avoiding anything that threatens to be long and miserable. For example, I hate crowds, so I don't go into them unless it's for something really important to me, and if I have to, I keep the exposure time down to an absolute minimum. If there's too much noise I escape or use closed-back headphones or earplugs. I can tolerate brief exposure to a nasty environment quite well.