Reducing sensory overload with boundaries and strategies

Being autistic and having ADHD, for me, is living in a whole brainstorm. Any word or phrase is potentially a spark, lighting up connections in my mind. I might repeat a word aloud that reminds me of another word, which reminds me of a song lyric, which pulls up a moment from decades ago.

And I will feel every last piece of that old experience as if it were happening right now. And that’s wild, but real. That recall has sound. Texture. Big Feelings. Those old memories that get pulled into the now arrive in a thousand chromatic variations. It’s wild, beautiful, and it is overwhelming.

This is why, whenever I’ve done artwork, it’s almost always with graphite or charcoal. One color, one tool, no decision paralysis. It’s not a lack of creativity to draw with only one color, but a way to deal with having too much creativity. Fewer tools mean fewer options, which means I’m more likely to actually produce the thing I am hoping to make.

Even going for a walk as a neurodivergent person requires strategy. When I don my fancy ankle braces and head out, I’m immediately struck by the million forms of sensory information.

The light reflecting on the pavement shifts and reminds me of a thing. The air carries a smell which I absolutely cannot ignore. Every sound that gets into my head feels alive in there. To keep from being pulled into endless side adventures or spirals of both past and present emotions, I have to set sensory boundaries. Headphones help. Rachael the Walking Companion also helps.

My brain is constantly scanning, connecting, recalling and responding to everything in a symphony of sensory, emotional, and intellectual notes. While this can feel overwhelming, it’s also deeply human.

It’s how I experience the richness of the social world. Sensory boundaries help me to keep the overload from consuming me. So does simplifying my tools wherever possible, and having a trusted companion to either body double or to handle some of the incoming messaging that would otherwise add to the overwhelming nature of it all.

If you read this and related to some of it, I hope you know that you’re not alone. I know it’s hard, and everything feels like chaos right now especially. The world is not exactly designed for the thriving of everybody, but I am so glad that you are here. You are worth taking up this space.

When I limit what I focus on during a walk, when I put on noise-cancelling headphones, when I reach for only one pencil to draw a whole picture, I’m not stifling creativity or ignoring the world. I am giving my brain a little space to breathe amidst the storm. These are a few of my strategies.

I hope you find your space and your strategies. You deserve them.

Want to discuss this topic?

* There is this post on bluesky and this thread on facebook *