Hi, I am a Teenager from the UK, I am currently on the waiting list for a diagnosis and I just was hoping for some advice or help with some coping mechanisms for when you go into a sensory overload or meltdown (my mum calls them my moments).
It tends to be in the evening after I've come home from work or from a day out. It usually goes like this: start feeling a bit like something is just off and I can quite shake it, then i start feeling a bit out of breath (which im pretty used to as an asthmatic haha), then I just get really overwhelmed because I start to feel too much of everything like my teeth feel like too much in my mouth, my clothes against my skin feel like pinpricks and I can feel my eyeballs moving and it drives me crazy, then I usually start to cry and shake or just get really angry because I cannot deal with it! I have tried talking to my therapist, I've tried googling suggestions on how to help myself when this happens and nothing has helped every time it happens is so exhausting and they are getting more frequent/ lasting longer and I seem to have run out of suggestions on what to do. I know it's not an anxiety attack because I also get those and they are completely different. This just feels like my skin shouldn't be on my body and I want to remove my teeth and hair and everything gets too loud and I just need silence and air but there isn't any (if that makes any sense at all)
I was also wondering if anyone had any good ways to stop themselves from stimming or making them less noticeable. I get really really embarrassed when I feel the need to stim in public or around anyone and I just hold it in but I feel like I'm going to explode every time I do that. I really enjoy rocking back and forth and I have a couple of vocal stims but it just feels super embarrassing I know it all in my head and I'm the only person judging me when I do it but I can't seem to get the thought out of my head of "you look like an idiot" or "grow up" and I would never in a million years think that of anybody else stimming, neurodivergent or otherwise so Im not sure why im so harsh on myself about it but i struggle to even stim in my house (vocally) because im worried other people will hear me and suppressing them (if that's the right word to use?) always puts me in either an awful mood or just makes me get trapped in my own head and then almost sleepwalk for a couple of hours.
I would love some advice or words of wisdom from anybody on here, Thank you so much!
Kacey :)
