Overstimulation, or sensory overload, has become common in today's fast-paced, tech-savvy world. With so much information to consume and process, our body's senses often feel overwhelmed, leading to extreme exhaustion and irritability. Overstimulation has become so widespread that people often cannot even tell it apart from usual laziness, fatigue, and mood changes. However, it is crucial to identify the condition and take necessary actions to cope with and control it.
In an interaction with the OnlyMyHealth team, Divyanshi Tolani, Clinical Psychologist, RCI Registered at LISSUN (Mental health platform), explains the causes and triggers of overstimulation, signs to recognise, and ways to tackle the condition.
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What Is Overstimulation?
It is not that simple to define or describe overstimulation, as it can cause a variety of symptoms that vary from person to person. Additionally, what many people experience as a result of being overstimulated can be mistaken for other physical discomfort and emotional responses.
According to Tolani, a person is said to be overstimulated if they are subjected to more stimuli than they can adequately manage or comprehend, such as noise, lighting, movement, or emotional stress.
A stimuli refers to external or internal factors that trigger a response in a person’s sensory system or mind.
"A heightened state of arousal may result from overloading the brain and neurological system. Being "too full" of stimuli basically means that the body and mind are having a hard time keeping up," she explains, adding that the sympathetic nervous system is activated when the body is overstimulated and goes into a fight-or-flight (or hyperarousal) or freeze state. "As your body attempts to process a constant flow of information, this may result in a variety of emotional and physical reactions. This can help for short periods of time, like when you're being chased or need to focus right away, but too much stimulation for too long can make you tired, anxious, or feel "frazzled" or overloaded," she elaborates.
What Causes Overstimulation?
Overstimulation can be caused by various factors, such as:
- External stimuli: Spaces with noise pollution, excess lighting, mass gatherings, or constant sensory noises can become too much to take in.
- Mental strain: Meltdowns or overthoughts do happen due to major happenings in someone’s life, such as relationships, workplace issues, or some other form of emotional turmoil, as that becomes the focus of the mind.
- Having many errands at once or working on more than one: Switching from one task to another, exhausting oneself with working on many errands at once, or being in a stressful setting may cause one’s brain to feel exhausted.
- Excessive media: An outbreak of technology in today’s world, endless social media feeds, and distractions are all components that assist in triggering the brain to have an overload.
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Physical Signs Of Overstimulation
Overstimulation can affect both your mental and physical health. Because of the tremendous strain that mental overstimulation places on the body and mind, it can have an adverse effect on our physical health, highlights Tolani. “How confusing can it be when a brain comprehends various activities, such as interrupting duties, performing many operations simultaneously, and overthinking oneself to the point that it feels under siege?” She poses an important question. Some of the causes of this are:
- Appetite loss or eating more than normal: When we are mentally stressed, our hunger is changed into anger, which ends up causing indigestion and stomach aches.
- Stress disorders: A “busy” brain ends up avoiding rest, which in turn affects your sleep permanently.
- Mental strain and succumbing to burnout: Engaging in mentally consuming behaviour tends to zap you of energy and exhausts you in a minute.
- Discomfort, tension, or pain: Mental strain results in muscular tension around the neck or back, hearts, or jaws, often causing bruxism (clenching or grinding of the teeth or thrusting or bracing of the jawbone).
Physical signs of overstimulation include:
- Head pulsing or throbbing: Behavioural patterns of neglect, chaos, visual alterations, or simply noise distress are triggers leading to headaches.
- Palpitations, or sometimes a racing pulse: While still the body preparing for action is not necessary, energy is somewhat being spent.
- Muscular rigidity or contraction: The common examples of these are tense necks, taut shoulders, and any instance of discomfort.
- Sweats or redness to the skin surfaces: Stitching stress targets the body temperature, transitioning skin and sweat glands into action.
- Intestinal distress with or without giddiness: Everybody showcases its best performance when its equilibrium is balanced, but overstimulation takes it for a toss, sometimes triggering nausea or lightheadedness.
- Laziness or exhaustion: While being overstimulated, one is still pricked with alertness, but minimal energy is left, triggering a feeling of dullness or sleepiness.
Tips To Cope With Overstimulation
To cope with overstimulation, some of the effective strategies include:
Make changes to your environment: If necessary, try to keep away from loud environments or light, wear earplugs, and use music to your advantage.
Meditation or calming exercises: Simply taking deep breaths, walking for a bit, or meditating may improve your focus.
Set boundaries between work and personal life: Learn to ask your friends to stop calling or to give a break between two tasks so you may relieve your mind.
Don’t look at a screen for too long: devices such as phones and tablets keep sending a stream of notifications that may disturb your peace and quiet. Avoid phone calls at times.
Conclusion
Overstimulation is a growing problem in today’s fast-paced world, affecting both mental and physical health. Understanding its triggers and signs is key to managing it. Simple changes like creating a calmer environment, setting boundaries, and practising relaxation techniques like meditation or deep breathing can help. Taking these steps and consulting mental health professionals, especially when things get out of control, can reduce the effects of sensory overload, improve focus, and support overall well-being.