Sensory Overload 101

We use our senses to perceive and interact with the world around us. The input our senses can tolerate has a limit. While most people can manage the input from daily life, it can be a challenge for an autistic person. The input can be too overwhelming which can lead to a sensory overload. These are often mistaken for tantrums, however they are very different things. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a tantrum is “a sudden period of extreme anger”.

A sensory overload is when one or multiple of the body’s senses becomes overstimulated from the environment. It can be portrayed in different ways, varying from a meltdown to a freezing, due to too much input. As an adult, I can manage being in public spaces much better than I did as a child. I get overwhelmed easily by loud noises, especially if they are unexpected. I have a habit of carrying ear plugs with me to help me cope. It was much more challenging to manage when I was younger.

In elementary school, when I got overwhelmed by too much noise I had a little ritual that would help calm me down. First I would close my eyes and cover my ears to reduce input. Then I started to count down between each breath in order to recenter myself. My hands would then drift from my ears to my face, gradually increasing input again. When I was fully calm, I put my hands together in front of me and let out a deep breath. This process allowed me to tune out the excess stimulus from my classroom. It is important to remember that each person has a different coping style for sensory overload. Not every autistic person will be affected the same way. Some may be able to handle certain sensory inputs, but not others. Each autistic person is different and will also have different coping strategies.
These are some examples of daily challenges that could cause sensory overload.

Sight: Bright lights are annoying. They can be blinding at the most inconvenient times. Some people perceive this as a minor nuisance of daily life. For an autistic person, these lights can be too intense. This can make it difficult to shop in a supermarket or even pay attention in class.

Physical Contact: Body language plays a large role in communications. This includes using physical contact. This can be very stressful for an autistic person as it is not just overwhelming physically, but also socially.

Hugging- It is used as a form of greeting between two people who have some familiarity or a formal greeting. The challenge with hugging is that physical contact with another person can be uncomfortable. It is also a sense of control over personal space. When I was younger, hugging was a mixed bag. I was very friendly and had no issue giving people hugs in greeting. However, I did not like it when other people hugged me first. I felt trapped. I felt suffocated. This did get better as I got older, but it took a long time to get there.

Crowds- Crowds are part of a daily aspect when living in crowded areas. To this day, I still struggle with heavily crowded areas. They are incredibly stressful due to how much over stimulation they can cause, from constantly bumping into people to the loud volumes people speak. If a crowd is too large for me to handle, I have to hold hands with someone I trust to make it through. This allowed me to redirect my focus from the crowd to the hand I am holding.

Sound: The world is full of different kinds of sounds. The more populated an area is, the greater number of different sounds there are. This is more challenging when some noises come unexpectedly, this can be painful. It can also be challenging in separating different sounds, which can add difficulty in participating in group conversations. I have a hard time keeping up with a group conversation because it takes me a bit longer to process my responses before the conversation moves on.

Touch: This is separated from physical contact because this is focusing on touch in regards towards clothing. Clothing is confusing in several ways, from the numerous rules regarding what is appropriate to the different cuts and colors. The most important factor though is the material that it is made with. Each material has a different feel to it and depending on the person it can be comforting, pleasant, uncomfortable, or even painful. This plays an important role when picking clothing to wear. I personally love to wear soft clothing whenever I can.

Smell: Our sense of smell helps us enjoy the smell of flowers and identify when food goes bad, but It can also be overwhelming like the other senses. I am fortunate that I am not as easily overwhelmed by smells. I still struggle slightly with going through the perfume sections of most department stores. However, this is not the case for everyone, there are some who will be more or less sensitive to smells than I am.

Taste / Texture: Eating certain foods can be difficult due to their different tastes and textures. Some autistic people may hate crunchy foods for being loud, while others might hate soft foods. Flavor also plays a large role since some foods have a stronger taste than others. I personally struggle with most fruits and vegetables, with a particularly strong hatred for bananas. However, I love fish even though some species have very strong flavors to them.

This is only a brief overview about the different areas where an autistic person can struggle with sensory overload. There will be future articles that will go into more detail about the different types of sensory overload. It is important to remember that each autistic person is different from one another. There will be some who may not be bothered by the same sensory input as another person. I talked about my experience to give some perspective about sensory overloads from one point of view. My experiences are not going to be the same as other autistic, it should not be used as a set guide for dealing with every autistic person.