Sound Sensory Overload

There are certain medical conditions that can cause heightened sound sensitivity like Multiple Sclerosis, fibromyalgia and ADHD.

I was quite used to sound sensitivity from migraines from back in my 20’s but never had this sensory overload to sound issue until recently. It became a bit of an issue when I was working with fibromyalgia and migraine disease. And then more recently it had become problematic in certain environments.

Sensory Overload

Is when one or more of the five senses gets overstimulated in your environment. And your brain can sort through all the stimulus it is getting from the senses to make much sense out of it.

“Sensory overload happens when input from any of your senses — sight, sound, taste, smell — feel overwhelming and trigger a physiological response,” Dr. Tworek explains. “It’s your sympathetic nervous system letting you know that something is up.” Your sympathetic nervous system is the part of your body responsible for your “fight-or-flight” response. –Cleveland Clinic

It can create:

1. Anxiety/fear
2. Stress
3. Restlessness
4. Discomfort
5. Lack of focus
6. Irritability
7. Dizziness
8. Shaking
9. Flushing

Sound Sensory Overload

Sound sensory overload though for me can be intense in various situations. Often coming out of nowhere at all. I am in an environment with a lot of people. For example the workplace or a social situation. I can be talking to someone in front of me or trying to focus on something specific and then the background noise around me become amplified. Then once it becomes amplified I can not only hear all those individual voices around me but they all just smoosh together in a way they distracts me from the person in front of me, or the task I am doing.

What I have done

In the past with sound sensory overload due to fibromyalgia I didn’t do much about it. Except freeze like a deer caught in the headlights. Obviously, at work I would work through this as best I could although I would mostly look zoned out and it would cause me to pause and slow down. I would have difficulty focusing on the person in font of me. Missing parts of conversations and repeatedly asking what they said. And it would cause more than a few errors.

Outside of work, in a social context mostly it is that really zoned out look I get. I try to parse out the sound I am aiming for and seem to sort of miss the mark. The background noise becomes the foreground. You are immersed in all the noise all at once. I just try to refocus back in. I try to hone in on the person or thing in front of me. Or it is really just a jumble of chaotic noises.

I used to just leave and go out for a smoke and just calm my brain down. But I quit smoking so I don’t have that socially acceptable reason to just get up and leave the situation. So it feels weird to me to just sit there trying to find a way to absorb all this sensory input- knowing it looks like I am wide-eyed and zoned out. And trying to just zone back in.

At this time, it is causing me a lot of anxiety. I don’t know quite what to do about it but I do know for sure for me in particular the anxiety and lack of focus are particular issues. It is extremely stressful to me. Often making me want to entirely leave that environment.

Overwhelming

Clearly, sound sensitivity and overstimulation can be overwhelming. Bombarding, actually. What can you do when you are in the middle of this sound sensory overload?

• Leave the environment temporarily. Go to a quiet environment like outside or the bathroom for a few minutes to temporarily get out of that headspace.
• At times, you have to entirely leave that environment. Which means if you are aware of your triggers and know it may cause problems, you may know you have to leave an environment early and prepare for that.
• Limit exposure to busy, loud environments.
• If you are in a crowded environment stick to the edges of that crowded environment.
• Try to take breaks from a busy, crowded environment.
• You can help limit sound exposure if you want to go to a concert by bringing earplugs. I have never tried this myself. (Migraine friends have mentioned this to me) but for me, I also would have a problem with the crowd as well now.
• Deep breathing exercises
• I do a breathing exercise you can do in public that is fairly unnoticeable. All you need do is breath out through your nose, lick your lips and slowly breath in through your mouth. It helps with anxiety specifically. And then repeat, but no need to keep licking the lips in public, as that might be notable. It is just to draw awareness and get the lips in the right position. (Like pursed lip breathing)
• Meditation
• Guided imagery
• Box breathing

Source:

Healthline

Cleveland Clinic

Highly Sensitive Person and chronic illness