Here’s Why You’re Feeling Overstimulated and How To Find Relief

Daily, your physique receives a wealth of sensory data, picked up by the five senses of sound, sight, contact, odor or style. The data is relayed to your brain and nervous system, the place it’s processed, so the suitable responses will be carried out. However typically when it is all an excessive amount of and you are feeling overstimulated, the one factor you need is to close down and do nothing. Sound acquainted?

Nonetheless, there’s truly a medical time period for what you are feeling. Sensory overload “is what all of us expertise when we have now an excessive amount of sensory data coming in,” says April Snow, LMFT, a wedding and household therapist primarily based in California who works with highly sensitive and introverted individuals. When the sensory enter coming in exceeds what your nervous system can course of, the nervous system misinterprets it as a risk, and this will push it into hyperarousal (fight or flight) or hypoarousal (freeze), Snow explains (extra on this later).

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Fortunately, with the precise methods, we are able to study to manage and handle the consequences of sensory overload, says Caitlin Slavens, MC, R Psych, a Canada-based registered psychologist who works often with dad and mom experiencing overstimulation. Right here, our professional therapists clarify extra details about sensory overload and share recommendations on managing overstimulation.

What causes sensory overload?

“In the event you’re already experiencing nervousness, melancholy, grief, or going by lots of stress, you are extra prone to expertise sensory overload as a result of your nervous system is already taxed,” says Slavens. And, Snow explains the bucket as being practically empty, so the nervous system is left scrambling, attempting to manage itself with minimal reserves. In different phrases, when you have already got sufficient in your plate, there’s solely a lot extra you may deal with.

Sensory overload can occur for a wealth of causes. For instance, managing the incoming sensory data can also be trickier on your nervous system whenever you’re feeling sick, hungry, thirsty, drained, or missing restful sleep. However, that is not all.

“Then there are people who find themselves simply extra naturally inclined at a baseline,” says Snow. “Like people who’re highly sensitive, on the spectrum, have attention-deficit/hyperactivity dysfunction (ADHD), or have sensory processing dysfunction, the place their brains are taking in sensory data otherwise.” Snow provides that individuals with a historical past of long-term trauma may not have the ability to regulate their senses effectively, which might improve their threat of feeling overstimulated extra usually.

The way to inform in case you’re overstimulated

When your nervous system is overstimulated, it is both going to pop up into struggle or flight mode or freeze. Battle or flight is a stress response the place your physique decides it would both confront a risk head-on or escape it altogether. Freeze, however, happens when your physique feels caught, stiff, or effectively, frozen when confronted with a stressor. Snow explains that “we regularly cycle between the 2 stress responses.”

If you’re in fight or flight, chances are you’ll expertise:

However whenever you’re within the freeze response, chances are you’ll really feel:

• Torpid or lazy
• Unhappy
• Numb
• Shut down
• Bother concentrating
• Issue making selections and finishing actions

“If you’re in these stress states the place your nervous system is dysregulated, your prefrontal cortex, the entrance a part of your mind, goes offline, and with it goes your govt functioning,” explains Snow. “It turns into laborious to assume clearly, it is laborious to make selections, it is laborious to focus. And after we’re in these states, it is also laborious to sleep,” she provides.

So, what are you able to do to maintain calm?

If you’re experiencing sensory overload, it will probably usually really feel like there’s nothing you are able to do to cease feeling overwhelmed. However, we’re right here to inform you there is a strategy to really feel calm. Listed here are a few of our favourite expert-approved methods to attempt after we’re overstimulated.

Inform your self that you’re secure

Speaking to your self could appear odd to some individuals, however from my expertise, it really works and is an efficient manner for me to self-soothe, Slavens explains. Say you’re taking care of toddlers who’re crying since you’ve advised them they solely have 5 minutes left of outdoor play. By reminding your nervous system that you simply’re secure, the nervous system takes its foot off the “risk” pedal, easing away from that struggle, flight, or freeze response it was in.

