Sensory Overload again?

I wear a lot of sound.  I know I’ve mentioned it in jest and in honesty but, I guess I haven’t been too clear about some of the difficulties living with Synesthesia can create. Now, not every Synnie suffers from Sensory Overload, (which is awesome) but for those that do their Syn can be a burden during these times. Now, I’ll clarify what I mean by wearing sound. I’ve mentioned that at parties and big noisy occasions that I’ve been bombarded with sound and it wears me out. During a fit of Sensory Overload, however, there’s more to it. I have been in situations where I’ve spent the majority of my time in an overload and I didn’t even know it.

Example, I’ve mentioned I used to work on the phones and that it had a deleterious effect on my health.

Well, I would absorb so much sound and color in my periphery during the day that by the end I felt as though there were seams in my skin ready to split if I so much as bent too far in one direction. My head was filled with the jumble of noise from the day and sometimes it would be hard to clear all the noise out of my mind’s eye, as if I were some kind of noise retainer and it just lingered there constantly. People’s voices would ring in my head long after I was done dealing with them and I just wanted to shut their voices out.

It was excruciatingly painful and I would usually be in panic mode by the time my shift was over. Once I got home and could stick my head into a pair of comfortable headphones and listen to Dvorak I was good. I could sit in stillness and listen to music that was calming and I could literally feel the throbbing heat in my back begin to ebb as the cold press of the music would issue them away. My periphery would fill with the colors of the music and the aches in my skull would subside. Often I’d just lay flat on the floor and let it seep out of me.

Pretty much, after a shift I’d ache all over, my head would be killing me, I’d have heart palpitations and my eyes and teeth would ache together. Getting to my safe zone is what helped me work the day out of my system. I did this every day for three plus years and it was getting harder and harder to take comfort. The agony began to compile and soon I was in a bad place all around. When I got laid off I spent two weeks just getting the ick out of my skin and muscle tissue, like cleaning a grease trap that’s been ignored for far too long (pleasant image am I right?). My health improved remarkably when I was no longer overloaded almost 24/7. This stuff can be serious so, I have found ways to cope with my little panics in private. I haven’t told my family about the condition so…hence the ‘deal with it yourself’ situation but…I’ll detail that in another post, it’s sure to be a long one.