Trying to keep things together after a bad day.

[Tronsformer]

I would be very grateful to hear how you all deal with coping after having a meltdwon, sensory overload, fatigue, or just anything that really takes the wind out of your sails. (I always found that saying funny because sails don't actually hold any wind lol).

Recently a basic shopping trip turned into me feeling incredibly overwhelmed, confused and demoralized. To the point where I just switched off and shut down. didn't do any work and wound up the day with an intense migraine that put me to sleep.

It followed throughout to the next day, and slowly began to feel myself again. I worry as I can't afford to keep taking this long to recover but I also know if I force it it will become way worse. These kinds of meltdown/breakdowns are becoming worse with age too. My current thinking is to find a balance and try and carve out rest days in my schedule. And also try not to second guess situations and be more present in any given situation.

I must say sharing things in places like this in general feels like a healthy step where as prior I would just bottle things up and suffer in silence.

[Mybestfriends]

Hi sorry your having a bad time, Good idea to spread out your Load as it were, with planning to reserve your energy levels/down time. I say this to my adult Son, things can become very overwhelming when he's spent all day out, even really enjoying something, it's still Sensory. Good that your talking on here, yes it off loads you & therefore feels like a bit of weight off your shoulders. Eat well & drink lots & walk beside the Beach, Water is So calming, long soak in the Bath, Music, Art. Hope your feeling better soon.

[Bee-bop]

Hi there,

I think that it can be hard once an event has triggered sensory overload and then you are in recovery to put things in place and the only thing it seems you can do is ride it out. For this reason trying to get things put in place to cut down on the chances of getting so overwhelmed are important as well as doing things to calm the senses, like Mybestfriend suggests, afterwards.

For us, we go places earlier do there will be less people, know what we will be doing where we are going and plan rest afterwards. Knowing that you have a strategy in place can really help. Eg. My daughter knowing a computer game, time with the Guinea pigs or just alone time will be available after the event is something we can anchor onto if things are starting to get difficult. We also have the option of leaving or finding a quiet space. So, I will give two scenarios. let's say we go into town. Scenario one: we get the 9.30 train , it is less busy, the train station is less busy. We know we are going to 3/4 shops and where we will eat. We go to eat earlier than lunch time as it is less busy. We have discussed what to do if things get too much (go home earlier) and we know what will happen on return home (one of the three things above) scenario 2 we end up going in later, 11.30. The train is full and we have to stand. My daughter is already struggling and is staring at the floor and non verbal in her responses if I ask if they are ok I get a shrug. We get out of the station but, there are much more people about and they are probably going to be looking to eat somewhere. Our routine is out and where we usually eat is full and we have to queue, my daughter is on her pod and looks miserable. She starts starts to tell/text me she feels she shouldn't have come and doesn't feel like eating. ....this is just from changing the time by a couple of hours.

Plan as much as you can and if you do get overwhelmed, don't be hard on yourself as it doesn't help. Make sure you have things in place for afterwards such as quiet time etc make sure you have enough to eat and drink as getting overwhelmed takes a lot of energy and from experience, getting dehydrated makes things worse. My daughter doesn't like to eat or drink while moving around so, I make sure we have regular times to do these things. Also, if everything goes well, make sure you note that and see what helped so you can do it next time.