Sensory Stories

In previous blogs, I have talked about sensory triggers and overloads. To summarize, as an Autistic person I am sensitive to sensory inputs (noise, touch, temperature, smells, and more). Sometimes this can help and my sensitivity to a positive stimulus will calm me down and help me concentrate. In other situations, the stimulus is negative and I am overwhelmed. In my experience, I have had many different types of sensory overloads. To learn more about those different types of sensory overloads and what those experiences are like, please go to my previous blog series: Sensory Overloads (here is part 1). 

This blog post serves as a follow-up to that original series. Here, I share three stories, both past and present, negative and positive, that can further explain my sensory challenges  – Enjoy!

Story 1: I can smell my next Sensory Overload

For good reason, the top sensory triggers are always believed to be noise, lights, and temperature. Now I’ll admit that holds for me, but there are other sensory triggers out there that are less discussed – the one that sticks out to me is smell. Certain smells will distract me, overwhelm me, or even make me nauseous. They don’t tend to be the sole contributor to a sensory overload but can be an added input that can send me over the top. Some of these are what you’d expect: asparagus, certain spices, broccoli. But the most difficult smell for me is Cheerios. Not only can I not stand the smell, but when I was young, I would have consistent sensory overloads and vomit. It goes to show that sensory triggers come in many different forms. While I can cope with this now it still hurts me, making me nauseous and generally draining me.

Story 2: You douse a fire with water. Duh?

I think something I should have covered more in my original series is how I prevent or stop sensory overload. I do this through a process I call sensory deprivation. In a sensory overload I am overwhelmed with negative stimuli; simply put, to stop this I just need to overwhelm myself with positive stimuli: sensory deprivation. What is a negative or positive stimuli varies from person to person. For example, this past summer, the concert on the main lawn at camp was too much for me and I went back to my room. The exact opposite of noise is…quiet. I made sure my door was closed and I put on white noise to drain out any background noise. The exact opposite of the heat is…cold. I put the fan right up to my face and drank ice water. The exact opposite of uncomfortable clothes is…pajamas. They are soft and comforting. And the exact opposite of an overwhelming shutdown is…sleep. Doing all of this meant I could regain energy rather than force myself to run on fumes. As you see I created an environment that made me calm down and it is, from my experience (in conjunction with taking a Xanax), the most effective way to stop a sensory overload. 

But there are cons to doing this. If you share your environment, like I did last summer, there is a significant chance of a disruption. In my case, I started my sensory deprivation early enough for me to have stopped a full-blown sensory overload but then as I was healing, all of the people came back from the concert all at once. I did not account for this. I was overwhelmed again and descended into the third-worst sensory overload I have ever experienced. It was bad. My body shut down for thirty minutes – twice! A total of an hour. This was destructive to my entire body – I wasn’t able to work the next day because even the relatively mild heat was too much for me to handle – I was so depleted it was dangerous. I learned from this to think carefully about when and where to do this healing process. I need to make sure I am in a position where I can finish recharging, otherwise I may put myself in a position that will leave me worse than where I started.

Story 3: Sometimes we just get tired, you know? 

Sensory overloads usually happen because I experience too much all at once. My tolerance has gotten better, I can generally do good going slightly over my threshold. A good example of just over my threshold is migrash dancing at Ramah Nyack. If you don’t know what that is like, I recommend you look it up – it’s lots of fun! But, if I am consistently over my threshold the whole day or week OR if I am close to or just below the threshold most of the time I am unable to charge successfully. I slowly start to be depleted meaning what was previously manageable  – let’s say a noisy class, can become an actual sensory overload. 

So how can I deal with this? I try to pace myself throughout the week. Take one evening to get some extra rest. Have one warm shower a day to recharge my sensory battery. Make sure to utilize my lunch or free period effectively by spending it in a quieter environment. It’s not one-hundred percent effective but managing this has become easier. It usually gets more difficult during a more jam-packed event, let’s say a Shabbaton or school trip. The best way to manage this is by charging as much before and letting myself relax after the fact.

In all of these stories, I take away one valuable lesson: listening to myself. This applies to any challenge you have: anxiety, sensory, organization, etc – you need to listen to your limits, to your boundaries, and to what works for you. You are your best partner, use what your body is telling you as an asset and you can go many ways.