If you could illustrate sensory overload...
If you could illustrate sensory overload, what would it look like?
@CalmCoral
Sensory overload can be difficult to illustrate as it is a subjective experience that can vary from person to person. However, a possible way to depict it could be as follows:
Imagine being in a crowded and noisy place, such as a busy city street. The visuals would be overwhelming, with bright lights, flashing signs, and a sea of people moving in all directions. The sounds would be deafening, with honking cars, blaring music, and people shouting.
At the same time, you would feel a range of physical sensations, such as the heat and humidity of the environment, the pressure of the crowd around you, and the smells of exhaust fumes and street food.
All of these sensory inputs would be bombarding your brain simultaneously, making it difficult to process and filter out what is important. This can lead to feelings of anxiety, confusion, and even physical discomfort, as your body struggles to cope with the overwhelming stimulation.
To illustrate this visually, one could create an image with multiple layers of chaotic visual elements, such as bright colors, flashing lights, and swirling shapes, overlaid with distorted and overlapping sounds and smells. The overall effect would be a jarring and disorienting experience, conveying the sense of sensory overload.
That's interesting! I'm looking at ways to illustrate it after being inspired by the Chris Packham documentary, and needing to be able to explain it to my mum.
@BelovedMe yep I agree, thanks
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@CalmCoral
Probably close to this for me
Definitely relatable. It's hard, isn't it? :(
@CalmCoral
Very, once it starts it's difficult to get it under control. Something small could set it off and suddenly everything is unbearable.
@SleepyShyCat Ouch! Cat we need more cats to recover from that please!
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@MistyMagic I need multiple 'cat breaks' throughout the day to recover. Luckily everyone I know owns at least one cat so I'm rarely away from them. Cats are good at helping me do grounding work. 
@SleepyShyCat cat breaks or cat naps lol? I learnt shiatsu and that is pretty similar to that massage in the picture, lucky little kitten!
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@MistyMagic I love cat naps! My favourite is when a cat naps with me too
@CalmCoral thanks for the interesting question. My son explained to me once about supermarkets and the bright lights and noise. We are both English speaking and we were in a supermarket in France, and he said that looking at all the labels in a different language, and unfamiliar products and packets made him feel overloaded and confused and just wanted to crouch down with his hands over his ears and close his eyes. I suddenly understood more in that moment than in all the years of training I had had before.
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@mistymagic
That's great that he was able to explain, it is so hard to put into words!!
I wonder if you've seen the Chris Packham documentary, inside our autistic lives, I think it's called. I don't know whether it would help you to understand what the world might be like for your son, I don't know if he has autism or just gets overwhelmed by senses, but it has both in it. Just putting it out there (:
i'd probably draw the person experiencing it small and in the center of the page, with lots of drawings around it and overlapping with rough lines and some of them don't make sense or have a good shape to them but so many of them and all diffrent colors and yet the character in the center would be black and white and grey
@LonleyCheese have you tried drawing that and seeing what it looks like? I am interested to try!
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@MistyMagic I don't think I have drawn it before, but I might have to now! I have drawn an anxiety creature before, and his name is Sterling and I actually really like him! I'll see if I can upload a picture
@lonelycheese
I like the idea of drawing it small, and I wonder what makes us want to draw it small? Because I once tried to explain it as being like an ant but with giant sized senses. I guess maybe because it is so overwhelming.
I like the idea of it overlapping.
@CalmCoral That's a good analogy! I think I woould draw it small because it does feel like everything else is so big even if it isn't, but also to add more space on the page for other things overwhelming the subject.
I asked the Ideas Bot at Character.AI and it drew this:
Then I asked for colour, and it painted this:
Charlie
@rarelycharlie
Ooh, interesting way of creating! No offence meant haha but I don't really like it, don't think it portrays it very well. Visual overload, definitely, but I don't feel like the other senses are expressed enough?
@CalmCoral @rarelycharlie
Interestingly I think it represents it very well for me. To me it's kind of like what my mind and thoughts turn into when sensory input becomes too much, everything goes into those kinds of pattens, moves very fast and it's suffocating and you really cannot think or calm. It makes it hard to process the sounds/smells/visual input I'm receiving, and rather than processing it normally, everything looks a bit like that and I cannot make sense of things around me or what I'm seeing. It's cool with the different ways people experience it (not so cool actually experiencing it)
@CalmCoral Maybe we would need to look at it with extremely loud music playing, and with ripe cheese whilst cuddling a porcupine to cover all senses lol?
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Ah yes, perfect 😂
@RarelyCharlie Charlie that really made me laugh, the relationship you have with the AI is amazing and covers so many things and hey, as a bonus, not bad pictures either!
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@CalmCoral
Mood
I drew this anxiety dude named sterling but I'll get back to yall if I draw overwhelm
oops didn't work
I drew this anxiety dude named sterling but I'll get back to yall if I draw overwhelm
I'm not digital so sorry for bad picture quality lol
I think he's cute, actually, but feel free to form your own opinions, haha!
@CalmCoral sitting in the middle of a cluttered room or being in the middle of a crowd and everyone is super close and looking at you. and you're in a strait jacket. so
