When the world sounds, looks, smells, feels and tastes Too Loud: managing sensory overload
Updated: Aug 20
Fun fact about me - not that you've asked - I don't wear raincoats. Even in the most torrential of Durham springs and autumns, I have a light leather jacket in warmer weather, and a heavy wool coat in the cold, with a hat or a scarf wrapped around my head to keep out the worst of the deluge.
This has been the case ever since a raincoat made me cry. I had dropped my child at school on a busy, rainy morning, and had to go to the school office to fill in a form. The office was packed, with no semblance of a queue. Everyone was talking over everyone else. Someone was irate about something. People with whom I am not on intimate terms were squashed up against me. When I finally obtained the long and complicated form, I had to complete it in this environment with nothing to rest on, struggling to focus on the questions in front of me.
Yet all I could think about was the raincoat. The slightly-too-small raincoat that was clammy against my skin, tight around my hips, all synthetic plastic rustle and crinkle, with a label rubbing on the back of my neck. I held it together until I got home, and then immediately burst into tears. To begin with I had lost all words, but when they returned, the only sentences I could get out were all about the raincoat.
People often associate sensory overload with noise, but in reality it is often about any or all of the senses. I would describe the experience as like being a rag in the washing machine on a spin cycle. I have also heard it described as like being a bottle that is all full up and ready to spill over, like seasickness, or like the volume being turned up too high on every sound, sight, smell, touch and taste.
Everyone gets sensory overload from time to time. Neurotypical people can experience it in situations where sensory input is extreme, prolonged, or unusual, or if conditions like migraine, illness, or emotional stress have lowered their tolerance. Anyone could easily have been overwhelmed by my raincoat school office experience.
For autistic people and ADHDers, the threshold is typically much lower, and can occur in what others would regard as normal, everyday environments. For my neurodivergent clients, and for myself, the supermarket is probably the most common trigger point, when we are bombarded with bright flickery artificial light, constant noise, visual loudness, smells, and unpredictable movement. One client reported an immediate improvement to his life when he gave up the big weekly supermarket shop and instead drove to a local village where he could call in at the butchers, the greengrocers and the bakery as he had done in his youth.
While most neurotypical people can recover quickly from sensory overload, for neurodivergent people and people with some chronic health conditions, it can wipe us out for hours or days. I have sometimes left the office feeling calm and refreshed after a calm and uneventful day's work, ready to enjoy my evening, only to be completely flattened for the next twenty-four hours or more by a long busy bus journey. Raincoat Day was a complete write-off from 9am onwards.
For many, this overwhelming experience, and its lasting effects, can lead to anxiety, stress, and a sense of helplessness. Understanding sensory overload and finding effective resources can make a significant difference in managing these feelings.
Understanding Sensory Overload
What is Sensory Overload, and How is it Different from Anxiety?
Sensory overload occurs when one or more of the body's senses experiences over-stimulation from the environment. This can happen in various situations, such as crowded places, loud environments, during intense emotional experiences. The brain struggles to process the excessive sensory input, leading to feelings of discomfort, irritability, and anxiety.
That said, sensory overload and anxiety are two different things. Sensory overload starts out with too much incoming sensory experience. We don't have the capacity to process it all, and then we have an emotional and physical stress response. Anxiety begins with a threat prediction: we start thinking about how something might go wrong, or anticipate danger or the negative judgment of others, and this is what triggers a stress response. Anxiety is about something bad that might happen in the future, while sensory overload is about something bad that is happening right now.
The two are of course connected - those who suffer from anxiety are liable to have a much lower sensory threshold, and sometimes overload can lead to anxiety (for example, if we start fearing supermarkets because of previous experiences of overload, or if we interpret our physical stress responses as a medical emergency). They also feel much the same in the body, because they both activate the same physiological systems.
One way to tell sensory overload and anxiety apart is by thinking about what helps. Sensory overload tends to improve when sensory input is reduced, either by changing or simplifying the environment, or by using aids like earplugs, headphones, soft clothing, and dark glasses (my first step is often to remove my belt and earrings and loosen my shoelaces). Anxiety is more likely to improve when you feel safer or reassured, or process and examine your uncertainties and worries.
Post-Stress Fatigue
Note that even when they improve, both anxiety and sensory overload can leave behind an overwhelming feeling of tiredness. This can happen for several reasons. First, during overload/anxiety, your system enters a stress state (fight/flight/freeze/flop/fawn). The chemistry involved in this remains in your system even after the trigger is removed, and takes a while to settle. The immediate shift can happen a few minutes after the stresser is removed, but, for mild stress, a full return to baseline brain chemistry usually takes from around twenty minutes to around an hour, stretching to 24 hours or more if the overload or anxiety was significant. Recovery may require sleep, reduced stimulation, and emotional processing time.
Second, any stress has a genuine metabolic cost, using energy in the way that any other physical systems in your body do. After a long run, you would need nutritious food, rest, sleep and hydration to help your body recover. Recovery from a significant stressful event can be similar.
Thirdly, many people oscillate after overload or anxiety between high arousal (that overstimulated, tense anxious feeling) and low arousal (feeling low, flat, exhausted, or disconnected). You can think of this as the system swinging back past its baseline before stabilising. This is widely experienced by neurodivergent people and people with some chronic health conditions, who can experience problems with their autonomic nervous system.
Finally, other complicated emotions we have around the event can slow our recovery. If we feel that we have to 'hold it together' during anxiety or overload (very common with ADHD and autistic masking) then the impact often shows up after the event. Relatedly, we may feel embarrassment, confusion, frustration or shame about what happened, all of which require additional processing.
