Is extreme anger, or just anger in general common in sensory overloads? Like, one moment I’d be fine at work for example, and in a pretty good mood, then suddenly I’ll become so irratiable at everything and at everyone even though nothing bad as happened except for it getting busy. The sound of presence of people suddenly makes me want to scream, i’ll get a bit snappy and even at times I wanna break something, or even go as far as to wanting to hit myself, or else ill explode. Idk if thats a common, or if its an actual trait of sensory overloads…? Idk it makes me feel silly for sure.
very common. that’s a meltdown–or coming close to one.
sensory overload can trigger your fight or flight responses. basically it can push you beyond reason, to your actual breaking point where you can lose control and will just lash out trying to make the pain stop. we usually think of fight responses as being when you’re being physically attacked and have something to physically attack back. But it can happen where what’s ‘attacking’ you is sensory. And usually when you’re approaching overload everything seems to be too much–even things that normally aren’t bad. Irritability is very, very common leading up to a meltdown.You’re approaching your absolute limit, the point where your survival instincts take over because you’re actually in that much pain. A meltdown is an involuntary physiological response to overload that can involve hitting or break things, screaming or crying, or otherwise lashing out in extreme distress and pain. It actually makes sense that as you approach the absolute limit that you as an organism can handle you’d feel angry.
overload doesn’t have to be all about sensory input, this is why it’s more likely to occur if you are emotional (even good emotions can sometimes be overwhelming) as well as hurt or sick or stressed in some other way.
NTs have limits and will hit overload and have meltdowns. ND folks just have different brains that process stuff differently and thus have different limits. NTs usually design the world for their limits, so they don’t hit them as often.
another thing to be aware of is shutdowns, which is when your brain will shutdown parts of your processing as it overloads leading into a full shutdown where you can be unable to move or speak. this can be very scary if it happens but like meltdowns is an involuntary response to overload. leading up to that may feel like your eyes aren’t working right even though you can see, that you can’t understand spoken words even if you usually can, you may go non-verbal or semi-verbal, and otherwise feel like you aren’t working properly as a physical being.
some people have a tendency more toward one kind of response than the other and not everyone will have both responses to overload. other people may tend to have one response to one type of overloading situation and the other response to other sets of circumstances.
Love that, thanks.
I get shutdown and semi shutdown all the the time, and I go semi verbal, which really sucks. I do get very irritable, and sometimes that leads to a melt down where I verbally lash out and become unable to passing.
