Posted by katekite on May 27, 2002, at 19:37:44
In reply to Re: ADD and Overstimulation » JonW, posted by IsoM on May 27, 2002, at 12:21:55
People talk about "flooding", where tv, talking, visual things all run together so its a big blur -- for me this happened if I drank maybe two drinks and went to a party, a big blur. Not drunk at all, just my cognitive abilities were down a notch and the amount of info to process was up a notch. Some enjoy flooding and some hate it.
Then many people are hypersensitive, sometimes just to auditory stimuli (people chewing for example) or also to tactile stimuli (wool sweaters, aaack), or also to visual stimuli (a christmas tree with all the lights might look a bit frightening.) They seem to be unable to screen out irrelevant stimuli. So all the little wool hairs keep being prickly when others would have already habituated to feeling them.
Being hypersensitive leads to being easily overstimulated. People with ADD are easily overstimulated, because there is so much to pay attention to. At a busy party, someone who is visually or auditorily overstimulated might just go completely blank and stand there like a dimwit for a while. Or might start to feel angry, feel like screaming. Either the brain shuts down or the mind gets an emotional reaction (fear, anger, something strong) and organizes itself around that.
If one can recognize that one is starting to feel overstimulated, the trick is to extricate oneself from the situation physically or mentally and get a breather. For example at a party, too much noise, starting to feel like screaming 'shut up' but instead realize that you are overstimulated and suggest getting a breath of fresh air. Or some are able to do it just mentally, focussing inwards on how their toes feel, for example, and taking 10 deep breaths to recenter.
kate
poster:katekite
thread:107643
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020525/msgs/107762.html