Skip to main content

Sensory Overload

 As I write this, I am trying to decompress from sensory overload that nearly turned into a meltdown.

It all started when I went to the pharmacy with my nesting partner and the pharmacy technician interrupted me in mid-sentence and said, "I can't hear you." I get this a lot as I have difficulty controlling the volume of my speaking voice and also have apraxia of speech to a degree, so people also misunderstand what I am saying a lot of times and tend to do so in a condescending manner.

Matters escalated from this simple event that has occurred time and time again (especially in medical settings) that I often view as ableist and transmisogynistic in my case and ended up nearly turning into what the Autistic community refers to as a meltdown. There are also shutdowns, but I more frequently experience meltdowns. Depending on how you define a meltdown, this could have been considered a mini-meltdown as I was enraged, yelling, and crying in a sort of rotation once I got home.

I am now recovering from this event, but it sparked enough commotion that I figured I would write about my experience, however, sensory overload can occur from any number of stimuli, but often one of my biggest triggers is other people. Sounds and lights are other common triggers for me, and it often cannot be pinned down to just one sensory experience. Today has been a barrage of events that lead up to this occurrence that finally brought the sensory overload to its logical conclusion. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction

 My name is Lily Maureen O'Nan, and I am currently going to university for my associate of science degree in social science, and then will be moving onto a bachelor's degree in psychology and sociology with a minor in gender studies. I am non-binary transfeminine and autistic and ADHD, and will be using this platform to publish essays as I go through academia until I have a better grasp on coding.  I will be discussing a wide array of topics from disability studies to traditional psychology to psychedelic therapy to Marxism and more. I will also be discussing gender and "neuroqueer" experience, and possibly publishing poetry and art-themed pieces as well. Be on the lookout for updates. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Mirror-touch Synesthesia & the "Empath"

 I personally do not like or adhere to the term "empath," but I believe I have figured out the explanation for this phenomenon, which I do experience. It's specifically called mirror-touch synesthesia, and is also related to mirror-pain synesthesia and mirror-emotion synesthesia, which I spoke of at an earlier time. Studies show that mirror-touch synesthetes experience heightened levels of empathy because, in addition to feeling at least an echo of another person's pain, many of us also feel their emotions as if they were our own. This sounds an awful lot like the horrific pop psychology term, "empath," but most people attribute it to a supernatural phenomenon if they're not lying about it, rather than a Neurodivergence. It's a lesser known type of synesthesia, but I experience mirror-touch, as well as more "traditional" types of synesthesia where many of my senses blend together. I was actually misdiagnosed with schizoaffective because I d...
Post a Comment
Read more

Intersectionality in Neurodiversity Studies

 I have started reading the book, The Secret Life of a Black Aspie by Anand Prahlad, in addition to, Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer, and it is making me more aware of all of the various intersections that must be explored in Neurodiversity and Disability Studies. My own intersections deal with being a Multiply Neurodivergent, Non-binary, Queer, gender nonconforming, Demi/Omnisexual, multi-religious, Disabled person, but I know that there are many other intersections to explore rather than merely gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, able-bodiedness/able-mindedness, and religious affiliation, such as race, ethnicity, body type, and different forms of (dis)ability, among many other identifiers of who we are as people. I would like to remain as inclusive as possible moving forward, although my main point of reference will be Queer Neurodivergence, as that is what I am familiar with. I acknowledge my white and thin privilege in all of this, despite struggling w...
Post a Comment
Read more