What Does Overstimulation Sound Like To Someone With Autism? (PLEASE WATCH THIS WITH HEADPHONES ON) 

EXACTY!! I also have ADHD and its the same for me, minus the replying to others conversations. It's such a struggle that I need earbuds or headphones, preferably with noise cancelation, just to go outside without every little sound bothering me.

THIS!! its a weird blend of focusing in and out -- but this even happens in conversations in quiet places so that might just be me ;; also all the noises are why i straight up forget what im saying midway through talking, i either get distracted by some random noise/movement and forgot what i was doing, or have a random embarrassing memory pop in that makes me physically flinch. then ill get too focused on covering that up or just being plain embarrassed it that im not really prioritizing the conversation anymore aghh

Exactly 💯!! I have ADHD as well and crowds are a nightmare! Especially if I'm running late and have to try to find my friends/family in the crowd. It's just a jumble of colors and noise!

That’s exactly how I feel as well. I think I have some form of ADHD, but multiple doctors have diagnosed me as not autistic or ADHD. 🤷‍♂️ And yet, this is exactly what I go through. It’s frustrating.

I get so tweeked I don't hear a thing from across my own table. Too busy looking at the way out. God bless our friends and families for understanding and knowing when it's time to go. ❤

I hear it

I agree that it seems to get louder and kind of more intense/intrusive.

Yea... It's really intense because the sound is higher and even doesn't fit with the talking around. It stands out a lot

Yeah but it's in my right ear, it is really intense it made me cringe. I heard it more than the girl talking...

Certain people's voices make my left eardrum vibrate, it feels really weird. One of them is my youngest son, have to make sure he sits to my right.

My cousin has bowel cancer so I know what that feels like 🙏🙏🙏

​@@K0NGamazing, not only did you miss the point, you completely demolished a separate building entirely.

@@yippeeflowersfr

@@K0NG h u h.

​@@yippeeflowers 😂

I am also autistic and I agree with you

Thank you! ♥

Hear, hear!

Agreed, also from a Autistic Person.

Another autistic person here I agree

Yeah, the video doesn't really help illustrate what it's like to have this. As a neurotypical person my brain just sibconsiously filters out the various noises in the 2nd example as well.

@@baggelissonicwow for real?! That’s so interesting. I’m autistic and can’t fathom being able to automatically filter out the ‘background’ noises

Is this... Not how everyone perceives sounds in a place?.... Yeah I wish I had a way to know this when I was a kid in school. I had so many problems with communication because of not understanding or hearing what anyone said in a group conversation.

Your friends, autistic or otherwise, are so lucky to have someone as thoughtful as you in their lives.

@@skachor omg thank you! You are so nice 😊 really just trying my best here hehe

this is jaw-dropping to me.

Thank you for this! I wish more NT’s were like you :)

@@Eeeemomo you are so kind thank you so much

Not only overstimulation, but understimulation too!! But i don't get how they think it isn't real, i have adhd and my brain tries to focus on everything at once and before i started meds walking my dog without earphones or playing pokemon go was a nightmare despite me living in a small(under 0,5k ppl) village, i heard every little rustle of the grasses and trees around me, birds chirping, airplanes flying by, dogs barking, and it's like everything at once is trying to pull my attention towards it so i feel like my brain is ripping at the seams, i was literally going INSANE without something engaging to focus on In a city it's even worse, cause if i'm overwhelmed by the sounds(even on meds they overstimulate me a lot) i can barely see around me fsr 😅 the more muffled the sounds(for example by earplugs) the BETTER i can actually see around me, it's kinda wild No matter what i'm doing i'm hearing everything that's happening around me at once, always. Tho if the voices get distorted my brain stops registering words, only that there are sounds coming from the person's mouth. When we still had older phones it made me nervous asf cause i had a hard time understanding others through the phone. In echoey halls i learned to quickly give up, i won't be understanding most of it even if the person has a microphone(which tends to distort the voice a bit too...)

