Hey there, welcome to my blog. My name is Sian, I’m 28, I live in Scotland and I have a chronic illness called M.E. What is M.E.? M.E stands for myalgic encephalomyelitis. It is also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). How long have I had ME? I developed M.E 2 years ago at the start of September. I was about to start college to study beauty therapy and the day before I had a headache. Ok, no big deal, everyone has headaches. By the evening it had developed into a migraine (you know, when you can’t stand the light, or sounds, and you feel like you’re going to throw up). I didn’t think too much of it and hoped it would be gone by the morning. Well, it didn’t go. In fact, I had that same migraine constantly for 6 months straight. What did you do? I got on with it. I started college the next day, and I attended every day I was supposed to until I couldn’t handle it anymore, which was Christmas 2016. What ...
What is sensory overload?
Sensory overload is a symptom I have fairly often, and I believe it is quite common amongst those with ME.
The first time I had it, I thought I was having some sort of anxiety or panic attack. I was mid conversation with my boyfriend’s mum, she was talking to me about something and then it felt like this big cloud of fog came down in my mind and body; I couldn’t concentrate on her words, they went in one ear and literally come out the other without registering, I felt my heart begin to flutter and all I could do is look at her blankly while I was trying to figure out what was happening to me. I managed to quickly excuse myself and went to the bathroom, I sat in there for a few minutes trying to get my heart to slow down and for my brain to start functioning again. I’ve had panic attacks in the past, if felt similar to what I had experienced before, but not quite. It was different somehow.
I couldn’t remember what Denys’s mum was talking to me about, my memory from the previous few minutes was blank. Eventually I composed myself and went back to the living room. I told Denys later on that evening what had happened.
In the past two years I have had this happen a lot, and it has taken me a while to figure out the triggers. Anything to do with numbers makes it come on, for example if Denys is asking my advice on dinner, you’re looking at two products, one goes in the oven at 180c for 30 minutes, the other is 200c for 20 minutes, how long should they be in and at which temperature? - this straight away just messes up my brain. I’ve never been great with numbers, but now I can hardly tolerate anything to do with them. The same symptoms come on; the fog descends, my mind goes blank and actually hurts (not a headache, just a pain in my head), my heart races and all I can think of is running away (apparently my eyes glaze over too).
I have found two ways to cope
* Get into a dark, quiet room. I either need to sleep, or I will load something easy to watch on a TV app
* Putting my earphones in and blasting some music to drown out any sounds. (I’m actually doing this right now, I find Snow Patrol relaxing). After a few songs I usually feel better.
Doing one, or both, of these seems to ‘reset’ my brain. I don’t know why or how, but it does. Now this is just what works for me, it will be different for everyone, but finding your reset button is very important. While I’m doing one of these I have to have silence and no communicating at all, otherwise it won’t work. If I’m not able to do either of these, I try to get to somewhere quiet or away from talking and stay there until I feel better.
I know Denys finds it difficult because it will come on so suddenly, I don’t get a chance to warn him until it’s too late. I don’t even know when it’s going to happen!
What do you do to ‘reset’ your brain? Do you have any coping techniques? Let me know below.
Thanks for reading.
Speak soon!
That ME Girl
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