I understand that they get them but what happens exactly to them?
In: Biology
It varies in severity, since “Autism” describes multiple conditions ranging from just about normal, to genius, to severely disabled. In it’s mildest form (this is how it is for me) it’s discomfort at excessive noise or exhaustion from social interaction. I think many people can relate, excessive noise, like hearing a vacuum cleaner can trigger discomfort. A bright light when trying to sleep can be annoying. In severe autism, I can’t say for sure since such people may not be able to communicate, but I imagine certain stimuli can be almost unbearable, like being extremely hungover, sleep deprived or ill, you can’t stand all light and sound to the point of physical illness or pain. Basically, it’s a more sensitive brain that can’t block things out being bombarded by certain stimuli that others can usually just ignore.
Edit: if anyone reading has smoked too much cannabis, you’ll know that extreme sensitivity that can be panic inducing, it’s that.
All you have to know is the fight or flight response is triggered which causes the feeling of panic/freak out. That happens because their body is hypersensitive to picking up sensory data. So when they pick up too much sensory data at once the body thinks that something not right and that your in danger because theres too much chaos which sends the body into fight or flight.
And again this happens much easier because their bodies are overturned to pick up sensory data.
So basically what this comes down to is sensory regulation. Our body senses all sorts of information from our environment and also from our own body. Our brain takes that information and modulates – either increasing or decreasing these signals based on what is important.
For example, when you put your shirt on in the morning you can feel it on your skin, but soon after you brain modulates that so that you are no longer “feeling it”. Although technically the sensory information from your skin is still being sent to your brain, your brain is essentially ignoring it so you can pay attention to other more important things.
And our brain is doing this constantly.
But some people have difficulties with this modulation. So their brain maybe doesn’t decrease the signal when it’s supposed to – So they feel their shirt all day long.
Or their brain increases that signal so instead of just feeling the light touch of their shirt it actually feels more intense and maybe painful.
And then think about how that would feel knowing that this could be happening with a whole bunch of other things throughout the entire day.
So you are sitting there, trying to talk with a friend, but at the same time your shirt is hurting you and the lights are too bright and there are 15 people who are talking nearby who sound like they are yelling and the smell of coffee and the person sitting at the table next to you is also distracting and did you notice that that one florescent light is flickering. And you may or may not be consciously aware of all of these competing sensory input but you know that you are overwhelmed or distracted and just cannot make it stop.
And then add in that other things can make this feel even more overwhelming, such as when you are stressed about something socially or emotionally, or you’re physically stressed from not sleeping well. It can be a lot to handle.
Imagine you’re at the store and suddenly the lights start flashing on and off really fast and you start hearing one of those car alarms that changes every few seconds but there’s 10 of them at a time, also there’s a 3 year old following you around crying really loud and tugging on your shirt, and you’re trying to read the label on the bread but it’s hard bc the lights keep flashing and you can’t focus bc the car alarms and the obnoxious kid. Everyone else is going about their day just fine, telling you to tune it out, but how are you supposed to tune out this madness? It’s driving you up the fucking wall and you can’t get a break so you suffer til you can’t take it anymore and leave without getting bread
Many autistic people see the world in more detail than the rest of the population, than means they are registering more things each second and being aware of those things than the average person. When there is suddenly too much noise moving objects etc. they are then unable to process all than information at the same time and can feel overloaded and overwhelmed by too much information at once and try to “defend” themselves from the excessive input. https://youtu.be/iSJ9tEzgoPg
Think of stimulation like soft tickling. How many hands could tickle you before you started to feel overwhelmed, distracted, lose focus, laugh, scream, fall to the floor, etc? For some people, just one or two hands tickling them is overwhelming. That’s like an individual with autism who is *incredibly* sensitive. But for others, they could ignore it until there were like 30 hands tickling them all at once. That’s like an individual with autism who might just be overwhelmed in crowds or around exceptionally bright lights or loud noises. Now imagine what happens to the sensitive person when 30 hands are tickling them.
And just like tickling, small amounts of sensory inputs might be really pleasant. But too much or for too long is really upsetting.
I’m not on the spectrum, but my grandson is, and he once explained to me that it sometimes seemed to him that what he was experiencing was like watching and listening to a TV that is continuously scrolling up and down, through all the dozens of channels — and his remote is broken.
This video was one of the ones I really like. Now imagine this and being a young child in elementary school. It’s hard enough for me to be in a kindergarten class. My student (I’m a 1:1 special ed aide) wears his noise cancelling headphones almost all day but especially during lunch.
I have an autistic son. He is very high func but has a hard time explaining it to me in exact words. But I know it has to do with your brain takes in SO much information at once. But most normal brains filter out a lot of that info. However, an autistic brain does not filter it out very much or at all.
So he hears every little sound from the buzz in the lights, to the hum of the AC, to your breathing, to his own breathing, etc. then he also feels everything very strongly from his clothing on his skin, to the breeze on his skin, to his hair touching his skin. So on and so forth. All senses are very heightened all the time.
Its why they sometimes get irritable very easily because its a lot to deal with. Its also why wearing headphones to damp out the noise helps. Its also why say playing a game on your phone is good because they can heavily focus on that one game and try to block out the other things as best they can.
Hurricane.
The autistic brain simply gets overwhelmed by external and internal stimuli and it feels like a hurricane or tornado with way too much sound and light and noise and visual movement and people all saying and doing things which all hurts and makes it super hard to function.
It feels chaotic and anxious and demanding and suffocating and confusing and painful and you just need to find someplace dark and quiet but as an adult you’re supposed to not run away with your hands over your ears or start screaming because that’s all you can do (I can’t imagine how much more effed up it is for non-verbal autists) or spin in a circle because it grounds you.
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