Music for sensory overload?

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I love to put my headphones on and listen to certain songs when I feel that I'm getting overloaded. From a logical viewpoint it seems counterintuitive in that if one is suffering from sensory overload, more sensory input would just be adding fuel to the fire. However, listening to music that I like while in this state helps me to block out other overwhelming input and focus in on just the music. It can even help prevent me from going into a meltdown or a shutdown.

Does anyone else like to listen to music when experiencing sensory overload? If so, what are your favorite songs to listen to?

My favorite songs for sensory overload would have to include Gravity by John Mayer, Better Man by James Morrison and Make it Rain by Ed Sheeran.

Seems perfectly logical to me. Replacing something you don't like with something you do.

I use delta and beta waves to help with sensory overload

I think it does make sense. I don't think that input that are meaningful, soothing or enjoyable just 'replace' other input. I think that the inputs that 'speak to us' have the ability to communicate with us; to take in our own responses and reactions to whatever upset or overloaded us and then help us process and deal with our own current state and heal and feel better.

For the last 15 years or so, nothing has been more effective in calming me than Glenn Gould's 1981 recording of the Goldberg Variations. It seems to deal with every human emotion and experience in a way that makes it all make sense. For me, it's a perfect interaction between calm and liveliness that soothes me more than anything else.

I listen to music a lot, including when I'm overloaded. I might even consider it a stim kind of. The kinds of music that I listen to varies a lot, although I tend to get obsessed with one song and listen to it over and over again (kind of like a stim maybe since it is repetitive?).

I do the same thing! I never thought of it like a stim but that does make a lot of sense.

I do the same exact thing, and I classify it as sort of a stim. It can get pretty extreme . Despite this, my favorite thing to listen to when overloaded, anxious, or stressed is binaural beats. It’s basically audio projecting two very slightly different frequencies of noise that are so similar that the brain perceives it as only one sound at one frequency. It certainly seems to relieve stress in a lot of people, and it’s very calming for when you are overloaded by an environment.

There is one song that I have always referred to as my cholonic irrigation for my mind is Planet Caravan by Pantera. It is literally impossible for me to think about anything when listening to that song. The music just pulls me in, doesn't let me leave.

ASMR!! !! !

Its what I watch/listen to when I need to relax/calm down.

I agree with all of your post and music is so much more to me too. I was actually reply to this single line without quoting. Sorry, it's a bad habit of mine.

Last edited by neilson_wheels on 11 Jun 2018, 3:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

Very much a love/hate thing I think. Personally it drives me crazy.

yes, i've got some tracks that i use when i realise that i'm dealing with a shutdown/potential shutdown. it can help, but depends on how early i realise what is happening or how far down the rabbit hole i have already gone.