​​@@awl5451that's funny because I have adhd and had no problem focusing on the second one! But I feel that way trying to read a book or watch a presentation. I think it's an illustrative example of the fact that what is engaging and stimulating can be different for different people with adhd

I really wish I could show others how chattery my head is; some days I can’t go where there are people because it’s way too much.

@@partylikeits1066 oh, absolutely!! I actually rly enjoy reading books haha I can hyperfocus on it for hours without stopping if the book is interesting to me. Tho if it's boring then reading it is a literal mental torture(and i do still struggle with sentences not sticking in my head, so i have to re-read some a few times before my brain lets me comprehend them) It rly just all depends on what we personally find engaging and no person with adhd is the same, which is fascinating but also makes getting diagnosed a chore if you stumble upon a psychiatrist who thinks a person with adhd has to be a walking stereotype

really, same for me! it's also so weird, like, most days I can put up with noise in school, during band practice, etc- but apparently a dinner table with 6 adult family members is FAR too much and for me it's like this, but like, go from basically what he had before to slowly turning up the volume on EVERYTHING UNTIL IT ALL BECOMES MUSH

As a deaf person SAME it's sooo annoying.

Bro got this perfectly, its exactly how i process sound I just learnt how to have multiple convos at once so I can do this (im on computer but imagine a skull emoji here)

Cannot count how many conversations were saved by me lip reading! There's a delay but in one second I think, "I didn't hear the last part of your sentence." Quickly followed by the lip reading input that completes the sentence information. The time of masks was a challenging one for communication.

Lip reading is how I have to listen to a conversation in this environment too!

Agreed. I was gonna say "very loud white noise" makes my brain feel fuzzy.

I was about to say the same thing

I'm not diagnosed but suspect I'm somewhere on the spectrum, my son has diagnosed adhd and autism and we are so alike. Ive never liked busy places. This is the perfect video to share with friends to show them why I can't sit with them in a busy place for a meal, attend larger social gatherings or even do shopping somewhere busy without wanting to cry. Thank you, I live everything about this.

Yup, that is great ADHD representation too.

Agreed

Treat your niece well! Autism can be super hard to live with, even if it's been your whole life. Always be there to support her!

It is really great you want to understand your niece better 😊

I’m blown away. You’re telling me that there are people who experience the world like the first one of those?!?

Autism and anxiety work together like Thing 1 and Thing 2. I feel like my own anxiety (the social side of it) has kind of encouraged that idea, and autism just really doesn't help, kind of "enhancing" any sort of awkwardness my social anxiety side of things may cling on to.

Yes! I love action mocies especially Marvel but I always fall asleep during fight scenes because there's too much going on! I need to be wide awake and concentrating so hard to get through them!

What are these loop ear plugs, and what do they do?

@@user-xe2hf6fi8d They are specifically made to help knock the edge off of irritating sounds. They kind of mute things a little, but you can still hear enough to follow a conversation. There's a little insert so you can make it TOTALLY quiet, but I don't like that one. Another brand is called "Calm" earbuds.

Yes! Exactly.

It's like the higher pitch cuts through me, while lower pitched sounds are more comfortable. I have to really focus on my husband's voice to hear actual words as it's so low. Wondering if that's the case for you too?

Agreed

I can totally relate! I think my ADHD can hide my overwhelm sometimes, because I'll jump into/out of the conversations around me when it's with family. But gosh it can be taxxing!

thank you for the input! i’m much more interested in the neurotypical side, because i really cannot wrap my head around other people not hearing all the noises at 100% all the time. just to confirm: is that really how you experience life? so… quietly?

to be honest, i'm kinda confused? i thought everyone experienced the 2nd one, but just to a lesser extent as a neurotypical? that's what i mostly hear in crowded places anyway. i can try to focus on what the person is saying but i'm likely to miss out some details if i lose focus or i simply just can't hear them over the noise

@@peli._.668 if you lose focus often, youre not neurotypical

Thank you!! for commenting this, the comment section is full of people who have the second experience and I was really wondering if the first one is how some people (legend has it, it's the majority actually) do really experience it; which is mind blowing... and in the other hand, it makes so much sense... Incredible job on this video.

