With all the hustle and bustle of our hyper-connected, fast-paced society, it’s easy to get bogged down by the constant activity. The buzz of smartphones, the constant emails, social media notification beeps, work deadlines, family responsibilities, and having to be constantly “on” can put us into overstimulation mode in the blink of an eye.
But what does it actually feel like, then? Many people wonder what does overstimulation feel like in daily life. Today in this blog, we’re going to examine the physical, emotional, and mental feelings of overstimulation, so that you can become in touch with the signs and know how this feeling of being overwhelmed can impact your health.
What is Overstimulation?
Overstimulation occurs when your senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell are overwhelmed by an excessive number of stimuli your brain cannot process successfully.
Essentially, it is when your body and mind become saturated with too much stimuli in your environment.
Some degree of stimulation is acceptable and even healthy, but when it accumulates to some level, it can cause physical distress, emotional stress, and mental exhaustion.
External pressure may lead to overstimulation, such as environmental sounds or light, dense populations, or multitasking. It could also result from internal pressure, such as mental exhaustion, stress in the heart, or racing minds.
The Physical Sensations Of Overstimulation
One of the quickest and most immediate responses of overstimulation is on the body. When you’re overstimulated, your body tries to adapt to excessive sensory input, which often leads to discomfort and fatigue. These sensations will be different for everyone, but they generally consist of:
- Fatigue and exhaustion
Even though you’ve only rested or slept the whole night long, overstimulation can drain you of energy and exhaust you both physically and mentally. Your mind and body are bombarded constantly with too much information, so you feel like you’re running on empty. This type of exhaustion differs from tiredness; it’s a feeling of energy being drained out of you by forces outside your control.
- Headaches
People experiencing overstimulation often develop tension headaches or even migraines. Bright lights, loud noise, or excessive screen time can overload the senses, forcing the brain to process too much at once — which triggers physical pain.
- Increased heart rate
In response to overstimulation, your body becomes hypersensitive and alert. This activates the fight-or-flight response, causing your heartbeat to race even when no real threat is present. Your pulse is racing, yet you’re not moving. This is your body warning you to prepare yourself for what it’s expecting as a threat, though the threat is most frequently just the scope of input that you are receiving.
The Emotional Experience Of Overstimulation
Overstimulation does not just impact your body—it can strongly impact your emotions too. Feeling overly loaded with information, it can become challenging to control your emotional responses, leading to feelings of distress, anxiety, and irritability.
- Anxiety and restlessness
When you’re stressed out naturally, anxiety is more prominent. You might get to be naturally “on edge” all the time, never caught relaxed and always naturally ready to get wound up again. Even if no real threat is present anywhere, your nervous system stays cranked up, so to speak, and you’re left with nervous tension. This being on edge makes you have trouble focusing and leaves you with an ongoing sense that something is “wrong.”
- Irritability and frustration
Overstimulation can also bring on mood swings, leave you feeling down, and make you more irritable than usual. Things that won’t even irritate you otherwise—such as a minor setback, a din of sounds, or a small delay—are intolerable.
- Sense of overwhelm
Overstimulation at an emotional level is like being stuck in a cycle from which there is no escape. You may feel that there is just too much all at once, and even though you are trying to catch up or keep up with it, you just can’t. Feeling like you are drowning gives rise to emotional burnout, which is when you no longer have the emotional resources or capacity to deal with additional stimuli or function.
The Cognitive Consequences Of Overstimulation
Overstimulation not only impacts your body and your emotions but also impacts tremendously your mind. When your mind is full with too much information, your capacity to process and decide is diminished.
- Trouble focusing
One of the other most obvious symptoms of mental overstimulation is not being able to concentrate. Your mind is constantly drifting, and you just can’t concentrate on anything. Your thoughts keep jumping from one idea to another, making it hard to focus, finish tasks, or feel mentally present.
- Memory problems
Overstimulation can cause memory issues. You find yourself repeatedly forgetting appointments, people’s names, or other types of significant information that you normally remember. When your brain is under too much strain, it simply doesn’t have time to filter and store new information as efficiently as it normally would, and mental overload ensues.
- Mental fatigue and burnout
An overwhelming flood of sensory data can lead to mental fatigue. Your mind seems like it cannot think, decide, or reason. You are “burned out” or your mind is just doing the best it can with no progress forward. Your mental fatigue will gradually build into burnout, when you feel mentally and emotionally exhausted.
Conclusion
Overstimulation is the buildup of sensory and emotional input that eventually results in physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion. Physical fatigue, headache, and muscle tension, combined with anxiety, irritability, and distractibility, leave you exhausted and mentally confused. Catching them in their early stages might enable you to take action to manage overstimulation and keep it from sabotaging your health.
