Aspie overload - how do you cope with "obsession overlo

Post Reply New Topic

As an aspie i tend to read alot. I usually do that while listening to rock albums that i havent heared yet. Sometimes i feel a headachecoming, and my brain is like full of something. Its like i cant learn more or "fit in" more into it untill it cools down.

Do you happen to have this "overload" when you're knee deep in reading about you current obsession?

yes and i hate it. i get depressed.
to deal with it i distract myself or masturbate to be honest.
both work but the latter is more effective
thats all ive got to say

Well, that escalated quickly.

No, it does not happen from simply reading too much, it does happen if there is music playing while I am trying to read. I cannot multitask, and I do not have the ability to tune out extraneous noise. I'm pretty good with normal background noise (kids playing, washer/dryer, etc), but there are days when even that bothers me. If there is music or a TV on while I'm trying to read, it does not end well. I get a slight headache, and it is as if something in my brain just starts screaming at me.

Not with reading for me - mine is mostly videogames and computers and i always used to put it down to the monitors giving me headaches - but when i developed a minor obssession for fantasy artwork, i noticed that if i spent too long looking at the pictures and trying to really take in the details i would overload and sometimes get migraine type headaches.

Sometimes get it from not sitting still at a computer - if i keep getting up to get books or go to get food etc and dont spend long enough infront of the screen each time i get a headache from adjusting to it each time. But i dont know why that is.

Sometimes my sensory overload (noise, too much reading, work pressures, etc.) leads to a full blown migraine. I get about a dozen of them a year and they can be gawd awful. I have meds for them which sometimes work and sometimes don't.

I've been working more at trying to "head them off at the pass" by going to my Zen place - which happens to be a beautiful oriental garden deep within the recesses of my head. Going to my physical Zen place at the same time (my comfy quiet chair at home) certainly helps too.

I would have problems with the background music too, I can't listen to music and read a book at the same time. I love to listen to music, but I tend to listen to music as an activity by itself, as I can't do other things simultaneously. If there is something else vying for my attention it keeps yanking my concentration away from what I'm doing and I find it very jarring and frustrating, unless I manage to concentrate enough to tune it out completely.

Sometimes I will listen to classical music to ease me into a task I am having trouble getting started on (it gives me something to listen to while I am trying to convince my brain to get into the right gear). However, as soon as I manage to find my focus with the task at hand, the music gets tuned out and I don't hear it at all. I choose classical music because music with words (or the radio, because people talk) is much harder for me to tune out and distracts me. I also don't like being able to hear people's voices or other noises - if I am deeply concentrating I won't hear a thing unless a loud noise makes me jump, but when I am trying to concentrate on something and not in that place of deep concentration yet that sort of thing will jerk me right out of what I am doing.

Try reading without the music, and listening to the music without the reading (I love to listen to music at night in bed, so that nothing exists but the music). You may find that it enhances your experiences of both and keeps you from getting a headache.