Thank you for your comment, I wondered too how it is for a neuro-typical person.

Thank you. What really helped me in dealing with my Assyrian family (who all said I was faking it) is reminding them of times in the past (before I was diagnosed) where I "acted strange". So, that time where we were at a funeral and I couldn't be around all of the people and sat in the car where it was quiet. Or the time where it rained and I was miserable because my clothes were stuck to me and no one could understand why it bothered me so much. Remind them of the times and they will see the signs were there all along.

@@ssavaart That’s great advice! The huge weddings we went to always sent me into meltdowns, and there are so many other examples like that. Thank you so much for replying! Wishing you a new year filled with peace and love! 💖

Aw cool! I have ADHD and Autism too. Not that those are cool. Those freaking suck. But it's cool that I met another AuDHDer!

Same...

omg "peer-reviewed" that's exactly how i am, every day i mention something i used to do as a little kid (or that i still do now) around some of my diagnosed autistic friends and they're like "...dude". every day i also become more and more confused as to how my parents never even thought to seek out a diagnosis for me when i was little.

@@ceasinghornet40d40LITERALLY oh my god exactly the same !!!

Oh my gosh same and it’s frustrating because my brother has autism but just because I (female) present differently they won’t take me seriously

@@summervibes5253 I relate loads, my brother is not autistic but they take him way more seriously for anything regarding mental health and stuff ;-; Also I love your pfp, adorable :)

When I was a little kid I was almost diagnosed and my parents vetoed the psychologists because they wanted me to have “a normal childhood”… but they still made me do ABA.

You could be ADHD, they have tons of overlap, since they're like sister disorders

Overstimulation isn’t always connected to autism or adhd, could just be an anxiety disorder.

I completely agree, I don't have trouble focusing most of the time (because I've practiced it a lot) but in a crowded room such as the highschool cafeteria I can't hold a conversation most days, I just listen and try to grab as much as I can, but every conversation happens at once so I miss a lot.

It could also be a sensory processing disorder

Same

Its accurate because the autistic version is pretty much the same as normal life, just normal people choose not to pay undue attention to the things that aren't actively important to their current situation. Normal people don't have a volume button to turn the rest of the world down, we just don't care that its happening.

Scott has diagnosed autism 💗

​@@andyv2209 Not sure if it was your intention, but this comment feels very dismissive. The use of "normal" rather than neurotypical aside, people with ADHD/autism aren't CHOOSING to pay undue attention to those other stimuli. We have a reduced ability to tune them out, and whatever is most intriguing or loud or painful to our senses is generally what is at the forefront of our brains, whether we want it there or not. And that can often be many stimuli at the same time.

@@robbiebobbin2649 i didn't say they were choosing to pay attention to unnecessary stuff, i said neurotypical/non autistic people are choosing not to, but that they still sense it to the same degree, and by that i mean things aren't different volumes or anything. And i only used normal because my phone didn't recognize me using swype for the word neurotypical, which to me means normal, and i have adhd. Don't get too hung up on semantics, itll make ya miserable.

@@andyv2209 If you have ADHD, how can you speak on behalf of neurotypical people? You do know that, not just autism but a variety of conditions such as ADHD, ADD, HSP etc, fall under neurodivergence. Also you are a neurodivergent individual too, if you have ADHD.

Same oml

Learning the skill to identify the stimuli then making the active decision to not allow each individual thing to get on your nerves could help you go through life with far less stress.

Please get professionally diagnosed (if you have the means available to you). It can be very unhealthy to go around thinking you have a neurological disorder if you don't. There's tonnes of disinformation going around about the likes of autism, adhd, ocd and the likes.

Me too I have sensory issues especially with sounds and smells so going out is tough for me

@@MaybeOrangeJuice my mother refuses to let me get diagnosed, she swears i don’t have anything and that i’m just a weirdo. adhd and ocd do run in my family though. i’m not claiming that i am autistic, just saying i have some of those traits, and that people don’t understand since i’m not diagnosed. i will eventually get tested or do whatever you do to find out if you have something like that. but please don’t think that i’m running around telling people i’m autistic just because of some minor things.

