41. Sensory overload, ADHD and weight loss

In this episode, we dive deep into the concept of sensory overload—how it affects those of us with ADHD and its significant impact on our daily lives, particularly in the context of weight loss. We cover:

• What is sensory overload?
• How sensory overload affects people with ADHD
• The connection between sensory overload and weight loss
• Symptoms of sensory overload to watch out for
• Practical strategies for managing sensory overload

I hope this resonates with you, and that you can begin to be kinder to yourself when you are dealing with sensory overload. 

I'd love to hear from you! You can connect with me in the following ways:

Instagram: @thejennwatts
Email: jennifer@jenniferwatts.ca

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I'd love to know if there's something you want to hear more about or if you want to let me know about your own experiences with ADHD and weight loss.

Transcript

Hello, everyone. I am thrilled to be coming to you on a rainy day.

It's been we've had a few days where it's a little more dreary weather, and that is my thing for sure.

I'm just done with summer. I know a lot of people really like it, but I'm just like, I'm such a fall girl, and I cannot wait for fall, and today feels like fall with this rain, so I am very happy.

Okay, so today we are going to be talking about sensory overload, like the sensory effects when you get kind of overstimulated and that type of stuff. And how does that factor in to weight loss and just basically life in general.

I know that I have definitely, definitely learned over the last couple of years how deeply this affects me, and it really does kind of tie into other things that we've talked about, such as, you know, emotional dysregulation, that type of thing our nervous systems. It's very connected to our nervous systems, but I think it, it can affect us so much, especially as it relates to just our day to day life.

And yeah, so I think diving deep into this and really getting an understanding of it and how it affects you, because we're all so different in how it affects us, but I think, I think that, like, it's easy to sort of discount, or not even really recognize how much this affects your day to day life, and how it can, like, sort of filter through to different aspects of your life,

and that if you're having a lot of time where you are In sensory overload, you're overstimulated, which then leads to dysregulation, which then affects your ability to do a lot of things.

Yeah, it just might be affecting you more than you realize, because I know that for sure was the case for me. So yeah, let's talk about it. First of all, what even is it? What is sensory overload? I went to trusty WebMD to get a like, a legit definition of this. And they say that sensory overload is when your five senses, sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste, take in more information than your brain can process. When your brain is overwhelmed by this input, it enters fight, flight or freeze mode in response to what feels like a crisis making you feel unsafe or even panicky. I know that you guys know what that feeling is like. And can you see that connection there, right the fight, flight or freeze? Those are nervous system you know, reactions to the stress that sensory overload can send you into, and then, if you feel unsafe or even panicky, like it says

that's definitely gonna affect basically your whole life in that moment. So

another note that I found this was on Medical News Today specified that it often affects people with certain conditions such as autism or ADHD, so sensory overload is really connected to neurodivergence

from everything that I saw, and that it is like that. So there is process, or, sorry, sensory processing disorder, which really is,

let's look at that definition.

Where is it? Sensory Processing Disorder is a condition that affects how your brain processes sensory information. So basically it is, like the same thing as sensory overload, but I'm just referring to it as sensory overload because this, as a disorder, is something that you could be diagnosed with, and although it's very deeply connected to

to neurodivergence like this thing says that sensory processing disorder is very common in people with ADHD. In fact, up to 60% of those with ADHD also have at least some of the symptoms of SPD sensory processing disorder. Um,

I just, I just hesitate to to say that I'm speaking about sensory processing disorder specifically, because that is a diagnosis I don't want to like go into that territory, because obviously I am not a psychologist, psychiatrist, doctor, whatever the case may be so and I'm speaking from my own experiences. I'm not diagnosed as PD, although I would probably assume that I have it.

But.

