Visual overstimulation

[vergil96]

There is a lot of conversation around sounds being overstimulating. After usijg earplugs, headphones etc. for some time, I have noticed that visual stimuli exhaust me as well. I have noticed that seeing a crowd (shopping), traffic or television can be very tiring for me. Movement. What kind of visual stimuli are tiring for you? Kinds of lighting? The kind of lighting they often use in shops is tiring too, because it blinks.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

I haven't figured it out in detail yet, but I can definitely get visually overstimulated as well.

What regularly overstimulates me are packed stores. I don't necessarily mean crowded stores, but stores with lots and lots and lots of things. Racks of shelves with stuff on them. An example are hardware stores (if you call them that - I mean large stores that sell everything you'd need to build, renovate, decorate etc. your home). Another example, for some reason, is IKEA.
It's even worse if I am there to look for something. All the things just swirl in front of my eyes and make me tired and nauseated. I often need to ask someone for help because I simply wouldn't find the thing, or I'd get too overstimulated before finding it so I'd have to leave.

The other day, we were in a mall and it had Christmas decorations put up, including fairy lights, and they had a photo booth in the middle which flashed light regularly when people had their picture taken. The combined lights contributed to my general overstimulation.

When I'm purely overstimulated by sounds, I get really tense, anxious, irritable.
When it's mainly lights and visual clutter (as described above), I get really really tired suddenly, and brain-foggy, and can't think straight anymore.
Often it's a combination of both, though. But sometimes it's really separated.

Edit: Interestingly, my partner describes the following: For him, it's uncomfortable to take one sense away when he's overstimulated. Putting on headphones then feels uncomfortable to him because he gets even more overstimulated by the lights. Having all kinds of overstimulating senses at once somehow is more manageable for him and he can tune them out better than if one is removed because then the others get amplified.
To me, it's helpful to tune out noise in an overstimulating environment, even if there's light, smell etc. left.

 

[Outdated]

I have noticed that seeing a crowd (shopping), traffic or television can be very tiring for me. Movement.

Yes, for me it's movement as well. It's a constant distraction and part of my mind constantly keeps track of everything around me. It seems to be sort of similar to the hearing in that part of my brain will track and try to interpret every sound it hears. I haven't owned a TV ever in my life, I gave up watching it while I was still a teenager.

Crowds are very exhausting for me, a combination of the constant shuffling movement and the hubub of voices is wearying. When I have to go shopping I'm a speed shopper, I know exactly what I want, where I'll find it and how much I'm going to be paying, in and back out again as quick as possible. I'm more comfortable out in the cold and the rain listening to heavy traffic while waiting for a bus than I am inside the shopping centre with all the people around me.

I can't watch instructional videos, not only do I struggle to understand what people are saying but also the video itself is very distracting. I don't even attempt to watch them. I do watch a few youtube videos and free to air shows on the net but they tend to be the more peaceful and quiet things that I don't have to concentrate on very hard. Lately I've been watching old British reruns of Grand Designs and Antiques Roadshow.

 

[vergil96]

Looks like shops are common to become overstimulated by.

Racks of shelves with stuff on them.

Oh... yeah. I dislike visual mess too. Especially when I have to find something there.

When I'm purely overstimulated by sounds, I get really tense, anxious, irritable.
When it's mainly lights and visual clutter (as described above), I get really really tired suddenly, and brain-foggy, and can't think straight anymore.

For me lots of quiet sounds like many people talking has the same effect as visual clutter, it makes me feel tired. Loud sound and flashing bright lights make me feel nervous. I can't watch these films that cause seizures either.

The other day, we were in a mall and it had Christmas decorations put up, including fairy lights, and they had a photo booth in the middle which flashed light regularly when people had their picture taken. The combined lights contributed to my general overstimulation.

Flashing lights are the worst.

Yes, for me it's movement as well. It's a constant distraction and part of my mind constantly keeps track of everything around me. It seems to be sort of similar to the hearing in that part of my brain will track and try to interpret every sound it hears.

Same as above, I also feel like when there are lots of quiet sounds and lots of objects, my brain tries to subconsciously keep track of everything and I get worn out.

I can't watch instructional videos, not only do I struggle to understand what people are saying but also the video itself is very distracting. I don't even attempt to watch them.

Hmmm. Now that I think about it, I don't usually like the instruction videos either. I don't know whether I find them distracting, but it's tedious to have to watch everything in order. Sometines they're useful though, for minor car repairs and navigating visual interfaces of software - I can't figure them out because of the visual clutter. I have no idea why visual clutter is considered fun, easy to navigate and user-friendly. When programming, I prefer the command line.

 

[Outdated]

I have no idea why visual clutter is considered fun, easy to navigate and user-friendly. When programming, I prefer the command line.

I'm much the same. And trying to use an office suite for presentations always seemed like too much hard work for me. Text editor, lay it all out in html, so much easier to get everything looking how you want it, and you can convert that in to other formats if you need.

 

[FayetheAspie]

Something tends to be overwhelming in large stores.It is like step through the door and mild derealization symptoms are automatic. The local one where I used to work, remodeled here back and now the floor has this almost mirror quality to it so it's worse now. I almost fainted several times when I had to run in there real quick by myself one day to pick something up. Exception would be when I am hypomanic or leaning that way bit. Then walking through crowds and stuff like that becomes energizing. Don't feel bad if you can't figure me out, the counselor I used to have never could either.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

Something tends to be overwhelming in large stores.It is like step through the door and mild derealization symptoms are automatic.

Exactly, I feel the same. Only for me it's not derealization but brain fog and exhaustion.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

There was a thread very recently talking about visual perception between autistics and neurotypicals. I had mentioned that it seems like a stereotype that many of us will be attracted to or to focus on small details, as opposed to widening our view, taking it all in, but missing all the details like many neurotypicals do. We all had some ideas on this, but we didn't bring up "visual overstimulation". Just a theory, but narrowing our focus or our visual field may be a compensatory mechanism or self-protecting mechanism against this visual overstimulation. ???

 

[FayetheAspie]

There was a thread very recently talking about visual perception between autistics and neurotypicals. I had mentioned that it seems like a stereotype that many of us will be attracted to or to focus on small details, as opposed to widening our view, taking it all in, but missing all the details like many neurotypicals do. We all had some ideas on this, but we didn't bring up "visual overstimulation". Just a theory, but narrowing our focus or our visual field may be a compensatory mechanism or self-protecting mechanism against this visual overstimulation. ???

In some cases perhaps but curiosity leads me to focus on details a lot too. I like to know how and why things work, how they are formed ect. I have always loved magnifying glasses and microscopes so as to observe even more minute details. There also seems to be a zoom in feature to my eyes such that it can be physically painful to zoom out too far. Perhaps this part could relate to your suggestion.

 

[vergil96]

I had mentioned that it seems like a stereotype that many of us will be attracted to or to focus on small details, as opposed to widening our view, taking it all in, but missing all the details like many neurotypicals do.

I would describe myself as missing all the details. But the result of that is that I can't find things in a visual mess and I sort things, put them into boxes, and that can come across as pedantic and/or autistic

Just a theory, but narrowing our focus or our visual field may be a compensatory mechanism or self-protecting mechanism against this visual overstimulation. ???

I have a very broad visual field. At the same time, for example in a messy cupboard or "cool" chaotic visual interface for a computer program, I have to put effort into looking very closely at each detail in order to find the right thing. It's exhausting. What I see is one big piece of clutter and I have to actively think and look for cues to make sense of it. There is nothing "obvious" there. Just a Pollock's painting: