Over stimulation - brain fatigue

About stroke Physical effects
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My brain got overstimulated this morning! And I’d done this particular route once a few weeks ago without issue but today there was one big difference.

In town I ran a small errand with my hubby, about a 20min walk away from the car. Afterwards we called into a combined library/museum/art gallery, with the intention of stopping to have a look around and a coffee. But after about 10mins in the museum we had to leave. It’s a big bright white room with fluorescent lighting and the acoustics are loud and piercingly echoey.

Last time I was in there, there was only me! This time round, there was a group of 10 mentally handicapped teenagers in there with their tutors, so the noise level in that room was amplified tenfold. And I just could not cope with it, not even with my hearing aids turned off. I thought at first I was going to pass out, the feeling was so similar but not the same; I couldn’t quite pinpoint exactly what was going on with me.

So we decided to leave, but the minute I stepped outside the room the feeling faded and I was fine. So to test this theory we went back in and the same feeling came back. We left and again I was fine so we went for a coffee in a busy precinct instead and unsurprisingly I didn’t suffer with that sensation at all.

It was my over stimulated! The day I was in there on my own, I could cope just fine with the bright white and the fluorescent lighting. But just by adding that one other element, voices, was enough to tip the balance.

So when you are oddly fatigued after doing something considered routine, never affected you before, do consider what other element might have been there that hasn’t been there previously. That one small thing could be enough to tip the balance of your equilibrium :sweat_smile:

Anyway, the rest of the day went on as usual, including going to the gym. Although I did manage to pull a muscle in my stroke hip and it was my stupid fault for picking up a 16kg kettle bell wrongly, without thinking :roll_eyes: :confounded_face:
But on the other hand, it’s going to be an interesting couple of days to see how my stroke side copes with it :rofl: :sweat_smile: I’ll keep you posted if there’s anything worth posting :blush:

Lorraine

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Like I said before Lorraine - you should become a counsellor/therapist offering services that the NHS or indeed other healthcare professionals simply cannot or do not offer.

Who else can offer advice/diagnosis like this - first-hand experience and scientific/logical approach to troubleshooter?

You are quite a remarkable person Emerald :), quite remarkable!

Thank you for sharing and inspiring as only you can!

:pray:

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@EmeraldEyes

I think you are brave to say it as it is.

We are all frail but, given a chance, we can find our strengths.

Others who recognise this experience will learn they are not alone.
You have helped to open up their world by sharing.
You are putting a positive light on things.

Getting it written down and making the effort to speak will give you a chance to view it and set it in its place.
You will gain a new perspective.

This goes some way towards dealing with what we are all going through.

Here is the strength of this forum.
It gives we who use it an opportunity to get back up as individuals and as a part of a community.

keep on keepin’ on
:writing_hand: :smiley: :+1:

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Interesting @EmeraldEyes thanks for the info. I find singing out loud, in exaggerated ways to help with talking stamina, and listening to music to help hearing stamina. Doing such trips no doubt also helps.

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Very interesting, thank you for sharing. Your post is what this community is all about and would be very informative for anyone feeling this way for the first time on their road to recovery. In fact I’m sure it would be useful to some of us old timers as well :joy: .

Sensory overload is a scary experience and it’s helpful having it explained by someone who has experienced the problem themselves. Hope your hip muscle is recovering well :joy:.

Keep on Keeping on everyone :+1:and have a good weekend.

Regards Sue

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Hi Lorraine. I know exactly how you felt. We sometimes go for coffee with friends where they have a tv on playing music. Why? No one watches the tv or listens to the music! The lady who runs the shop is very good and will turn the noise down but then it gradually creeps up again! Another of our haunts is Costa!! The banging and hissing of the coffee machines plus people talking loudly over the machines is something else! I love meeting friends for a gossip and catch up but it does make me very tired. So what’s the answer? Stay at home and get miserable or put up with the noise and fatigue? I know it does me good not only for the outing but for the short walk to the cafe and learning to negotiate the steps into the cafe. So I go for the fatigue and just hope that one day it will all go away! And yes we do have quieter coffee shops but it’s a case of which one is convenient for our little group!

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I like meeting friends too but I prefer the outdoors which obviously works only in the summer or warm days, but we meet in a church yard. We buy our drinks and sandwiches or whatever and walk to the church yard. It’s great with the sun and open air as well as birds. There are also other people around but it never feels over crowded. In the absence of a church yard I have used parks or other green spaces (not always available).

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The trouble with the great outdoors is that a lot of stroke survivors me included couldn’t walk to the park/churchyard etc let alone carry a picnic when using a stick in the good hand and then very probably dropping the picnic when trying to carry it in my stroked hand/arm!