I just, I'm just want to speak about sensory overload, or just sense sensory I don't know, I don't know what you want to call it, but I just, I'll just refer to it as sensory overload for those purposes. But it is like it is, it is very connected to neurodivergence,

and kids are more likely to have it than adults, but that's also because

adults can have the symptoms. But what's likely happened is that we've had this since childhood, but we've figured out ways to cope with it, to hide it, to just deal with it,

which you know that when you have things like that, that just like other ADHD symptoms and traits and stuff like that, when you are like, kind of subconsciously working to basically mask these things or cope with them, manage them,

that's exhausting, right? So this is another factor that I think we really need to consider when we are trying to make change, when we're trying to do things like reach goals,

is just to make sure that we are aware of how these things impact us in that way. Because if we're not aware of it, and these are things that maybe make certain things more difficult, or that we have to switch things up or accommodate, or whatever the case may be, if we're not aware of it, then we're just gonna think like, oh, there's something wrong with me that I can't do this. But no, there's nothing wrong with you. These are just things that affect you, and let's just be aware of it so that we can work with it, right? So let me see there was something else I wanted to say on here.

Oh, yes, okay, so just a little bit more. And this is specifically about SPD.

So it says that it's a condition that affects how your brain processes sensory information, and that includes things that you see, hear, smell, taste or touch. It can affect all of your senses or just one. So if you're somebody who experiences this, it doesn't mean that you it's all five senses that get like this. It could just be one, like, I know I'm really sensitive to sounds. Specifically, that's the thing that really,

I know I'm really sensitive to that so,

but, yeah, it doesn't have to be all of them, and it just means that you're overly sensitive to stimuli that other people are not. But it can also be the opposite effect as well, right? So

in there might be so I believe this is hypersensitive or hypo sensitive. So hypersensitive means that you are, like more sensitive than the average person, but hypo means you are you're less and

in that case, it takes more of the stimuli for it to impact you. And then, on the other hand, lack of sensory input can impact your social and emotional health. So this is all stuff that I found on very well health, by the way,

so I guess I just wanted to point that out, because you know, when you think about things that we've talked about before, such as interoceptive awareness, how we might not be as in tune with things within our body, it's kind of the same thing where you can have hypersensitive things, like things that you are you notice so much more, like with me, for instance, it sounds and that you have this visceral almost reaction to certain things. But there can also be things where you just aren't aware of it at all, like, until it's, like, really blatant, right? And you can experience both of those. It doesn't mean you're only hypersensitive or only hypo sensitive. We can have intermingling of those all over the place. So, so yeah, I just wanted to point out that there's that other sort of side of it, that it's not all exactly the same. And again, we are all so unique. So what one person might experience like, for me, I'm I, I

don't even like talking about

it, the sound of someone eating or chewing or just doing anything with their mouth. I cannot be around that like and I've and I've accepted that, like I I felt like there was something, like I was so rude, or something like that that it bothered me that much, like I have an actual physical reaction to it, like I can't, I just can't.

But that's now I know that that's just, that's just the way I am. And anyways, we'll talk about that a little bit later.

But

yeah, so as we've kind of established, this is really common in people with ADHD to have experience, to experience the sensory overload. And some of your ADHD symptoms can actually make you even more sort of like there is a connection there in your ADHD symptoms, making you more sensitive to the sensory.

Stuff sensitive that sounds kind of funny, but, and some, some of those things are like,

you know how we struggle with because we struggle with regulating ourselves, then something that, for a neurotypical person would be just like, mildly irritating,

it can lead to, like an almost like an outburst for us, because not only are we really affected by it, but then we also have that, you know, dysregulated sort of reaction to it. On top of that. Does that make sense? Like we we are already sensitive to it, and then we kind of overreact, because we are not naturally regulated as frequently as a neurotypical person might be. And then other things too, such as, you know how when you have ADHD, you tend to have trouble with transitions? I know this is more people speak about that regarding kids, a lot more often, but it's true as adults as well, and when you struggle with transitions, that is also kind of like,

it's almost like inflexible thinking,

and that can mean that you become really uncomfortable with the situation. You've kind of fixated on that, and then you have a hard time putting your, you know, your focus elsewhere. I don't know. I know that doesn't that's kind of a hard train of thought to follow. But struggling with transitions

can really, like your the sensory inputs in that situation become really, really,

kind of can be really overwhelming for people. So it's just another situation where ADHD symptoms can really, kind of exacerbate the sensory, sensory overload possibility, and then the other thing is just lack of awareness. So I see this in myself where it's kind of like you, um,

