The overhead fluorescents stab through your right eye like a laser beam of white-hot agony. The lingering scent of your beloved colleague’s microwaved salmon sends your stomach into roils of torment. If you don’t leave, you’re going to scream. However, you’re in a meeting. This unique torture is often the result of overstimulation.
Overstimulation is a term often used when discussing neurodiversity and migraines. The condition concerns the biology of the immune system, and anyone can experience it. Remaining ignorant of the cause creates unnecessary physical pain and mental stress that the person can alleviate with the right calming techniques. Understanding and managing overstimulation aids in emotional regulation and allows you to thrive.
What Is Overstimulation?
Picture a guitar string. When you pluck it, the vibration doesn’t cease immediately after it creates a sound. It continues to quiver as the note slowly fades.
A similar thing happens in overstimulation. When nerves and neural pathways are activated, they often create a lingering echo. Pile on too much sensory input and pluck too many strings, and you have an internal cacophony driving all sorts of maladaptive behaviors.
Common Signs of Overstimulation
How can you tell if you regularly deal with overstimulation? The most common signs are as follows:
- A general feeling of stress, which may turn to panic
- Paralyzing confusion
- Inability to concentrate
- Irritability
- Racing or intrusive thoughts
- Dizziness and vertigo
- A flushed red face
- Shaking and trembling
- Sweating and feeling feverish
- Tightness in your chest
Overstimulation is not purely a mental game — it triggers measurable physiological reactions such as increased sweating and heart rate, elevated blood pressure, dizziness and vertigo. In extreme cases, it can even cause unconsciousness — although this may result from a different, although related, physiological issue. People who experience frequent overstimulation are often prone to other chronic health conditions.
The individual isn’t faking their symptoms or exaggerating them for attention. If anything, they want the opposite — to retreat to a quiet, dark place to collect themselves. It’s essential to understand this, as the reaction of those surrounding them may create additional trauma, especially in children.
Neurodiversity, Synaptic Pruning and Overstimulation
Although scientists can identify common triggers for overstimulation — such as loud music or flashing lights — they are unsure what sets off the physiological chain of events. However, neurodiverse people are more prone to this condition because of a lack of synaptic pruning.
Synaptic pruning is a developmental stage when a child’s brain begins trimming unnecessary neurons and connections. During the earliest stages of embryo development, children form more neuronal connections (synapses) than they need. They begin eliminating the unnecessary ones at age two, resulting in the average 10-year-old having only 50% of the synapses they did in toddlerhood.
However, researchers suspect issues arise during this pruning process in people with schizophrenia and autism. As a result, these nerve connections remain and may contribute to overstimulation, which often triggers behaviors that violate social norms for relief.
How Overstimulation Impacts Your Mood and Decision-Making Ability
Even though overstimulation may impact those with certain neurological conditions more acutely, it affects everyone to some degree. The actual variation derives from specific stimuli that trigger a reaction in your unique nervous system.
Sources of Overstimulation
Many people who endure overstimulation have some idea about their triggers. If you’re trying to figure it out, common sources include:
- Loud noises
- Bright lights
- Overwhelming odors
- Uncomfortable textures — clothing tags are a frequent cause
- Sudden, drastic environmental changes — such as barometric pressure shifts and temperature changes
- Unexpected physical touches — even pleasant ones, like a hug
Conditions That Make You Prone to Overstimulation
Both physical and mental conditions can make people more prone to overstimulation. Your susceptibility depends on your preexisting state.
For example, being sick already stimulates your interoception — a sense beyond sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell — that refers to sensations arising within your body. Likewise, people with too much stress already show physical signs of overstimulation — a mere nudge may send them over the edge.
That said, overstimulation is more common in people with the following mental and physical health conditions:
- Autism
- ADHD
- Schizophrenia
- Fibromyalgia
- Multiple sclerosis
- Traumatic brain injury
- Migraines
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Tourette’s syndrome
How Overstimulation Affects Your Mood
Nearly everyone has experienced the agony of being stuck in traffic without escape. How did that impact your mood?
Overstimulation has much the same effect as being trapped in an unpleasant environment you can’t escape. It triggers your body’s stress response — fight or flight — sending your sympathetic nervous system into “go” mode. However, there’s no lion to flee, and dashing out of the boardroom mid-meeting can result in job termination.
