Autistic overstimulation and overload goes beyond the sensory.
Case in point: Emotional overload is when autistics receive feelings-based information from ourselves or others that are extremely difficult to process.
Case in point: Emotional overload is when autistics receive feelings-based information from ourselves or others that are extremely difficult to process.
During autistic emotional overload, the emotional information we receive may feel overwhelming for many reasons. However, the impact of the overload may lead to meltdowns, shutdowns, rumination, and anxiety.
It is possible that emotions are overloading autistics merely because we do not receive emotional explanations and supports that are designed with autistic expression in mind.
Many autistics have neurodivergent ways of feeling and expressing emotion. Some ways that we may express emotion are through stimming, echolalia, monologuing, and logic.
For the most part, autistics have grown up in homes, schools, and community environments that enforce neurotypical emotional standards, cues, and body language.
Because NTs do not generally express emotion in autistic ways, many autistics are taught to repress our natural methods of emotional expression. We are told to adopt neurotypical expressions that are not natural for us.
Since autistics are often forced to repress our emotions, and since neurotypical individuals do not express emotions in ways that are natural for us, we may experience overload from our emotions and the emotions of others.
If it helps, my recent IG post has a list of possible causes of emotional overload as well as some calming techniques to use when experiencing emotional overload:
instagram.com/p/CReZjR0szh4/
instagram.com/p/CReZjR0szh4/
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