you're maybe distracted, or you're rushed, or you're disorganized, so you're not really paying attention, and then when you realize what's going on, and like, if it's something like

a smell, or like, maybe like

uncomfortable clothing or something like that when you were already kind of distracted, and then that that hits you, and you realize that this sensory input is really like overwhelming you, then it's kind of like it kind of puts you off, off your game even worse than you were before, or can just really heavily impact you. So I don't know it's kind of hard to be specific in this, but I just there is such a pairing there of the ADHD symptoms often making the sensory inputs like so exacerbated.

Yeah, and then

yeah. I mean, really, just last thing I want to say about that, just in terms of talking about what sensory overload actually is, is that, like, we have to think about how this it really is a neuro, like a like a brain specific thing. Okay, this is not us just being, oh, like, take it easy. It's not a big deal. No, this is like our brain, the way our brain is processing things. Okay, so sensory overload. Now I can't remember where I got this from, but this is a quote from, I think it's from very well health. But it says sensory overload occurs when the brain struggles to interpret, prioritize, or otherwise process sensory inputs. It then communicates to the body that it's time to escape these sensory inputs, and this message causes feelings of discomfort and panic. So you don't have control over that, right? So if your this is happening, your brain tells your body that we need to get out of here, and then then you start to feel this panic, feeling right? So do you see how that escalates so quickly? And no wonder you feel that way. So when this is happening, especially if it's happening regularly, and we're not really aware of it, and we just feel these feelings and these ways,

I can really pile on for us, and that is when we're already kind of in overdrive, a lot of the time, trying to just manage our day to day lives. It's really impactful. So yeah, so that's why I want to talk about that. Let's talk about the symptoms of it. Because, again, everybody is different, but these are some of the symptoms, the common symptoms, and this is from Medical News Today. So common symptoms of sensory overload, inability to ignore loud sounds, strong smells or other types of sensory input, a sense of discomfort, anxiety and fear, extreme sensitivity to clothing or other textures, feeling overwhelmed or agitated, irritability, loss of focus, restlessness, stress and insomnia.

That's that's a.

Lot guys and think about all of those things. We've talked about a lot of these things on the podcast before, but when you consider those things, how those affect you when you're just operating in life,

what do you think about that when you're trying to make, you know, significant changes in your life or work towards a goal, or you want to use that in, like, intellectual or emotional energy for other things, but you're just kind of warding off these other feelings of overwhelm, agitation, irritability, loss of focus is a lot, right? So what does this have to do with weight loss? Well, there's, I think you can already kind of see how this would impact you, but let's talk about a few of those things. So one thing I know for myself, and I I've seen this in a lot of clients that I've worked with, too, is that it can end up leading to emotional eating because you, you're it's like a coping mechanism, right for these, this kind of overload that we feel, these sensory things happen. We get dysregulated. We look to get rid of that discomfort, and oftentimes that is with food.

And obviously, as people with ADHD, this is this is common. It's common, and you're just trying to make yourself feel better, or just trying to make yourself feel regulated, so it makes sense. So

obviously that affects your your if you're working towards weight loss. Another thing is that certain sort of environments, like noisy or a messy kitchen, can make it hard for you to focus on the things that you want to because those inputs can really make you feel a certain way when you're in the kitchen, or the noise, you just want to get away from it, and those things when you're dealing with that, when you're trying to eat or trying to prepare food,

can really affect you. And then also, like I find that you

become so sort of disconnected when you're in that sensory overload that you can't possibly be attuned to yourself and then be able to, like, listen to your body, which is really important, right? Like, we want to learn how to work those interoceptive awareness cues, like, hung Am I hungry? Am I thirsty? Have I had enough to eat? All that kind of stuff. But when you've kind of become slowly more and more disconnected from yourself, because you experience so much of this sensory overload, and you just want to escape from it, that can really affect your body, your ability to tune into your body so that can have an impact as well. And then

the constant sensory over stimulation can also keep you like it kind of creates this sort of heightened sense of stress. And when that's happening on a repeated basis, we've talked about that before, too. Like, how, what is the effect of stress on your body?

