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coping

Kacey

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 :)

Parents

  • It sounds like you're having a physical response to an unknown sensory element which you cannot escape from. My first thought is one of 2 more immediate things: Artificial Light (many people experience the exact same symptoms you describe - I have difficulty breathing if I'm forced under them all evening) or 2. an allergic reaction to chemically derived scented products such as Plug-Ins, incense, scented candles and/or the added scents to cleaning products/laundry soap. But usually, we can get away from these by stepping out side. My guess is it could be unnatural lighting.

    I'm curious if you have a halogen lamp for your bedroom or if all the lights at home are now LED? LEDs are an unnatural light source which can create all kinds of physical symptoms from the brains inability to make sense of or deal with them. The type of light they emit, doesn't mimic the sun or anything natural to the Earth, and we are made of earth. Another potential problem is that if the house isn't rewired for their circuitry, they give off a very high pitched non-stop scream, which might be unnoticed and still painful to more sensitive hearing. If you think of the Mandrake Potting Class in the Chamber of Secrets, LEDs will scream like mandrake unless they're "potted" into their correct 'grounding source'.

    Being Autistic, we're often left confused - always catching up socially and overwhelmed that we might withdraw into a survival mode from living in a world which is already difficult to socially navigate and environmentally a bit much (unless we live far away in the countryside.) But as we grow up, our bodies change, things become more demanding and our threshold of what we can handle starts to change. Humans can only take so much. So a thing that was bothersome when I was 9 is no longer tolerable with everything I need to juggle. But also, even 5 years ago, our night lighting wasn't as assaulting as it is today.

    I might suggest to explore the possibility of changing the light in your bedroom. If it doesn't help you breathe and relax after a week, pop back into the forum and we can troubleshoot more ideas.

    Here are some links!

    A recent interview with an advocate for natural lighting about the impact of LEDs on hyper-sensory individuals: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018911672/led-lights-make-many-lives-a-misery

    Light Aware: https://lightaware.org/

    John Lewis has a £20 desk lamp that you can use with halogen lights, or just put one in your bedroom ceiling and spend your evenings in there for a week to see if you feel any different. 

    These are my favourite earth-friendly and inexpensive halogens. They deplete less rare earth minerals than LEDs, they're made for life! While you only need to buy the little tiny halogen capsule to replace (and don't touch the tiny glass capsule with your hands, the oils can cause it to break when it heats up, so use a bit of tissue): https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_dkr=1&iconV2Request=true&_blrs=recall_filtering&_ssn=discountcdrom&store_cat=0&store_name=discountcdrom&_oac=1&_nkw=lightbulb%20adaptor%20glass

    You'll need 2 components -

    1. Light bulb Adaptor suited for up to 40w (any halogen capsule below this will work such as 18w or 28w)

    2. Glass Cover Fitting to properly cover the little capsule and protect it. 

    These can be made now at the same energy rating as an LED, and in the long run are much less expensive to buy :) 

Reply

  • It sounds like you're having a physical response to an unknown sensory element which you cannot escape from. My first thought is one of 2 more immediate things: Artificial Light (many people experience the exact same symptoms you describe - I have difficulty breathing if I'm forced under them all evening) or 2. an allergic reaction to chemically derived scented products such as Plug-Ins, incense, scented candles and/or the added scents to cleaning products/laundry soap. But usually, we can get away from these by stepping out side. My guess is it could be unnatural lighting.

    I'm curious if you have a halogen lamp for your bedroom or if all the lights at home are now LED? LEDs are an unnatural light source which can create all kinds of physical symptoms from the brains inability to make sense of or deal with them. The type of light they emit, doesn't mimic the sun or anything natural to the Earth, and we are made of earth. Another potential problem is that if the house isn't rewired for their circuitry, they give off a very high pitched non-stop scream, which might be unnoticed and still painful to more sensitive hearing. If you think of the Mandrake Potting Class in the Chamber of Secrets, LEDs will scream like mandrake unless they're "potted" into their correct 'grounding source'.

    Being Autistic, we're often left confused - always catching up socially and overwhelmed that we might withdraw into a survival mode from living in a world which is already difficult to socially navigate and environmentally a bit much (unless we live far away in the countryside.) But as we grow up, our bodies change, things become more demanding and our threshold of what we can handle starts to change. Humans can only take so much. So a thing that was bothersome when I was 9 is no longer tolerable with everything I need to juggle. But also, even 5 years ago, our night lighting wasn't as assaulting as it is today.

    I might suggest to explore the possibility of changing the light in your bedroom. If it doesn't help you breathe and relax after a week, pop back into the forum and we can troubleshoot more ideas.

    Here are some links!

    A recent interview with an advocate for natural lighting about the impact of LEDs on hyper-sensory individuals: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018911672/led-lights-make-many-lives-a-misery

    Light Aware: https://lightaware.org/

    John Lewis has a £20 desk lamp that you can use with halogen lights, or just put one in your bedroom ceiling and spend your evenings in there for a week to see if you feel any different. 

    These are my favourite earth-friendly and inexpensive halogens. They deplete less rare earth minerals than LEDs, they're made for life! While you only need to buy the little tiny halogen capsule to replace (and don't touch the tiny glass capsule with your hands, the oils can cause it to break when it heats up, so use a bit of tissue): https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_dkr=1&iconV2Request=true&_blrs=recall_filtering&_ssn=discountcdrom&store_cat=0&store_name=discountcdrom&_oac=1&_nkw=lightbulb%20adaptor%20glass

    You'll need 2 components -

    1. Light bulb Adaptor suited for up to 40w (any halogen capsule below this will work such as 18w or 28w)

    2. Glass Cover Fitting to properly cover the little capsule and protect it. 

    These can be made now at the same energy rating as an LED, and in the long run are much less expensive to buy :) 

Children
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