When an ADHDer is greatly affected by a certain stimulus, such as a sound or smell, this can lead to the following signs and symptoms: Headaches, dizziness, or light-headedness. Feeling ill, faint, or nauseous. Increased anxiety and stress.
All the time? Overstimulation is a daily reality for many people with ADHD. We feel too much — physically and emotionally.
Overwhelm is a feeling all too familiar to anyone with ADHD or neurodiversity. When you're constantly bombarded with stimuli and your to-do list seems impossible to manage, it's easy to feel like you're drowning. One of the best ways to combat overwhelm is to write things down.
Some people who are overstimulated may experience extreme emotional or even physical discomfort. They may display extreme irritability, anxiety, or fear. Some may voice their discomfort by crying or throwing tantrums. Or, they may even show aggression.
You may feel overwhelmed, irritable, anxious, or panicked when you are overstimulated. This can eventually lead to neuromuscular and neurological diseases. Knowing how to identify signs of overstimulation can help you address these issues early and take necessary steps to protect yourself or a loved one.
Symptoms of overstimulation
Overstimulation typically happens when one or more of your senses is overstimulated. Symptoms may include: sensitivity to certain textures, fabrics, clothing tags, or other things that may rub against the skin. unable to hear or focus over background sounds.
ADHD and Sensory Processing Disorder
Lack of self-regulation: People with ADHD often struggle to regulate their emotions or reactions. Because of that, a sensation that is a minor irritation to neurotypical people can result in an outburst for people with ADHD.
While symptoms of sensory overload vary from person to person and case to case, usually the telltale signs of your senses being in overdrive are when you need to stop the competing senses to focus on one specific sensory area.
Sensory overload can feel like a million tabs opened in your mental browser, and your brain doesn't know how to process them. You may freeze or shut down altogether without the coping skills to de-stress. Anyone can experience sensory overload, but some people are more prone to overwhelm in certain situations.
Similarly, people with ADHD can also experience 'meltdowns' more commonly than others, which is where emotions build up so extremely that someone acts out, often crying, angering, laughing, yelling and moving all at once, driven by many different emotions at once – this essentially resembles a child tantrum and can ...
Overstimulation is not only a symptom of ADHD; it's often seen in autistic people as well. People with ADHD and autistic people may display similar signs of hyperactivity when overstimulated, such as being extra reactive to sensory input (i.e., becoming fascinated by a specific object or fixating on a sensation).
If you have ADHD as well, this “shutdown” might sound familiar to you, too. You don't know where to start, there's too much to do, and you feel as though nothing can be done, because even just thinking of doing what you need to do feels like an insurmountable task.
Executive functions have other roles which affect how someone thinks. In people with ADHD, these executive dysfunctions impact thinking in numerous ways. People with ADHD don't really think faster than people without it, but it can sometimes seem like they do. People with ADHD do think differently though, in a sense.
Attention Magazine October 2021
To reduce the effects of overstimulation, we may try to cope by going quiet or avoiding eye contact. For many adults and children with ADHD, sensory overload can affect the impression we make, how we are perceived, and our relationships.
Sensory overload happens when the sensory input your body is working hard to process becomes overstimulating and your brain can't process it all fast enough. Sensory overload can occur in people with sensory processing dysfunction, autism, anxiety, and ADHD, among many other diagnoses.
Naturally, you're going to have a reaction to feeling overstimulated, but some folks may not understand what you're doing is a response to that. You might get irritable or start crying — you might even shut down and be unable to speak. All of these responses are a way of trying to handle too much sensory input.
It's common in people with sensory processing issues. Many people associate sensory overload with kids who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD). But it can happen with other diagnoses too, like ADHD.
Sensory overload can happen to anyone, but it is more common in autistic people and people with ADHD, PTSD, and certain other conditions. It causes feelings of discomfort and being overwhelmed. Moving away from sources of sensory input, such as loud sounds or strong smells, can reduce these feelings.
Research into ADHD and sensory overload is still ongoing, but some of the most common triggers include: Touch: A touch that is too light, firm, or sudden could lead to sensory overload. The same goes for unexpected physical contact, such as a spontaneous hug or a pat on the shoulder.
Music for ADHD brains: what to play and what to skip. Music can be helpful for people with ADHD, but that comes with stipulations. For example, listening to binaural audio, background music without vocals, or chill electronic music like lo-fi hip hop can help ADHDers with focus and concentration.
Irritability can be a common experience for children and adults with ADHD. Causes of ADHD-related irritability can include feeling overwhelmed or overstimulated, relationship issues, lack of support, lack of sleep, stress, and in some cases, amphetamine-derived medication, such as Adderall.