Can anyone help me learn what sensory overload might sound like?

You're welcome.

Thank you, Paddy, for taking the time!  It is much appreciated.  

Sounds like I've basically managed what I set out to do, so time to submit it...

This has been a really interesting conversation, which i'll continue to follow if it carries on - thank you to everyone.

Hi ktseahorse. I listened to the sound you have created, and it most definitely reflected my own experience of sensory overload.

In my own experience, one loud sound doesn't cause me too much of a problem, but several sounds overlaid like that is painful for me. You have done a very good job, I think.

ClaireHig, I can definitely relate to what you experience, I have very similar experiences in my daily life.

Simon, Claire, thank you very much indeed, also really helpful.

In response to all the input from you and from Ferret, I've made a few changes - tried to bring the sudden noises to the front of the sound, added white noise somewhere in the region of 8kHz all the time we are looking through the boy's eyes and - gulp! - removed the limiter that had been on that section...

It sounds awful!!

If you want to, follow the Dropbox link below to the first draft and I'd really value any comments.  Please, please don't if it is going to be uncomfortable or painful for you, though.

It starts with the very last few bars of the first section, from mum's viewpoint, which is pure music.  

At 0:10, we switch to the boy.  We first see him looking miserable and withdrawn, but still coping.

At 0:29 the sensory overstimulation begins.

At 1:10 he loses it and starts shouting and bashing his head.  The string chords you hear represent the adult reactions, while the sound effects continue to be what the child is perceiving.  (It's more obvious with the pictures which is which.)

At 1:28, they have gone outside to calm down.  He is still bashing his head at first, but it calms.

At 1:36 we return to the mum's point of view and you just hear the beginning of the final section, so back to pure music.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lqzo6w1se4grsux/Meltdown%20Section%20no%20limiter.wav?dl=0

Hi

I get sensory overload a lot. More when I used to leave my home. But still if neighbours are noisy or moving around a lot. 

Sound becomes like finger nails going down a chalk board, which increase in intensity until it becomes one solid noise.

Every vibration from them moving around in the flat above me, is as if someone is hovering directly over my head getting closer & closer. Until it literally feels as if they are walking all over my head. Yet others who are in my flat at the time & don't have heightened senses usually claim they can't even hear any noise.

When I'm at my computer & get sensory overload it can be like a glowing light is coming out of the computer. It quickly increases until it's as if it's going directly into my brain. That light beam becomes all that I can think about or see.

I don't know if others can relate to this.

Hi ktseahorse,

One of the problems you have is that we are all slightly different in the way we perceive the world around us; if you ask ten people you will probably get ten different answers.

Ferret mention the perpetual tinnitus, this sound is like the old TV's when you unplug the aerial, but at a higher frequency. For me this frequency is about 8KHz.

Even though it is 7am and everyone else in the house is aseleep, I can hear at equal volume:

8KHz fuzz

The fan of my PC which modulates slightly

My neck making small clicking noises as I move my head

SOme cars outside, even though the nearest road is about 100m away

An aeroplane flying overhead, it is quite high and has propellers

An external hard disk which has just "woken up" and the disk is spinning up

A cat scratching in another room

Perhaps the best example I can give you is if you have a bad hangover. You now have to go and do an IQ test whilst sitting in a childrens nursery full of playing / screaming kids. After 8 hours would you rather go home and sit quietly or go out to a party?

I think NAS did some TV adverts similar to you project, you may find them on youtube?

Good luck in your project,

Simon

Hello Ferret,

Again, this has all been extremely useful and not just for the musical experiments.  I have a first draft now, but need to work on the hiss a little more, I think.

I might even stick it in Dropbox and post a link if I am feeling brave enough...  I'm a bit nervous that I've got it horribly wrong...

You are absolutely right, we are all in our own worlds - it is the nature of consciousness, really.  Now I'm getting philosophical! 

Meanwhile, I'll remember your words -

"anyone who takes umbrage over being 'ignored', I would say: try being Autistic for a day - and not being understood or listened to, misjudged, dismissed, labelled and called disordered, walk around with a stigma as a result of others ignorance and generally treated like a second class citizen... - try that for a day and then maybe a frame of reference will be achieved for how being ignored really feels like"

- for future use when relatives are being uppity.  In a way, the people who are most unaware of others are those who have never had to worry about finding a way when they feel different or excluded, as they've always been blissfully socially comfortable.  Lucky them.  But also, what limiting, narrow horizons.

Ferret, thank you so much.  That is so informative!  You're a star.

(I have to say, it makes me admire people on the AS even more, knowing you deal with that.  I had no idea that the body's own electrical noise is even audible.  Also helps a little with understanding my children.  People often assume my older boy is ignoring them because he's 'in his own little world', but I've always suspected that it's been more like he's trying to filter out what he hasn't the capacity to process and still be on top of things and this vindicates me.)

In answer to your question, I'm definitely old enough to remember the music from the analogue loop machines, but not to have used them.

Anyway, it sounds like the building up of layers of sound like conversational hubbub, a hum from a speaker, etc, gradually distorted (eg, through amps, filters, etc) would be good?

I could also introduce abrupt noises to sit outside of the texture and repeat/distort.  (I want to sample the very loud laugh of a bloke I know, while he's not looking, for this purpose - haven't managed it yet!) 

" Also: think multiple sounds from multiple objects/environment, immediate environment. All sound is at the same 'volume' as in level. So all sounds, regardless of level are received at the same 'volume' ie. there is no distinction between soft, light, quiet, loud, ear-shattering, ear-piercing. "

Can I ask, do I need to be aiming for clarity in each layer of sound, by being very careful to have nothing overlap a frequency range of something else?  Would an eventual melding into a wall of noise work, when the moment of 'blue screen of death' happens?

The other thing I was wondering is, you specifically mentioned high frequencies as less of a problem.  I do currently have a highly-digitally-mangled piccolo representing something like the neurological continuation of a tingy bell (if you get what I mean by that!) as well as representing rising panic.  Could this be authentic, or am I better off focussing solely on the bass sounds?  (It sounds awful!)