Symptoms of Sensory Overload
Recognizing the symptoms of sensory overload is crucial for managing it effectively. Common symptoms include:
Increased heart rate
Difficulty concentrating, brain fog, and problems with working memory
Irritability or mood swings
Physical discomfort or pain
Withdrawal from social situations
Inability to make decisions
Trouble finding words
It is not usually possible to analyse what is happening in the middle of sensory overload, but it is worth looking back on the event afterwards to identify how it shows up for you. For me, the warning sign is often increased difficulty concentrating and irritability, followed by an inability to make decisions, and (in the worst cases) an inability to speak at all (a bizarre contrast to my usual hyperlexic she-must-have-swallowed-a-thesaurus tendencies).
Resources for Relief
Sensory Toolkit
If you have read this far, my guess is that you do not need me to suggest noise-cancelling headphones or earplugs and dark glasses. You will have heard that a million times already, and even if you haven't, you had probably thought about that for yourself. But I'm saying it anyway because it often helps.
Many people find small grounding objects or fidget toys very helpful during overload. A friend of mine makes these gorgeous little pebble bugs that are perfect for the purpose.
Meditation/Breathing
Another thing that you will have heard before is that you should use deep breathing or mindfulness.
Again, these can help, although they aren't always easy to remember in the moment, when your nervous system is already activated. It works best when you practice them a lot in advance, so that you can use them without thinking too much when the stresser occurs.
I often show clients deep breathing techniques like box breathing, or mindfulness practices like the 5-4-3-2-1 method (more on those to follow in another blog post). With any techniques of this kind, it is worth thinking about how they might apply to your particular situation. For example, some people find the physical inward focus of body scanning or progressive muscle relaxation techniques triggering or uncomfortable due to health anxiety, chronic pain, trauma involving the body, or a loss of focus on external anchors in their environment.
Sensory-Friendly Spaces
Creating or seeking out sensory-friendly environments can significantly reduce the impact of sensory overload, and they are a big favourite of mine. I've made something of a hobby of hunting down little soothing pockets in otherwise stressful places. Consider:
Quiet Rooms: Spaces designed for relaxation, equipped with soft lighting and calming sounds, can provide a refuge. Most places don't have dedicated spaces for this, but you can often seek out somewhere that will do the job. I like to keep an eye on where the nearest libraries and free museums and galleries are when I visit a big city. Even if I'm not in the mood for a bit of culture, the quiet and relatively low light of an art gallery can reduce my feelings of overwhelm from bright lights, crowds, visual clutter, and an overabundance of written signage.
Green Spaces: Spending time outdoors in relatively natural surroundings can help ground individuals and reduce sensory stimulation. Seek out local parks, riverbanks, and woods. Where appropriate you can check in advance how long it would take you to get there from a potentially high-stimulation environment.
One of my motivations for offering walk and talk therapy is that it offers the potential to process difficult material in a more grounding less overwhelming environment than many indoor spaces.
Establish Boundaries
Setting clear boundaries regarding sensory exposure can help you to manage how much sensory input you need to deal with. This might involve:
Limiting Time in Crowded Places: Planning shorter visits to busy locations can reduce the risk of sensory overload. I know it takes balls, but, where its an option (not if its your workplace or something!) tell people in advance that you can only stay for an hour. I do this all the time, and it makes people think I have a really busy schedule, when I'm really just going home to sit under a blanket with a podcast on.
Communicating Needs: Letting friends, family, and others know about sensory preferences can foster understanding and support. Where safe, communicating sensory needs in the workplace can be lifechanging. You can test this out in lower-stakes situations. For example, I told my opticians about my sensory issues. They understood and responded well, meaning that eye tests became far less stressful, and I felt empowered to communicate my sensory needs in other contexts where it felt a bit more socially risky.
Practice Self-Care
This is the LAST thing you will want to hear, and I am not always good at following my own advice, but regular exercise, adequate sleep, and healthy nutrition (in adequate portions) really do help to reduce stress and improve the brain's ability to process sensory information. Boring, yes, but important and true.
Therapy
CBT is a widely used therapeutic approach that can help individuals reframe negative thoughts associated with sensory overload. I do not explicitly use CBT in my practice, but I do borrow a couple of CBT approaches to get started with this stuff, namely:
Identifying Triggers: Understanding specific situations that lead to sensory overload.
Developing Coping Strategies: developing practical skills for managing anxiety and stress related to sensory experiences.
I typically use both of these things alongside grounding techniques to help clients to manage their sensory overload in the moment. I combine this with deeper work on understanding and reducing the shame associated with these symptoms, and helping clients develop the confidence to advocate for themselves, and the self-understanding they need to articulate their sensory needs. This combined approach can lessen the frequency of incidents of sensory overload, lower the associated feelings of anxiety, and reduce the duration and severity of fatigue experienced afterwards.
Support Groups
Connecting with others who experience sensory overload can provide valuable support and understanding. Support groups offer:
Shared Experiences: Hearing from others can help individuals feel less isolated in their struggles.
Practical Tips: Members often share coping strategies that have worked for them, providing new ideas for managing sensory overload.
Watch this space - I am hoping to set up relevant groups online and/or in the Durham area.
Conclusion
Navigating sensory overload can be really tough, and it is unlikely to go away altogether, but with the right resources and strategies, individuals can find relief, regain some control over their sensory experiences, and feel less isolated or strange for having these experiences. By exploring therapy options, creating a personal sensory toolkit, and/or prioritising self-care, it is possible to manage sensory overload effectively most of the time. You are not alone in this journey, and seeking support can make a significant difference in your quality of life.
Make a plan based on your own needs and resources. It isn't possible for everyone, but if you have access to therapy, you might consider reaching out to professionals who can help you to navigate the fascinating but sometimes infuriating particularities of your own nervous system!
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