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Sachys:
Without people on the autistic spectrum, nothing would have developed, been invented, painted, written, calculated, realised and so on.
Ever. EVEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRR.
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Wolfy777: Ah, sensory overload. One of the most demanding things we deal with. Basically every autist is more sensitive to some kind of stimuli (light and sound are common) than the average person and that can lead into overload. Usually a person will "shut down" and try to somehow block whatever's causing the overload. If it doesn't stop or if there's no escape option it can go to the point of a meltdown (a charged, sometimes violent reaction or outburst when the person just can't take it anymore). If you want to help someone in overload, decrese the stimulation or get them out of there.
I'd be genuinely interested if everyone here with Autism / AS could describe what sensory overload feels like internally. I have a relative who isn't autistic but did suffer an Acquired Brain Injury and one of the long term side effects is he's lost the ability to "filter out" multiple stimuli (movement, noise, multiple sounds, etc) and calls that "sensory overload". He literally can't go into busy supermarkets, cinema's, shopping centre's, etc, without getting overwhelmed, rushes to leave the situation as soon as it gets busy and describes the effect of his brain "being like a torch battery plugged into the mains electrical socket" or a "waterfall of input" or like an "electrical storm in the brain that isn't epilepsy". Is it like that?

Is it possible to describe in detail what getting overloaded feels like "on the inside" beyond common one-word terms like "distressing"? Thanks.
Days like this I miss rtcvb32 telling everyone that autism is deliberately being spread by the government. :P
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Sachys:
Without people on the autistic spectrum, nothing would have developed, been invented, painted, written, calculated, realised and so on.
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Wolfy777: Wow, talk about screaming positivity. :D

P.S. I knew of good list of autistic famous people, but I'm too tired (it's nearly midnight) to dig up the right link.
Just a fact. :)
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AB2012: I'd be genuinely interested if everyone here with Autism / AS could describe what sensory overload feels like internally.
Firstly, its not a symptom unique to being on the autistic spectrum (people with PTSD can also get it very badly for instance), but... to give you an answer in the form of a question:

Have you ever tried to defend yourself against a gang of people all trying to kick your head in?
Post edited September 27, 2018 by Sachys
I don't think I ever met autistic person in person - or at least not autistic enough to the point where I would notice.

Now that I read about the symptoms, if I saw this thread few years ago I'd suspect that I myself may have some form of autism. But lately I have learned to deal with other people pretty well, so it probably was just plain social awkwardness of youth, maybe some light OCD. These days I'm generally cool with people, even with strangers. And if exploration of the black depths of internet taught me anything, it would be to tolerate most kinds of weird behaviour, as long as the other person is not actively harming me with it. It's hard to offend me with just words, there has to be some malicious action.

Unfortunately, I have been forced to accept that even I do have limits. I have been dealing with someone who I suspect is suffering from paranoid personality disorder, and THAT is very taxing experience. It might also be some form of autism. Some of the symtoms do match. Inability to recognize jokes or sarcasm or other forms of social cues - everything is dead serious to them. I mention I'd be willing to help with X - several weeks later I hear that I PROMISED that X will happen (without any further input from them, to clarify unimportant details like WHEN I can come and do it), and I'm a ****ing liar because it didn't happen (literally, with the expletive to my face). Ten minutes later we may be chatting about weather as if nothing happened - they don't realize how awkard their behaviour makes them. But from what I read here, autistic people can at least admit it's them who are different. "Weight lifted from me when I was diagnosed"... This person practically has life in ruins and I still can't imagine they'd accept the possibility that their behaviour is what makes other people behave like dicks in eye-for-an-eye style, and they need to get checked by a professional. 99% of people they meet is just out to get them. Even people I'm convinced that meant well, their sin was only that their advice was too uninformed to be useful. They spend so much time insuring against all negative possibilities that they have no time (and money) left to live. So I still lean towards the paranoia. Maybe combined with autism.