For someone unaffected, a meeting might be boring or last too long. However, for someone overstimulated, it’s the equivalent of trying to hold the same businesslike conversation while drowning underwater.
9 Ways to Manage Overstimulation
Regardless of how overstimulation affects your mood, it is your job to manage it. However, that doesn’t mean being cruel or punishing toward yourself. Instead, take these proactive steps and practice these interventions when you feel calm so they become second nature in high-pressure situations.
1. Adopt a Predictable Routine
Predictability reduces nervous system stimulation. For example, some people with autism struggle with pathological demand avoidance, where frequent requests to switch between different activities overwhelm them and cause a meltdown. If you must do something out of the ordinary, give yourself plenty of buffer time to prepare and debrief afterward to regulate your nervous system.
2. Try a Cold Splash of Water
Your vagus nerve plays a crucial role in your parasympathetic nervous system. Fortunately, you can sometimes kickstart it with an arctic blast, such as a cold shower. Furthermore, your vagus and trigeminal nerves meet where your chin and ear meet. Therefore, splashing cold water on your face can sometimes have the same effect.
3. Create a Controlled Environment
Living next to train tracks may relieve overstimulated individuals as it’s a predictable sound. However, the unpredictable honks and horns of urban living? Not so much. Small improvements in your environment can make a significant difference, such as soundproofing walls with blankets or tapestries or installing soundproof paneling or doors. Soundproofing is determined by sound transmission class (STC). Most doors, walls and windows have some inherent soundproofing built in, but an STC above 50 is where you’ll notice loud outside noises start to become faint.
The goal is to create a quiet retreat where you can calm your mind and body. In addition to soundproofing, use aromatherapy or air purifiers to control unwanted aromas. Surround yourself with soft pillows and consider a sound machine or water feature — many people find flowing water relaxing.
4. Limit Your Use of Technology
In addition to the five senses, you can trigger yourself internally through things you see online. If you must use social media, limiting your time to specific occasions for checking in with friends is less likely to lead to doom-scrolling.
5. Practice Mindful Grounding Exercises
Grounding exercises are an overstimulated person’s best friend. Here are a few you can practice:
- 5, 4, 3, 2, 1: Breathe deeply while focusing on five things you can see, four you can touch, three you can hear, two you can smell and one you can taste.
- Focus on a physical sensation: Rub your palms together, swing your foot or gently bob your head. This practice is called stimming in individuals with autism, but anyone can do it to ease stressful overstimulation.
- Try stimulating acupressure points: Place your fingers on either side of your nose and rub in a circular motion.
6. Attend to Your Physical Needs
Letting yourself get too cold, hot, hungry or tired can also overstimulate you, influencing your mood and behavior. Try the “HALT” technique, in which you pause and ask yourself if you’re hungry, angry, lonely or tired before engaging in self-destructive acts. Quick, mindful body scans a few times daily can also address mild discomfort before it spirals.
7. Identify an Escape Route in Uncomfortable Situations
Unpredictable situations can trigger overstimulation. One way to remedy your nervous system is to identify an escape route in unfamiliar situations. For example, some folks insist on sitting within view of the door or intentionally selecting the end seats in a row so they can make a hasty exit.
8. Learn How to Express Your Needs and Set Boundaries
Unfortunately, some conditions leading to overstimulation also create issues with expressing needs and boundaries. For example, people with autism struggle more with social cues and may need clear, specific examples of how to say no without offending others.
If you suspect such an issue in yourself, you don’t have to wait for an expensive medical evaluation. The internet abounds with videos and articles that can help you learn this skill, as can therapy.
9. Create a Supportive Network
Overstimulation often results in behaviors that can leave you feeling isolated, so find a supportive network of people who understand. There’s a support group for nearly every mental and physical health condition, providing welcoming communities where you’ll find acceptance.
Understanding and Managing Overstimulation
Overstimulation creates measurable physiological changes in your body, thanks to your nervous system. Although there’s a mental and physical component, the condition is real and can significantly impact your mood and behavior.
While overstimulation occurs more frequently in those with certain conditions, no one is immune. Understanding and managing overstimulation can substantially increase your overall quality of life.
Author Bio
Jack Shaw is a senior writer and editor at Modded, where he passionately explores the intricate connections between physical health, mental well-being, and the dynamics of interpersonal relationships. With a keen eye for detail and a knack for crafting engaging content, Jack’s articles offer valuable insights into living a balanced and fulfilling life.
