Severe Overstimulation problem

[light locust]

Hey, I’ve been pretty concerned over the past week with these newfound problems I’ve been experiencing.

I believe it’s overstimulation if I’m correct? I’ll just list the symptoms I’ve been having: sweating excessively for no reason, heart rate beating very quickly even if I did no physical activities, shaking and trembling a LOT mainly in the hands, face becoming flushed and body feeling warm, and even feeling a bit dizzy sometimes.

I searched up overstimulation side effects and all, and these match up quite well. This usually occurs when I’m in a social situation with others I get along really well with, and then this suddenly happens. It really embarrasses me, and I overreact sometimes and all, like I’m excited and frantic. It’s really been concerning me but I’m not sure what links to it, and man the crash after is terrible, I feel so drained and weak and depressed it’s insane how I switch up. I still feel weak from a very recent overstimulation experience. I just don’t know what to do.

[dawn turret]

Walk me through the psat three "this suddenly happens" situations. What was happening before it suddenly happened?

[light locust]

Well, it wasn’t much that happened honestly. There was the first time it happened and it was while I was at school today and I was simply chatting with a group of people for a project and don’t get me wrong I enjoyed their presence, but I suddenly just started to overheat and I felt my face flush, we were laughing and their energy matched mine and all. I’m not sure if it was the energy or something that caused me to suddenly react like that but I had to take a breather because of it since I was overheating so much. Then the second time it happened, it was during this other activity with a group of mine today and I was standing with them in front of the class about to discuss something before those same symptoms washed over me again, it was almost the same situation but worse. They matched my energy and I overheated again, heart rate went up, you get the gist of it. I was shaking 2x worser though and I felt weak after the whole experience, and had a negative attitude afterwards. Again, I’m not sure why I reacted like that…

There was also another situation like this but it was more out of irritation, because my group wasn’t doing their work and I got all flushed in the face again and my heart pounded and all that. It’s been a pretty big problem for this year…

[dawn turret]

So it's been happening for a year? Can you describe your first experience?

[light locust]

Yes precisely, I don’t know exactly what my first experience was like but I can give a sortve vague explanation of it, I think it was when I was in class again, and it was the very start of the year, and the area around me got a bit too chaotic and the energy was a bit too much again and overwhelmed me, even if I did enjoy it in a way. But it still overstimulated me in a way (I believe so) because they were the same symptoms that I mentioned, and I also had a laughing breakdown in the middle of class so I had to leave the room to allow the others to focus until I calmed down.

[dawn turret]

When in the process of finding yourself shaking, your skin flushing, and heart racing does the first indication that an episoide like this is about to happen? How do you honor that sign?

[light locust]

Yes, well it goes in a specific pattern. I usually don’t notice it at first if I sweat a little which is the first sign, it’s hard to notice it course the room could just be hot. But the second sign is when I start feeling my face flushing, and that’s when I start to acknowledge the fact that it could possible be due to overstimulation. Then my heart rate picks up and that definitely tells me I’m overstimulating cause of the sudden heart rate pickup. When I start shaking that’s obviously the biggest sign of overstimulating and that’s when I truly fully acknowledge it and try to calm myself down. Only when it gets really bad, my head feels dizzy or I feel extra sensitive to everything. That’s what happened yesterday so I had to excuse myself from the room.

But as I said, usually when the face flushing or heart rate pickup signs come on, I assume that an overstimulation episode is about to happen or going on.

[dawn turret]

If it is overstimulation based on the social situations, leaving the room earlier, such as when you feel your face flushing, should reduce the symptoms.

If you have not already, consdier sharing what is happening with a trusted friend. You could even ask them to check on you some amount of time after you leave social situations like that unexpectably.