22 May 2010, 7:06 am
VolcanicEruptions
Snowy Owl
Joined: 15 Apr 2009
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Posts: 155
Location: United Kingdom
22 May 2010, 7:09 am
auntblabby
Veteran
Joined: 12 Feb 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 113,748
Location: the island of defective toy santas
22 May 2010, 8:57 am
an overload is when your brain just says "TILT!! !" and you just can't do anything until you get some downtime R&R. it is inclusive of being overwhelmed by obnoxious noise and confusion but goes way beyond. for more clarity, a good physical example is when a diabetic gets a low-sugar condition and goes into a foggy mental state just before diabetic shock, where he or she just cannot think straight or do much of anything until receipt of some glucose so the brain can function again. i am a hermit now basically to avoid situations where i would go into overload. when i am overloaded, i am like the aforementioned diabetic, in that i just cannot think or do anything but just lock up until the stress goes away. everything outside of myself just becomes a noisy obnoxious blur. this happens when too many people demand too much of me at the same time.
there are different types of overload, with different mixtures of stressors, and one that is unique to a relatively few people, is Stendahl's Syndrome, where exposure to great beauty [art, music, nature, magnanimity, etc.] causes some obscure emotional regulation thingie [possibly related to fight versus flight] in the brain to switch off, resulting in extreme emotional stress. there is very little written about Stendahl's Syndrome but that in no way diminishes its impact on those of us who have it.
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just my 2-cents' worth, adjusted for inflation 
22 May 2010, 11:15 am
22 May 2010, 2:52 pm
Being social for too long (mostly in groups of people) will wreck me. What happens is my mind will begin to sprint, like a track runner. Because of this, if I am stuck in these social situation (accompanied travel, dinner, family gatherings, etc..), my thoughts get more and more narrow until I am hanging by a shoe string and exhausted. When I shut down, I don't say anything and become unintentionally rude. The world is spinning and uncontrollable thoughts zip through my head as I am looking to evacuate. It is at this time that anything said to me is jibberish, meaningless - people just become talking heads. The only thing that will give remedy is solitude and silence. My prevailing interest is then used as a band-aid and life goes back to normal...
I really don't know if my experience is any more or less dramatic than this. Reflecting on my mannerisms is still new to me 
-- I have edited because I am trying to more accurately describe my exp.
Last edited by idunnosmile on 23 May 2010, 1:09 pm, edited 2 times in total.
22 May 2010, 3:14 pm
