A stimulus is a piece of information that enters through our senses. In this way we can see, hear, feel, smell and taste stimuli. Normally, your brain processes these stimuli without you noticing. They select the information that is important and filter out the stimuli that are not important. When overstimulated, stimuli are not processed properly. You can then experience much more stimuli than usual or it takes more effort to process stimuli.
Complaints
People with overstimulation often suffer from headaches, fatigue, stress, decreased concentration, sleeping problems, restlessness, and an overflow of emotions. In some people this leads to temporary loss of symptoms, fever, vomiting or an epileptic seizure.
Overstimulation can eventually also lead to disability and a completely isolated existence with no hope or prospect of improvement. But this doesn’t have to be the case for everyone.
On the outside
Because you cannot see from the outside whether someone is overstimulated, it often causes misunderstanding in your environment. Someone still looks the same on the outside, but daily activities such as working, studying, running a family, or even cooking and shopping suddenly no longer work.
Show understanding as a society
Unfortunately, there are hardly any established treatments for overstimulation. That is why it is important that as a society we show more understanding for the people who have to deal with this on a daily basis and realize that some people can handle more stimuli than others.
By: National Education Guide
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