I have trouble telling what the pain in my stomach is telling me, so I pretty much only just realized how bad my body hates certain sensory and social stuff. It’s as though my insides were on fire and the only way to slightly affect it is to cry (and obvi get away from the noise). I thought it was just anxiety or under stimulation before, but no, those are separate things. I have spent hours today doing various self care type stuff (meditation, being in nature, exercising, mindfully eating, yoga nitra, massage, taking a bath, fun things on the internet, positive stimulus of other sorts, zoning out), and the feeling’s still there. I don’t even mask. How do you deal with having to be in a sensory hell for hours of the day? How do you calm down? Please don’t say drugs.
Context: ADHD often makes people struggle with interoception and being able to relax.
So the fun but not exactly functional state that already comes from time to time.
I mean I’m functional, but only towards things I didn’t want to do before. Wow I can clean this thing I didn’t know was dirty, but wait I’m also being pulled to do three other random things. Sometimes I get paralyzed and end up just powerposting online or watching the entirety of a yt channel I just heard about.
I make a meltdown post on hexbear, delete it shortly after, scream into the void and then play hexcraft for 8 hours straight.
Keeping it in check is one of my greatest struggles and I would be lying if I didn’t say that I self medicate with THC. However, I know that is not the answer you wanted. I do a lot of other things throughout the day to help calm my brain.
Frequently changing scenery even for a few minutes helps, like I’ll go take a walk around the office or outside around the building.
I also use my Air Pods religiously at work when I am not expected to be engaging with my coworkers. Having a queue of podcasts lined up, or a good playlist helps to detach myself from the environment I’m in and focus on whatever I need to without the office distractions.
Nothing helps it 100%, but it tends to be a mix of various things normally stimulating in some way.
Yeah, that’s the kinda stuff that I want to but can’t do when I’m in the worst of it and then when I’m out I’m too tired and overstimulated even for it.
Fr why is crying like the most reliable way to reset my brain
Unfortunately self-care stuff tends to not be super helpful for neurodivergent folks. Exercise can be helpful if it is rigorous enough to produce a lot of feel good chemicals but sometimes it makes it worse for me. If I’m at home, sometimes all I can do is put an eyemask on and some headphones with some relaxing music and just lay like a potato in bed until it goes away. My animals and my partner comforting me can also really help, but sometimes not.
Since it sounds like you are still figuring out what sensory output messes with you, part of the solution might just learning what consistently bothers you and avoiding it as much as possible. Do you have any sensory input you really like? I personally really like being in water so baths can really help regulate me. Engaging with special interests is also really important and beneficial, but identifying and maintaining special interests can unfortunately be difficult for AuDHDers, well at least it is for me. Sometimes it seems like trying to fight it just makes it worse too and you just have to kinda let it happen and run its course.
I’m in a similar boat so I’m still figuring it out too. I hope these suggestions can be helpful and I’ll definitely be checking back in on this thread.
Oh I may be a noob who doesn’t understand my body that well, but I’m pretty sure I know which things trigger me and what sensations I like, but the thing is I cant escape this particular environment most the time (I’m being vague not to doxx), at least I should be getting good ND endorsed noise cancelling headphones soon. A lot of sensations and stims I have identified mostly feel good when I’m already feeling good, and I don’t know when that is besides when I’m high out of my mind because the ADHD finally let the dopamine and energy get to me for a day. Baths can sometimes feel great, but today’s and the previous one mostly made me feel uncomfortably intoxicated. Overstimulation horseshoe theory. I also know a lot of things I’m interested in, but unless I want to learn everything at once often everything seems boring.
Damn I relate to pretty much all of that. Good luck fighting the good fight out there, we all deserve better.
Shut myself in a room with Bach turned up very loud and play Workers and Resources sputnik mode.