​@@meganofsuburbia29 it might be true if you didn't have it, people's brain is quite strong in making whatever we believe become real

diagnosis can be very expensive and it can take forever just to get a consideration for a diagnosis. also, most people who "believe" they have a disorder are more likely to be right than wrong. i, for example, thought i had adhd, autism, a learning disability and ocd, before i got professionally diagnosed. it can just be too hard for financial, medical, or because of the people or societies stigma around being neurodivergent. also, many "professionals" have preconceived notions about what these disorders are like, and often take the symptoms most often seen in white boys/men/biological males (since theyre the ones studied most often) and dont consider the nuance and spectrum of autism. and for women or poc it can lead to them being unable to get a diagnosis since the people in charge dont consider or care about us. my aunt was told not to get an autism diagnosis because shes "too old", but that doesnt mean she cant have autism. @@MaybeOrangeJuice

How lucky. I might've learnt to "ignore" the noise but I still hear it loud and clear. It's extremely annoying. P.s. IDK if I'm autistic.

Really? This is crazy to me. I have strain to hear anything in this environment. No wonder neurotypicals like to go out to eat or drink at bars and restaurants.

@_ same, havent been tested for anything but ive noticed im completely unable to tune people out and focus on one conversation without hearing others.

Wow. That is absolutely amazing. I had no idea my experience could be that different from NTs. The only way I can ever tune anything out like that is with earplugs… and that’s no way to try to listen to my friend reciting Jane Austen.

Exactly it’s like with ADHD idk if it’s like this for everyone else but when there’s so much going on I find myself just staring and thinking about every little thing that’s going on in that crowded area making it hard for me to have conversations and focus on the person talking to me

You could look at the vagus nerve. I have c-ptsd and also SPD. I have the same problem with overstimulation and thing suddenly being too much for me. I can't say how much it will help yet, but vagus nerve theory and somatic experiencing is something I'm looking into right now.

Im autistic and we are trying to find out if i may also have cptsd, but its really hard since its so alike, especially since it probably came from just living undiagnosed with autism😅 So therefor i get triggered by the same things my autism gets triggered by😭😭 I have been talking to a professionel tho, and we still dont know😭😭

Same, this triggered a panic attack for me

Is overstimulation also a symptom of cptsd? I know there's a ton of overlap in symptoms between cptsd and adhd, but I didn't realise that was one of them :0 A lot of people I know say I should get checked for neurodivergency, but tbh i think it's my ptsd instead. I do experience stuff like the video and randomly get triggered by the feeling of certain clothing

ME TOOOOO!!! I have CPTSD as well 😭

Wait, So that's actually how neurtypicals hear stuff in the first bit? (This is a genuine question, I am autistic an so I'm curious if yall actually hear it like that)

Usually! People in the background are a little louder but you can almost always distinguish what the person you are talking to is saying compared to everything else around it very clearly unless they are quiet or mumbling or something around the lines of that. How Scott kinda fades everything a little and darkens it around the speaker is the best example, everything is still there but it's almost filtered out entirely and softened unless you decide to try to pay attention @@Clover_knows_pets

⁠@@Clover_knows_petsdepends on the person i guess, i’m neurotypical and only sometimes i hear it like in the first bit

Hmm, interesting. Thanks! @@jaydinnaidoo @digitalglitch361

So basically it is that you can't focus at only one thing and instead you focus on everything at once and can't "ignore" the unimportant stuff? Or..

Same situation as me, nice to see that experience so well shown here. It’s the same issue when people leave a tv on and say “oh it’s fine, leave it on” when I ask if it can be turned off as no one watching it… so so difficult so process anything and frustrating plus no one is watching it please let me turn it off lol fail

@@mh8162I’ve had this issue before - they don’t realise it’s a problem because the reasoning to turn it off is “no one is watching” but ideally you need to say something more accurate like “I can’t hear myself think” or “I’m struggling to focus on what you’re saying”. Even if it might feel embarrassing in the moment, it makes a real difference.

