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Irritability and Overstimulation

Do you ever have those days where you snap at even the smallest of things? Well, me too. In fact, today is one of said days, so to take my mind off it I'm making this post.

First, I'd like to state that I have ADHD and am in the process of getting diagnosed with autism and OCD.

This means I have personal experience with this, as well as I study psychology. This being said, please, if i am wrong on something, please correct me and provide me with a source where possible.

Now, from my experience, overstimulation is a common thing not only for autistic

people, but any neurodivergent individual. And to put it simply, it sucks. It can happen anywhere at any time and it makes you want to rip your hair out. But what makes this happen? Of course it happens due to the frequently seen SPS- or sensory processing sensitivity- present in

many neurodivergent people. This can cause hyper- and hyposensitivites to certain social cues, stated by the NCBI as "greater depth of processing, cognizance of subtleties in the environment, being easily overstimulated, having stronger emotional responses (both positive and

negative), and empathy to others' affective cues" which basically means if it exists, there's a good chance we, as neurodivergent people, have picked it out. And chances are if it could be in any way troubling, our brains processed it as an "oh no" and we'll respond negatively.

However, this isn't always the case. sometimes something is a HUGE red flag and our brains cannot process that, however that's for another post.

These minor inconveniences tend to build up in our brains as we feel the need to hold the info in our heads whereas a neurotypical

person could generally easily shrug off, and this causes our brains to essentially overload and cause overstimulation. It isn't hard to deal with once you know what works for you, but it is very tedious and can be hard to find a place to go about calming yourself.

Now, overstimulation can also occur in neurotypical people! It isn't as common or severe and certainly isn't documented very well, but if you ever have a day where you snap at everything, it's most likely because you're overstimulated. Good ways to solve this is by skipping your

morning coffee or passing on that energy drink as stimulant substances will only make it worse. Listen to lofi music or white noise using headphones to clear outside sounds, and if it's legal in your country, get marijuana that has a calming effect documented. sucking on a hard

candy and stroking a piece of fabric or using a fidget cube can help as well. focus all your senses on one thing and it will pass.

I hope this thread has been useful and informational. Please be respectful in the comments! Have a good day lovelies <3

Source(s): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5832686/