I don't want to derail the thread to mental diseases in general. I have been able to cope so far - barely. After such experience, I think that I would have no problem dealing with autists - as coworkers or friends. Especially if both I and them knew they have such condition. Me - to have some time to read up on what it means and how to behave. Them - to at least try and control it a bit, signal if they need me to clarify something, or stop doing something... or that they need some time alone in a closet. The really severe cases - I'm not sure. But probability to meet some of those is really low I guess.
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Wolfy777: Ah, sensory overload. One of the most demanding things we deal with. Basically every autist is more sensitive to some kind of stimuli (light and sound are common) than the average person and that can lead into overload. Usually a person will "shut down" and try to somehow block whatever's causing the overload. If it doesn't stop or if there's no escape option it can go to the point of a meltdown (a charged, sometimes violent reaction or outburst when the person just can't take it anymore). If you want to help someone in overload, decrese the stimulation or get them out of there.
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AB2012: I'd be genuinely interested if everyone here with Autism / AS could describe what sensory overload feels like internally. I have a relative who isn't autistic but did suffer an Acquired Brain Injury and one of the long term side effects is he's lost the ability to "filter out" multiple stimuli (movement, noise, multiple sounds, etc) and calls that "sensory overload". He literally can't go into busy supermarkets, cinema's, shopping centre's, etc, without getting overwhelmed, rushes to leave the situation as soon as it gets busy and describes the effect of his brain "being like a torch battery plugged into the mains electrical socket" or a "waterfall of input" or like an "electrical storm in the brain that isn't epilepsy". Is it like that?

Is it possible to describe in detail what getting overloaded feels like "on the inside" beyond common one-word terms like "distressing"? Thanks.
Let's try putting together my last conherent post tonight.
Aplogiese in advance for extra bad spelling (I'm not focused enough to run it through a spellchecker).

Also I'm in the AS camp so, it's probably a lot worse for someone deeper in the spectrum.

I'm most sensitive to sound, but too bright light can add to it (obviously it's worse if I'm tired or I have a headacke).

Imagine a pile or ordernary sounds that seem to pile up and get louder and more "pronounced".
E.g. My mom making noise while cooking or dragging her slipers across the floor.

Sometimes I might snap at her (luckly she knows I don't mean to) and tell her to stop making a "racket" though to her some of these sound are likely barly audiable.

There are stages to it I guess.

First I'll try to ignore the sound.
I'll probably try to think about something else.
I might try to retreat to my imagination for a bit.

If it's still "drumming on" to me, I'll eventually go into shut down mode, when I'll tr to ignore any kind of sound or whatever's bugging me.
I'll try to find something to focous on instead.
Like trying to spot an interesting spot on the floor and think what possible shapes it could have under diferent angles (kind of like some famous artworks do, like the one that has the word liar or can seem like a man with glasses).*
Phisically I'll try to stay as still as possible.

As it progresses I'll tell myself to keep calm anf that the situation will pass. Posibly focous on my breathing to make it deeper and if I can slower. My fingers might fidget or twitch, though I'll still will myself to be still.

If it's bad enough it'll probably trigger an adrenaline mode and make me search for some way to get away from the cause of stimulation. I'll still try walking, but my pace will be fast walk.

E.g. If I'm made to attend a party of some relative, I might retreat to the restoroom and just breath in the relative quietness it offers until I'm calm enough to emerge again (in most resturants restrooms tend to offer at least some doors to block the sound or are several rooms away from the "event room" and that numbs sounds too).

I can't say what any next stage would be like as I've never experianced a meltdown.
Maybe I'd literaly run to escape the overload (and mind you, I hate running)?

The whole ordeal will probably cause a phisical reaction too, like a headacke that will get progresivly worse.

I hope I answered the question, though I'm not sure how "internal" that was. :)

*I'll forever be greatful to my dad for teaching me how to spot such shapes and play this spot game with me a lot, it's an awesome coping mechanism.

P.S. I'm too drained to go searching for the link, but there's a part of an autistic site where people share their experiance of what overstimulation is like for them.

I rember one response (I think the person was also extra sensitive to sound) that said that being on a crowed bus and being hit by so many conversations at the same time was "like being tuned to 40 TV chanels at once" for them.
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Wolfy777: Aplogiese in advance for extra bad spelling
Oh. We've known worse.
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Tistonic: hate the internet when they turn it into a insult when it was retard insult
This is the sort of thing I was thinking of posting.

