Hey everyone,
I've always struggled with sensory overload and have tried pretty much everything but nothing seems to work.
I'm incredibly sensitive to noise, can't stand the humming of a ventilation system or my neighbor talking or dogs barking outside or cars driving past, so I pretty much always wear noise cancelling headphones with white noise.
I'm also very sensitive to feeling, my neighbor walking loudly making my floor shake (old building), big trucks driving past making my house shake, bumping into things, my skin touching my clothes, etc, can be too much very quickly.
I try to get as much quiet time as I can but living in a semi-busy city doesn't give me a lot of opportunities to escape from the noise. Inside my house it's unfortunately never quiet either (And with a housing shortage I'm stuck here).
I've tried all coping mechanisms from headphones to meditation, exercising, esting and sleeping enough, changijg diets, cutting out caffeine, demanding less of myself, setting boundaries, meditation, yoga, exposure, acceptance, stimming, fidgeting, etc, but nothing works. (They can sometimes improve things a bit but not a day goes by without a breaking point. Sometimes I wake up already feeling like this before my day even starts)
I feel overstimulated pretty much every day and not a day goes by where I don't feel jittery, stressed, overwhelmed, on the verge of a breakdown where I want to cry and hurt myself in some way. It's awful.
I don't know what to do anymore and the idea of having to live like this for the rest of my life feels so horrifying. Life could be pretty great if it wasn't for this.
Can anybody relate to this and have any suggestions for me that go beyond the basic coping mechanisms for dealing with sensory overload?
Thank you!!