You know, raising those sort of hormonal cortisol, whatever reactions in your body which don't put you in a state of rest and digest and like calm, that is going to help you to

just feel feel like you're in health and like you can make the just feel good, right? It

can interfere with your sleep quality. And we know that poor sleep we just talked about this last week, right? It affects your metabolism, your hunger hormones, all that type of stuff. And then the last thing I want to say about weight loss is that I did find a study, and this study was more specifically in children, but it was a 2020 study, and it was talking about the association between body mass and sensory processing. And this, like I said, it was in childhood. But within that study, I did find a couple quotes that were interesting. It did say that several studies have suggested a likely relationship between sensory processing problems and poor dietary factors and eating behaviors during childhood. And the other part was that it said our findings suggest that sensory processing issues may play a part in the complex context of childhood obesity, and I think a lot of that might have to do with they did mention in there, especially with children when it comes to, like, sensitivities around certain foods, certain food textures, certain foods touching one another,

you know, maybe making accommodations for those types of things and not wanting to do certain activities because of the way it makes them feel. Or there's so many factors in that, but there can be a connection there, right? So these are all the ways that that it can affect you when it comes to weight loss. So I

just quickly want to talk about my own experiences with this. And I just it's so it's so crazy to think back to

going through a period where I would it would create, like, send.

Sensory overload, like, if it was too many sounds at once,

you know, yeah, like I said, it sounds usually specifically, which was really hard when you have little kids in the house,

it would almost send me into the state of rage and I and that made it even worse for me, because I'm not an angry person, and experiencing that feeling that it just like takes over your body and you feel like you literally have no control over it, and like you're just gonna rage, and then I would snap at my kids. They're not doing anything wrong. They're just being kids, and kids are noisy. But it just, it just created this cycle of like, being mad at myself because I couldn't control my reactions. But it was these I didn't know at the time that it was so much of it was these sensory inputs that were really driving me to this place of just constant like rage and irritability and all of that stuff, all those things that we just talked about, which are the symptoms of this, but that really perpetuated the emotional eating for me, because the sensory overload was leading to these feelings, which I didn't like, the way that I was behaving, then I would there was a lot of emotional eating that was happening as a result of that. So I really understand this, and I really have experienced this, and I am sure that a lot of you have as well. So I just really want you to keep in mind that this is very normal, like this makes a lot of sense. This is your brain processing things, or being sensitive to certain things or less sensitive to other things for specific reasons. And you know,

I think it just like I understand it so much more since my diagnosis, and I'm not as mad at myself. Of course, I wish I could go back and change some things, like, you know, not being so irritated with my kids.

But I don't. I don't think now. I don't think, like, what is wrong with me? I have no control over my emotions. I'm like, oh, okay, I can see why I wasn't able to deal with that kind of stuff, because I didn't know that the sensory inputs were just just driving me in that direction. But now it's easier for me to kind of acknowledge it and not judge myself about it rather, and not thinking like I should know better I should be able to handle this,

because it really for a long time made me think, like, I guess I'm just a bad mom. Oh, and that is not true. That is not true. So let's talk quickly about what we can do about this, because we do experience this sensory overload. And first of all, it's not going to go away, so it's not something that we can just treat and like make it disappear. This is just the part, a part of how our brains work, and that is okay. That is not a bad thing,

because there's good things to to to being, like, hypersensitive, right? Like, I like, I can notice smells that nobody else around me notices, and they can be, which can be maybe a bad thing, but oftentimes it's really nice, or like, I can hear things before other people hear it, and then, like, I feel like I'm like a little dog sometimes,

like hearing things like, Oh, what's that sound? And then it's like an alarm far away, or something, anyways. But yeah, so we can't treat it, but we can learn to manage it or cope with it, and not in a way of, like, pretending it's not there, masking it and like, just trying to shove it down and not deal with it. I mean that more in, like, developing that awareness. Again, back to the awareness in the call method awareness. It just really, like, is it very empowering for us, and so developing awareness around what are the things that you're sensitive to, or what are the things that can can really kind of overburden you, because then that's going to give you the key to being able to manage that. So it's learning the things that can trigger this for you, or learning the things that you are most sensitive to, and then find ways to accommodate yourself in that way. And don't be afraid to discuss it with people, the people in your life, either, because

