Does it ever happen to you when you are in a family gathering you feel overwhelmed or you just want to get out?
If you have, you might have a thing called overstimulation in you.
Overstimulation in adults? Isn’t that a kid thing? You might wonder.
Well, yes it’s a kid thing. However, if you are highly sensitive person, overstimulation is something you deal with for your whole life.
People learn and grow when they have a stimulating environment where they can explore themselves.
However, just like anything, there can definitely be too much of a good thing.
As a result, all the wonderful things happening in life can suddenly become too much and result in overstimulation.
Large crowds, noisy environments, and parties can leave both introverts and highly sensitive people feel overwhelmed or overstimulated.
Here, in this article we have brought some tips for you to deal with overstimulation as an adult if you are a highly sensitive person.
If possible, remove yourself from the situation
If you are a highly sensitive person, there is a high chance of you getting overstimulated quickly.
So, it’s better you try to avoid any situation which makes you overstimulate unless it’s extremely necessary.
Listen to your instincts and remove yourself from whatever situation is causing you become overwhelmed.
For instance, if you are inside a building with noise and crowded people, it’s better to get outside and be alone for sometimes.
Or, if you are in a family gathering, just stay there a little while and talk only how much is necessary.
Do Box Breathing
As an adult who is highly sensitive about things, it can be hard to get rid of overstimulation.
Especially, when you have a big family or huge responsibilities in your office.
You can hardly say no to office parties or vacations or any family gatherings.
So, if you can’t remove yourself from the overwhelming situation, the best way to calm down quickly is to do a deep breathing exercise.
Box breathing is the easiest deep breathing technique to remember when you are suffering from overstimulation.
Get Outside
Getting outside doesn’t mean only running out of the situation of overstimulation.
It gets hard for introverts when they constantly have to deal with people who are so loud and always want a party.
So, it’s not necessary to be with those people all the time.
There are lots of ways where you can enjoy your time alone and not suffer from overstimulation at all.
As an adult who is introvert and highly sensitive, you can always choose to make nature your friend.
When the clamor of everyday life gets to be too much, you can take some time to get back to nature and relax.
Hiking can be the best option to help you cope up with the situation of overstimulation.
Focus on Your Body
When we talk about self-care, we often talk about doing the activities we find engaging like cooking and exercising.
But actually taking care of your body is one of the best forms of self-care not only when you have the problem of overstimulation, but anytime.
This is something you can do to lessen the impact of overstimulation when you are in the mindset of it.
Just try to get in the habit of being present and observing what is happening in your body at regular intervals.
Are you tense? Is your body sweating when too many people are around?
If so, make a conscious effort to lessen the stress on your body by relaxing your muscles and taking deep breaths.
Know Your Triggers
One of the most important task in learning to manage overstimulation is recognizing the trigger.
Each highly sensitive person is unique and their triggers may differ somewhat.
However, there are some things that may trigger every highly sensitive person to suffer from overstimulation.
For instance, visiting to shopping malls, amusement parks, kid birthday parties, or great achievements in life can easily trigger overstimulation.
However, a trigger doesn’t necessarily have to be a special event.
Just a regular life with a regular family and job can also trigger highly sensitive person to suffer from overstimulation.
Know Your Limits
In order to prevent overstimulation, you need to be able to recognize when you are getting close to hit your limit.
Pushing yourself to get out there and enjoy the world as much as you can.
And then knowing when you need to pull back is best way to stay out of overstimulation.
You can tolerate stimulation for long stretches of time, but all of a sudden some tiny thing will push you over the edge and that’s overstimulation.
Therefore, the only way to learn what your limits are is to learn from your experience.
Hence, start keeping records of those incidents in your head and try not to let that thing happen again.
Don’t Schedule Too Many Triggering Events
Like said earlier, as an adult who have huge responsibilities, it might be hard to get rid of gathering or parties.
So, the biggest challenge for a highly sensitive and responsible person is to avoid the situation without being notices.
However, if you learn to balance activity and rest or not schedule too many events together, it can work.
One good way to achieve this balance is to make sure you designate lots of time in your calendar between stimulating events.