Hi there! Might be different in your region but likely as not you CAN get also diagnosed by either a family doctor (MD) or a Psychologist. This applies at least to Canada/North America for sure. Say this as a Psych grad who was taught by Clinical Psychologist’s the legal guidelines. Hope this helps! All the best. :)

I also have adhd and anxiety and I 100% agree!

ADHD and autism both have a ton of overlap, so you can have symptoms of one and not actually have it! Like I have autism, but I also have ADHD symptoms, yet I don't really have ADHD

@@lovelysakurapetalsyt oh ok thank you !!

You're so welcome! I'm just so happy it helps.

Real. I'm not diagnosed either and with full honestly I don't hear the environment like this always. But when it happens it's so horrifying, it seems like i'm not capable to hear anyone again and it's really exhausting. Plus, when this happens i get really anxious so I feel like I want to seriously run away and hide from everyone. It's a relief to finally have a name for this experience

you should get tested. self speculating is a good thing to be interested in, like wanting to know ab yourself and why you are the way you are (as long as it doesn’t cross to full blown self diagnosis), but a concrete diagnosis Is a very good thing to have and is necessary for working on ur quirks! :)

@@007chicken11 Unfortunately a diagnosis can be a lot of money depending on the situation, definitely not a bad thing but for stuff like Autism especially there's no harm in self-identifying symptoms. Worst case they're wrong and find some coping mechanisms, It's not like there's anti-autism medications anyway. Antisms?

@@BlewlongmunI agree - getting diagnosed is really hard, especially as an adult. Finding an unbiased provider isn’t easy.

ooh, yes, I think I am too. It don't bothers me much for the majority of the time, and I don't get overstimulated (for the majority of the time), but I tend to be quieter than others. I thought becouse I got told to be quiet a lot, but this could be also a valid reason.

I was told by my primary doctor to write a list of why i think I may be autistic. Good luck!

Me, too 😓 with the the smells and proximity of other people, I would avoid this scenario

Indeed, it makes a world of difference!

OMG! Yes! My Bose noise, canceling headphones have literally saved my ass on more than one occasion. My dad kept telling me I did not need them, but did not understand that without them, I could physically go into a seizure from certain sounds.

same with my parents :(

If you don't have the other symptoms needed for an aurism diagnosis you might want to look up SPD sensory processing disorder.

Absolutely My Pleasure ♥

I find the second to be sort-of-closer, but a compromise between one and two to be more accurate as...well, I always thought I was neurotypical. I can pick up any conversation in a crowded room I want to but they don't fade into the background that severely. And I'll have trouble if two speakers of the same pitch and timbre are speaking at the same volume close to each other as I can't differentiate easily.

Absolutely My Pleasure ♥

As someone who’s probably autistic and has diagnosed hypercusis, I didn’t realize that the world didn’t sound this way to your average person. I’ve gotten good at accommodating for myself and wearing my headphones when needed to cancel out noise, school is absolutely exhausting tho, some classes are terrible, like I cant function in them without my headphones, or without going to work in the hall

@@eli_h309eyy fellow autistic with hyperacusis. tho tbh I think anyone diagnosed with hyperacusis should be seeking autism diagnosis

Hey, that's me as well! I'm not diagnosed with anything but my head is the only place I can get some quiet in. Like you, I've learnt to "ignore" the sounds but they're still just as loud.

I discovered some years ago that I lip read to help maintain focus (undiagnosed but leaning towards ADHD); if I can’t see the person’s mouth I’m unlikely to keep track of the conversation in a situation like this.

@@nerissarowan8119 I'm the same lol. COVID has made it _extremely_ difficult to follow conversations for a while.

Same here. I work in customer service, and people interpret me being overstimulated by background noise as not caring or ignoring them, which frustrates me (as it’s far from the case).