some of the things that might be providing these inputs for you that are really dysregulating, they might not even affect somebody else, like they might not even care. So I guess what I'm saying is, if you, for instance,

say your partner does has something on in the background all the time, and the noise of it drives you crazy, maybe they don't even, like really realize it's on. Or maybe they, they,

you know, would be happy to mute it, because it just has no bearing on them. You know what I mean? Sorry, my dog is barking again.

Just wait for her to calm down a little

bit. But that's what I mean. Is that like, I think if we feel shame about it and that prevents us from talking to.

People about it, or we feel embarrassed, like, worried that people are gonna be like, What is wrong with you? Like, what who cares about that sound well you do, because it impacts you, and that's okay. That is a okay. But I hope that the people in your life

that you can feel comfortable to tell them like this is really making this particular thing. Is this sound or this texture, or this,

whatever is, is really, like, actually quite bothering me, or this is really, I'm noticing this a lot, and is there something we can shift here, but especially do it for yourself, like, in the ways that you have control over those types of things. Like, if you can make any kind of changes, just do it. Do it for yourself. And

if you can't, then at least just be like, I'm aware that this thing is bothering me. I am aware that this impacts me, and I'm just gonna, you know, do my best to power through if it's something that you cannot change, and just remind yourself that there's nothing wrong with you. You're not a bad person, that this happens and you can deal with it.

Another thing in terms of of

how to help manage sensory overload, is occupational therapy, and I know this is more directed at children, but it's fine for adults too. You can if that's something that's accessible for you, is working with an occupational therapist, because they are really great. I know this. I only know this because my daughter worked with an occupational therapist very much for to do with a lot of sensory stuff,

and they have amazing ideas and resources of how to work with these types of things.

And then another thing in terms of managing it is, well, medications, like a lot of the medications for there's no nothing specifically for sensory overload or sensory processing disorder, but with the CO occurring things that happen, such as ADHD, those medications can tend to help to sort of dampen or soften, soften the the sensitivity to the sense sensory things.

I know I did see that for autism

there, there are some of the medications there that can really help with this, such as Abilify.

So yeah, so ADHD, autism and other co occurring things, the medications that are specific to that, and not necessarily specific for sensory overload or sensory processing disorder, can still help with those things. And the last thing that I want to say when it comes to dealing with sensory overload is just being kind to yourself, because I know for me that really perpetuated that cycle of having this complete dysregulation from the sensory overload, but then adding on top of that, getting mad at myself like that doesn't help at all. And I spent so long being mad at myself because I'm like, What is your problem? Like, why can't you deal with this stuff? And then just thinking like that, there's something wrong with me, or I'm bad person, or all of that that helps none, like zero, that doesn't help at all that just makes things so much worse. And so learning to be aware of how things impact you accept that that is how your brain works, and just be kind to yourself in the process like that really actually helps to alleviate and as a lot more soothing when you're trying to deal with these things, then just kind of beating yourself up over it. So, and I know this is it's a lot easier said than done, you're not just going to instantly be kind to yourself, but

as you develop awareness around what the things are that set you off, this is just a great opportunity to be like, Okay. I pause here, I notice this is making me feel this way, and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with me. And now that I'm aware that this is happening, I can find ways to try to mitigate it, or find ways to try to counteract it and help myself to feel a little better, or or make, yeah, make changes that are going to lessen the effect of this on me. Just be kind to yourself. So, yeah, so I guess we've covered here what sensory overload actually is

some of the symptoms, how it might affect you when you're working towards weight loss, as well as what some of the things are that you can do about it. So if you have any questions about this, you know, you can always reach out to me, or if you have, if you I hope you have aha moments from some of these things, but just noticing how these things are affecting, you can really have good impact. So I hope you found this helpful.

All reach out to me, if you like, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your

week.