Discussion of autism is welcomed, and I do find it interesting.

However, the use of "autist" (or related words) as an insult (as well as "retard", for that matter) is something that needs to go. The use of such words as insults contributes to the whole stigma against mental health, and, I believe, contributes to people not seeking help for mental health issues. (This includes treatment for curable conditions like depression, as well as learning to live with traits like autism.)

This actually reminds me of when the term "gay" was used as an insult; that seems less common now, but terms like "autist" have become more common as insults.

(Note: If you see such words used as insults on the GOG forums, don't be afraid to report it to a moderator; at least one post of this sort I reported (not in this topic) was deleted, so it does appear that the forum rules disallow such use (and with good reason).)
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babark: I specialised in HCI in my masters, and my thesis supervisor was big on social development programs, so he suggested I work on a system for helping autistic people deal with every day stuff through virtual environments- not VR, (although it could be extended to that), but 3D "game scenes" basically.
After a year of such work, I gotta say not really their fault, I'm totally drained of the desire to help autistic people :D.
Especially since my findings were fairly inconclusive (but again, I hope they've been built upon to find something useful).
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Wolfy777: What does "HCI" stand for?
I can't tell if the final character is lower-case "L" or upper-case "i"; if the former, my guess would be hydrogen chloride/hydrochloric acid; if the latter, human-chimpanzee interface.
Obviously I'm not serious. =P
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dtgreene: treatment for curable conditions like depression
well, if i didnt know better, Id guess you must be in the mike pence camp.

genuine, serious, clinical depression is not curable, and barely treatable - much the same as being homosexual / trans and so on.

perhaps you need to rethink your use of terminology there?
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Sachys:
Without people on the autistic spectrum, nothing would have developed, been invented, painted, written, calculated, realised and so on.
I think that your statement is a bit too general, and therefore not actually correct as written.

With that said, it's reasonable to suppose that, if autism didn't exist, many things that were made would not have been made; because autistic people think differently, their brains may come to different conclusions, which can result in different works being produced.

With more neurodiversity, there's more diversity in the works of art and science produced.
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HunchBluntley: if the latter, human-chimpanzee interface.
Obviously I'm not serious. =P
Babark still owes me money!
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dtgreene: treatment for curable conditions like depression
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Sachys: well, if i didnt know better, Id guess you must be in the mike pence camp.

genuine, serious, clinical depression is not curable, and barely treatable - much the same as being homosexual / trans and so on.

perhaps you need to rethink your use of terminology there?
Depression can often be treated. Sometimes the treatment can involve medicine (but the needed medicine may differ from person to person), while other times changes to a person's lifestyle might be needed (like, for example, moving away from abusive family), and sometimes multiple approaches might be necessary.
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Sachys:
Without people on the autistic spectrum, nothing would have developed, been invented, painted, written, calculated, realised and so on.
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dtgreene: I think that your statement is a bit too general, and therefore not actually correct as written.
It is entirely correct - EVERYBODY rates on the autistic spectrum.

Thats why they called it a spectrum (and why they may be changing it to a "flow").

The higher you rate on that spectrum, the more likely you are capable of thinking outside the box, making creative works, advances and so on.
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Sachys: well, if i didnt know better, Id guess you must be in the mike pence camp.

genuine, serious, clinical depression is not curable, and barely treatable - much the same as being homosexual / trans and so on.

perhaps you need to rethink your use of terminology there?
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dtgreene: Depression can often be treated. Sometimes the treatment can involve medicine (but the needed medicine may differ from person to person), while other times changes to a person's lifestyle might be needed (like, for example, moving away from abusive family), and sometimes multiple approaches might be necessary.
thanks for proving me right.
Post edited September 27, 2018 by Sachys
I have no problems with people with autism or whether they are white,coloured,muslim's,but when the respect is abused then they will have problems with me.The whole key to my point of view is the word respect,as it is a forgotten trait.