Deal with different environment

This tip is particularly useful whenever you’re unable to get away from the overstimulating object or setting that is inflicting the sensory overload. Do that: flip your head, look all the way in which to your left, then all the way in which to the precise. What you’re aiming to do is soak up extra of the house, as a substitute of locking your gaze and a spotlight on what your nervous system has perceived as a risk, says Snow. It helps you paint an even bigger image of security so your mind and nervous system can begin to really feel some sense of calm.

Decelerate what you’re doing, even when it’s by a fraction

We all know our to-do lists are unending. However as a substitute of speeding by your motion gadgets for the day, let your self decelerate. In slowing issues down, you’re giving your nervous system room to course of the sensory data it has already obtained, in order that it’s primed to soak up no matter data goes to be coming at your subsequent. “My purchasers are at all times shocked by this, it sounds so easy, but it surely’s efficient,” Snow says.

Separate your self from the overstimulating setting 

“If it’s worthwhile to take a sensory break, take that break,” says Slavens. Spend a few minutes by yourself in a rest room, empty room, or within the backyard. By “giving your senses a break, you’re permitting your nervous system to settle, and your thoughts to meet up with processing for a second,” says Snow.

Moms usually say they really feel “touched out” and surprise if it’s effective to take a break from holding their younger youngsters. Slavens, who has kids of her personal, says sure, it’s. It is okay to place a child down for a few minutes in a secure place whilst you take a sensory break within the close by room. It is okay to say to your youngsters, “Mother’s physique wants some house proper now, so you may sit beside me, however you may’t sit on me.”

We all know you’ve got in all probability heard the oxygen mask on the airplane analogy a bunch of occasions, however the sentiment behind it’s true—deal with your self earlier than you are unable to deal with anybody else.

Follow aware respiratory

Including some aware breathing exercises can help reduce stress and soothe your nervous system when it’s overloaded, our consultants say. Breathe in by your nostril and sigh out by your mouth. We wish to attempt box breathing, the place you breathe in for 4 counts, maintain it for 4 counts, breathe out for 4 counts, maintain it for 4 counts, and repeat it as many occasions as you want.

Have interaction in bilateral motion

Left-to-right or side-to-side motion, often known as bilateral movement, has the impact of “waking up the mind and permitting it to course of” the knowledge it’s choosing up, says Snow.

Occurring a stroll is a type of bilateral motion. In the event you’re standing and chatting with individuals at an occasion, it may very well be gently shifting your weight between your toes from left to proper. In the event you’re at a gathering or a dinner, it may very well be tapping your palms in your thighs forwards and backwards beneath the desk. Whichever bilateral motion you select, partaking in it will probably convey your consciousness again to your physique and away from the knowledge that is overstimulating you.

Apply stress to your physique

“Strain on the stomach is actually comforting to most individuals’s nervous techniques,” say Snow. She recommends taking your palms and urgent them on the decrease stomach, pulling your knees as much as your chest, or hugging your self. You may as well apply deep stress in your chest utilizing your palms, or place one thing weighted in your physique, reminiscent of a weighted blanket or your furry good friend, Slavens provides.

For an added bonus, attempt combining the methods we have already talked about. For instance, put your palms in your chest to provide your self some deep stress, follow respiratory, and inform your self, “I am secure.” Having quite a lot of these administration methods in your again pocket is right, so you may shuffle between them if one begins to lose its effectiveness after some time.

When to see a healthcare supplier

Whereas these administration methods we simply mentioned are wonderful methods to calm your nervous system down whenever you’re feeling overstimulated, typically they will not be sufficient. In case your sensory overload signs are interfering together with your day-to-day functioning, hindering you from doing the belongings you need to do, or occurring often, consultants encourage you to achieve out to your healthcare supplier. They’ll study extra about your experiences, check you for underlying well being situations, and join you to a psychological well being skilled to give you extra assist.

The underside line

Everybody experiences some kind of overstimulation in some unspecified time in the future of their lives. And as irritating as sensory overload will be, it is also simply our physique’s manner of telling us that our nervous system is reaching its most capability to course of data. Whereas it isn’t simple to protect ourselves utterly from overstimulating environments, fortunately, there are tried-and-true strategies to assist maintain our minds and our bodies calm. So the subsequent time issues really feel only a bit an excessive amount of, there are methods you need to use to really feel a little bit extra comfortable.