Does anyone else's sensory overload feel like this?

[ofwarren]

When I get sensory overload, especially from sounds, I become very tired, my eyelids get heavy and my face becomes visibly flushed and warm. I also become much less verbal, with a slight stammer and sometimes slur my words. It's like a really deep brain fog.
I can still type, just not speak.

I can currently hear a strimmer and hammering noise and I just can't function at all.

Most other people seem to describe theirs as an anger feeling. Mine isn't.

Not tired but I absolutely lose my verbal. If somewhere like a noisy cafe with someone talking to me, I will hear everything and it is so overwhelming my eyes kind of go wide taking it all in and i my head turns to each sound I get really overwhelmed. Person I am with will be asking me what is wrong etc and I cannot respond.
it must look really odd if you are watching me but it is horrible to experience

I feel like I've had similar to this. Right now, feeling like you do, how would you feel if someone was trying to have a conversation or make plans that involved you making decisions? That's where my anger comes in because I feel like you describe and then someone is badgering me and I just get ratty with them, often not realising why until later....

The words just don't come do they. If I force it, I will sound like a gibbering wreck. I hate it.

Yes, I think that would make me angry too.

It is like I am severely disorientated I think that is the only way I can describe it

Same.
I was at university as a mature student before the pandemic and it used to happen when we were told to do group work. I'd go really hot and tired and I remember one time the tutor asked me to read something out... I literally couldn't speak. I stammered and panicked and ran out of the room.

I have both, sometimes the anger, but sometimes this (or sometimes one after the other).
When it's like this though I can't speak or move, I can text though on my phone like you too but if I try to speak I just can't think of the words or just one swirls and swirls around in my head and I can't think of any others. I just freeze for hours and hours basically. I normally need to take a couple of hour nap afterwards as it exhausts me so much.

Yes! Only a sleep can fix it.
I'm so glad it's not just me

I always feel better after waking up after the sleep but not rested if that makes sense?
I basically pass out, just get into bed and my eyes close straight away and it's a long deep sleep and mentally I feel better, i can talk, move but still tired if that makes any sense🤔🤷‍♀️

Mine feel like yours. My words tend to go more in a state of anxiety or emotional overwhelm but sensory overwhelm can add to the general overwhelm that makes everything harder.

I just buffer. I must look so weird. I was once trying to cook sausages for some of DC's school friends and all their chatter plus their mum's chattering in the kitchen I just couldn't function, one of the other mum's had to take over, I knew I looked odd but I was just so overwhelmed with all the stimulation.

It always amazes me how I can text fluently in a shutdown but can't speak for the life of me. Remarkable how our brains work and how different bits operate independently.

Me too!

I do go into shut down mode too, that's what I call it. DH recognises it and steers me to hide under a blanket until I have recovered.

Sometimes it comes out as anger too but it's more because I get really buzzy feeling, like I have too much energy from taking everything on board and have no where to transfer it

It's lovely you have someone to look out for you like that. Bed is the best place for me to recover too.

I feel unbearable irritation and like my brain is absolutely bursting with information. I constantly have to ask DH to turn the tv/radio/phone off if he’s trying to speak to me. And the, I might just shut off. I’ve no idea what people have said to me. I’m with them, looking at them, nodding etc but if you asked me ten min later what was said, I might be able to explain a third of it. If I’m forced to continue, I’m then exhausted.

I rarely have internal overload, like shut downs. My overload, meltdowns, etc are all very externalised - much like a toddler tantrum. I become overwhelmed, panicked, snappy, distracted and have to remove myself from the situation. If I can't remove myself, or if someone talks to me or touches me, I tip over into meltdown and that brings explosive anger - I literally want to rip the room apart with my bare hands. I feel totally out of control and have hit/bitten/pinched myself during a meltdown.

Repetitive noises like whistling, tapping, beeping, coins jangling, sniffing, etc cause a visceral reaction, as in I've been brought to tears of anger over the sound of someone smacking their lips when eating.

I do wonder if mine are mainly internalised because my parents would go absolutely berserk if I "made a show" and I mean I would get a beating.
I can't remember many of the times I did it as a child, except my mum said I used to hold my breath till I passed out.
The only time I can clearly remember it was external was when I was around 12 and my Dad (my parents were horrid btw) ripped every poster down off my bedroom wall that I had spent years collecting. There was literally not a space of wall left. I remember the red mist and I lay on the floor and screamed and was hitting myself.
He came in and beat the shit out of me for 'kicking off'..

@ofwarren That’s dreadful. Such trauma and cruelty.