My wife and I went shopping in Glasgow this morning, and after the first two shops I had to stay outside – the noise and particularly the visual overload was simply overwhelming. As we talked about it later, we realized that five years ago I could have coped much better. Has anyone else noticed their sensory problems getting worse as you get older?
I rhink the world is much brighter, noisier and busier than it used to be and faster too.
I find people face down in their phones all the time disconcereting too, when I was growing up people talking to themselves were to be avoided as they were some kind of crazy, now everyones is talking to invisable microphones, not looking where they're going, avoiding any contact, it feels really alienating and what happens if one fo them walks in front of my car and I knock them over? I dont' want to hurt anyone, but its starting to feel unavoidable. Should we call it Darwinism in action or try and save people from themselves?
Yes mine have. My main issue used to be smell, but I am far less tolerant of noise and bright lights these days. I had to go into work last minute because I couldn't log on recently, so had to take my laptop in for a fix. Not only did I find the background noise and lights difficult, but it was the day they test the fire alarm. When I got home it felt like I could breathe in the fresh air and start to relax.
Yes, I’m finding sensory difficulties are increasing and becoming even more intolerable in certain situations. I am much more sensitive to noise pollution, but I am wondering if that is because I have become more intolerant of things like people using their mobiles on speakerphone in the countryside and in other public places that used to be quiet.
I know I'm finding it harder, but then living in a rural area, we don't have the constant overload of city living, it's bad enough in the tourist season which seems to be longer every year.
I think as I age, I'm generally getting less tolloerant of intollerance and stupidity, there are to many numpties in the world!
Yep I feel this!
I don't know if it's an ageing-related thing or just a combo of factors like stress, lack of sleep, burnout... but I can fully relate!
I used to be able to go food shopping/clothes shopping no trouble, now it has to be a really quick visit as I find the bright lights, noises, and people around just too much to cope with. I really try to picture being stuck in a bubble where nothing can affect me, but that doesn't really work as well anymore.
Your post is very timely for me, as for the last couple of hours I'm in a sustained complete sensory overwhelm and feeling a 10/10 anxiety level. I've babbled, I've been on the verge of tears, I can't focus on any of the tasks I came in to the office desperate to stay on top of. And why? I think it's just the layering of one sensory thing on top of another with no breathing space. Too much light in the office (summer), too much noise from the air-con roof machinery outside (summer again - open window grrr), slightly too warm (though thankfully the heatwave has passed but I'm not recovered from that either), my work lanyard is making direct skin contact with my neck because I wore a jumper instead of a shirt with collar today, the office has been unpredictably animated and noisy at various hard to anticipate points throughout the day, there's a feeling of agitation from colleagues tangibly in the air due to some unpredictable changes going on (and I'm unsettled as much as they are by the same, probably moreso) ... and to make matters worse, I'm having one of my extra-verbose days when I shouldn't be talking, but when I'm asked a question I start barelling along, constructing excurciating tangents on the fly as I go. And one background hyperfocus keeps pulling my concentration levels from barely there to non-existent. Put all these layers one on top of another and the result is total collapse. I even blurted out a short time ago that if anyone knew how little I'd done today I'd be sacked tomorrow. I said that to a manager-level colleague who, while not my line-manager, mut now have a terrible impression of my work ethic. I'm off-balance, over-sharing, inwardly and invisibly distressed... and I know that I coped with such not-uncommon circumstances way better in my 30s (I'm in my 40s now). And that was with less knowledge and fewer self-care coping strategies (dark glasses, earplugs, time-outs, breathing exercises, self-understanding from diagnosis) in place.
I can only assume that my energy reserves are even lower these days than they have tradtionally been (and I was alway a leaky battery to start with). I'm now an hour away from home-time, and the office is only beginning to ease down as the early birds leave in fits and starts. Will I manage to salvage something from the day and find an hour's redemptive concentration in the tank? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Either way, I'll go home drained, frustrated, edgy and guilty that I didn't just 'get a grip'... like that's so easy lol.
OK, even just typing that has taken my anxiety and overload down to a7/10, so thanks for the right thread at the right time, Wordsmith.:-) I hope your day improved after your own overwhelm with the shops...
