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

On daily basis, your physique receives a wealth of sensory info, picked up by the 5 senses of sound, sight, contact, scent or style. The information is relayed to your mind and nervous system, the place it’s processed, so the suitable responses might be carried out. However generally when it is all an excessive amount of and you feel overstimulated, the one factor you need is to close down and do nothing. Sound acquainted?

Nonetheless, there’s really a medical time period for what you feel. Sensory overload “is what all of us expertise when we’ve got an excessive amount of sensory info coming in,” says April Snow, LMFT, a wedding and household therapist based mostly in California who works with extremely delicate 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 may push it into hyperarousal (combat or flight) or hypoarousal (freeze), Snow explains (extra on this later).

Fortunately, with the fitting methods, we are able to study to control and handle the results of sensory overload, says Caitlin Slavens, MC, R Psych, a Canada-based registered psychologist who works usually with mother and father experiencing overstimulation. Right here, our skilled therapists clarify extra details about sensory overload and share recommendations on managing overstimulated.

What causes sensory overload?

“Should you’re already experiencing anxiousness, melancholy, grief, or going by means of plenty 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 control itself with minimal reserves. In different phrases, when you have already got sufficient in your plate, there’s solely a lot extra you possibly can deal with.

Sensory overload can occur for a wealth of causes. For instance, managing the incoming sensory info can also be trickier in your nervous system once 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 extremely delicate, on the spectrum, have attention-deficit/hyperactivity dysfunction (ADHD), or have sensory processing dysfunction, the place their brains are taking in sensory info in another way.” Snow provides that folks with a historical past of long-term trauma may additionally not have the ability to regulate their senses effectively, which might enhance their threat of feeling overstimulated extra typically.

Learn how to inform should you’re overstimulated

When your nervous system is overstimulated, it is both going to pop up into combat 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, then again, 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.”

Whenever you’re in combat or flight, it’s possible you’ll expertise:

However once you’re within the freeze response, it’s possible you’ll really feel:

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

“Whenever 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 suppose clearly, it is laborious to make selections, it is laborious to focus. And once we’re in these states, it is also laborious to sleep,” she provides.

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

Whenever you’re experiencing sensory overload, it will possibly typically really feel like there’s nothing you are able to do to cease feeling overwhelmed. However, we’re right here to let you know there is a option to really feel calm. Listed here are a few of our favourite expert-approved methods to strive once 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 informed them they solely have 5 minutes left of outdoor play. By reminding your nervous system that you just’re secure, the nervous system takes its foot off the “risk” pedal, easing away from that combat, flight, or freeze response it was in.

Deal with different environment

This tip is very helpful once you’re unable to get away from the overstimulating object or atmosphere that is inflicting the sensory overload. Do that: flip your head, look all the best way to your left, then all the best way to the fitting. What you’re aiming to do is soak up extra of the area, 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 dashing by means of your motion objects for the day, let your self decelerate. In slowing issues down, you’re giving your nervous system room to course of the sensory info it has already acquired, in order that it’s primed to absorb no matter info goes to be coming at your subsequent. “My shoppers are at all times shocked by this, it sounds so easy, but it surely’s efficient,” Snow says.

Separate your self from the overstimulating atmosphere 

“If you must take a sensory break, take that break,” says Slavens. Spend a few minutes by yourself in a toilet, 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 typically say they really feel “touched out” and surprise if it’s positive to take a break from holding their younger children. 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 children, “Mother’s physique wants some area proper now, so you possibly can sit beside me, however you possibly can’t sit on me.”

We all know you have in all probability heard the oxygen masks 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.

Apply aware respiration

Including some aware respiration workouts will help scale back stress and soothe your nervous system when it’s overloaded, our consultants say. Breathe in by means of your nostril and sigh out by means of your mouth. We wish to strive field respiration, 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 motion, has the impact of “waking up the mind and permitting it to course of” the data it’s selecting up, says Snow.

Happening a stroll is a type of bilateral motion. Should you’re standing and chatting with individuals at an occasion, it might be gently shifting your weight between your ft from left to proper. Should you’re at a gathering or a dinner, it might be tapping your arms in your thighs backwards and forwards beneath the desk. Whichever bilateral motion you select, participating in it will possibly carry your consciousness again to your physique and away from the data that is overstimulating you.

Apply strain to your physique

“Strain on the stomach is admittedly comforting to most individuals’s nervous programs,” say Snow. She recommends taking your arms and urgent them on the decrease stomach, pulling your knees as much as your chest, or hugging your self. You too can apply deep strain in your chest utilizing your arms, or place one thing weighted in your physique, corresponding to a weighted blanket or your furry buddy, Slavens provides.

For an added bonus, strive combining the strategies we have already talked about. For instance, put your arms in your chest to present your self some deep strain, observe respiration, and inform your self, “I am secure.” Having quite a lot of these administration strategies in your again pocket is right, so you possibly can 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 once you’re feeling overstimulated, generally 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 stuff you wish to do, or taking place usually, consultants encourage you to succeed in 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 further 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 might be, it is also simply our physique’s manner of telling us that our nervous system is reaching its most capability to course of info. Whereas it is not straightforward to protect ourselves fully from overstimulating environments, fortunately, there are tried-and-true strategies to assist hold 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 bit of extra comfy.