A part of my Autism and sensory processing disorder is sensory overload. This is essentially when my brain gets too much sensory information from the environment and struggles to process and filter through it. The main thing I’m sensitive to is sounds, but if I’m more anxious or heightened, I find light and smells difficult to manage as well.
When I’m out on a walk I will often find that the various sounds overlap. Where a neurotypical person can filter these out, I struggle so everything merges into one big noise, making it difficult to concentrate and cope.
For instance, in the forest I may hear the wind, footsteps, my breathing and breaths of those with me, clothing moving with each step, leaves rustling and shoes touching the ground. I hear other people’s dogs, people sniffling, talking, water running, the end of the dog lead hitting his ID tag and almost everything else. If you try, you’ll hear all this too. So what’s the difference? For someone in sensory overload, these sounds are amplified and they mix with one another. When you’re on a walk, you would most likely be capable of tuning out of other sounds and focusing on conversation with the people accompanying you. We can’t always do that.
On a busy street, there are many more variables that can be overwhelming. There are more people than in a forest, so instead of hearing just your breaths, you’ll hear the breaths of those close to you. Instead of only your footsteps, you hear the unsynchronised footsteps of everybody around. You hear people’s sneezes and coughs, shouting and sniffing. You tune in to everybody’s conversations and all the words jumble into one big noise. Cars speeding down the road, honking their horns and slamming on their breaks. There are beeping noises from road crossings and sounds coming from the tills in adjacent buildings. Towards Christmas, there are street food stands set up close together and the potent smells from each one merge together, along with bystanders perfume and aftershave.
With all of this only being the start of what we can hear and smell, imagine how difficult it can be for us to act as if nothing is happening and react instantly and appropriately to what you’re saying.
As time has passed, I’ve learnt ways to help mask some of the things that overload me, but there are times when it all comes back and I struggle to do this. The main thing I have done is worn headphones when things got too much. I’m a teenager so I don’t feel right wearing ear defenders. Something relatively normal now is to wear bluetooth headphones when you’re walking somewhere. I wear BOSE QC35 headphones as they are noise cancelling but sometimes they can be inappropriate to wear (such as in a restaurant) and in these situations I resort to earphones because they are more subtle. I also wear a snapback hat which helps to block out excessive light. I do avoid busier environments because people brush past me more (which, with my sensory issues, feels like a punch) and it is much louder so I can’t manage