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It’s amazing Lorraine @EmeraldEyes how those subtle differences can make a huge difference to how you feel in situations. I find sensory overload a massive challenge & it’s annoying when it restricts what yiu can do. Sometimes like Janet @Apple I just go for it & put up with the over stimulation & resultant fatigue other times I don’t. I fuess I pick & chose my battles.

I hope you get to fo back when it is a little quieter for you.

Hope the hip heals quickly.

Best wishes

Ann

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For me, the problem is the overhead lighting indoors. It is used in a lot of therapy centers and other health facilities. It. might be money-saving, but it is hard on the brain and body. It makes me feel otherworldly and tense. A roar of noise around me does not help.

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Have you considered using sunglasses or just tinted glasses in those sort of lighting environments? If you already wear glasses, you can get a huge variety of clip-on glasses that attach to your own.

Lorraine

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@ManjiB I hear where you and @Bobbi are coming from and thank you both for your kind words, I do appreciate them. It is something I would love to have done. Unfortunately my brain doesn’t process to the high speeds of today, I’m more like the the ancient computers of yester-year :laughing: It takes time to trundle out my thoughts and words much like the old dot matrix printers :rofl: It is the nature of my aphasia that holds me back you see. It’s much harder/longer to put into words and then verbalise, voice them compared to what I can write down here. That takes time and thought and is a lot harder to get across vocally.

I’m afraid I’m reduced to small talk, chit chat, these days, that’s easy! There’s not so much word searching to be done with that so it’s to produce. Whereas more complex and in depth conversation/discussion requires a lot more, greater levels of processing and then turning it into speech. Speech production alone is made up of several processes, namely initiation, phonation, the oro-nasal process, and articulation. It’s no wonder my head heats up when I get try to get into in-depth conversation :rofl:

Lorraine

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Good morning Lorraine @EmeraldEyes . I had to smile at your analogy to “ancient computers of yesteryears”. I was invited to meet up with someone I hadn’t seen in years this week. She is very Irish - no offense intended- very lovely and very quick speaking. I found myself feeling like I was drowning in information, an unfamiliar accent, the speed and volume of information, and all the while trying to mask how I was struggling to make sense of what she was chatting about. It was just information overload.
It hasn’t put me off, because I won’t shut myself away, but I will be more prepared another time.
Thank you for sharing
Julia x

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I suffer a lot with sensory overload. I can only wear my hearing aids for a short time, certainly not all day as recommended. Also, I cant wear them for long when the grand children come. I tend to save them for TV or when there is only one other person around to listen to.Idont know if I shoulf persevere with continuous wear or give up.

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That was me yesterday and I have been wondering why some days I can do something with ease ie a walk and another day I’m wading through treacle and as you say, I’m sure its overstimulation. A well meaning couple dropped in for an hour on Monday and stayed 3 hrs. They mostly talked and I mostly listened. In the afternoon I struggled to walk and function and was bad tempered !! woops It seems the poor old brain has to work extra hard just to speak and listen even though you think that bit of brain has not been affected.. It makes sense though that the whole brain as an organ is repairing and recalibrating. The sparkies upstaires working hard laying new cables that need their tea breaks or the Unions tell them to lay down their tools! That’s the way I see it.

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That’s interesting. Thanks for sharing H x

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I am used to it now but it always amazed me how holding a short concersation could be so tiring. In the first few weeks after my stroke I couldn’t even manage a sentence. I’ve improved a lot but still struggle over longer periods.

I love this way of thinking of it.

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I remember when family came to visit after my stroke, I used to just singled I’m done now when I’d had enough of conversation and they would just take themselves off into another room to give me some peace :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: Fortunately, due to lockdowns, we didn’t I didn’t need to worry about being overwhelmed by visitors :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

I used the same analogy of having sparkies in my head, the first thing that sprung to mind was the Numskulls from the children’s comic The Beano :blush: Showing my age now :rofl:

Lorraine

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Thanks to all of you for your input on brain fatigue. I am seven weeks out now from my right thalamus stroke. I am gaining use of my left arm and hand basically all that was affected. I do have spasticity in those muscles and my back. I feel like my arm was stolen by an alien and replaced with a soft robotic arm that has its very own plans. The brain fatigue is what honestly bothers me the most. Light, too much conversation that I need to be a part of and just having others around for long periods of time will really wear me out. I live alone but have a wonderful partner who comes and stays a week at the time. I am pretty much “done” after 4-5 days and yet he is cooking and washing, etc. I think it is just that my brain does not rest as it should even when nothing is really going on. You all are so supportive. Thank you for sharing. I in turn share this with Bill and I think it is helping him understand when I get so cranky and tired. Blessings to you all.

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@Lane the getting proper rest is really important. And that usually means switching off from everything. I still 3 years on spend time sitting with my eyes closed with no TV, radio or music on as that all stimulates the brain.

It will improve in time & hopefully sharing the messages with Bill will help him understand.

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