ADD, stress and overstimulation: living too close to the edge

More and more adult clients arrive at psychologists’ offices stressed and with an inability to concentrate that makes them fear they may have ADD. Often they are simply overstimulated and overwhelmed.

Stress is what we experience when the world moves too fast, when there is too much to do and too little time to do it. We feel stressed when the emotional world around us is tense or in jeopardy. Through emotional contagion we feel stressed when those around us are stressed.

Both good and bad changes can stress us out. Think of the new parent, the bride or groom-to-be, the person who needs to “learn the ropes” in a new job. Stress is unavoidable for most of us and often life-enhancing, but stress is hard on the body and brain. We are still wired like our primitive ancestors to respond to anxiety by fight or flight. Stressful situations that last for long periods of time keep our brains awash with neurochemicals and our bodies tuned into yellow alert in preparation to flee from an enemy or predator.

hazard scan

In this state of mind, we are evolutionarily primed to scan the world for danger. For those of us who live with real terrors, this is totally appropriate, but for most of us, the irritating co-worker, our unsympathetic spouse, the bad driver on the road next to us, the sorry state of the economy, or the melting polar ice caps. pointing out as causes of our stress are not really the life-threatening dangers that evolution has prepared us for. However, we use them to explain and justify our overarousal by pointing them out as annoying stimuli in the world.

This makes our experience perfect. We feel like we have an explanation for why we feel threatened. However, it may not be the whole truth.

So what are we feeling?

We are often simply “overstimulated.”

Our lives are filled with what we have come to feel as necessary or unavoidable activities. We suffer from “information overload,” too many choices, and anxiety-producing tension that we may be left behind if we don’t. do all, try everything, sticking to the screens of our televisions and computers. Every trip to the supermarket or the mall is an exercise in overstimulation.

Overstimulation and ADD

George Washington University neurology professor Richard Restak notes that attention deficit disorder is becoming an epidemic in both children and adults. He notes that “as a result of the increasing demands on our attention and focus, our brains try to adapt by rapidly shifting attention from one activity to another, a strategy that is now almost a requirement for survival.” Restak goes on to cite comments from cabling magazine cyberspace critic Evan Schwartz, who argues that attention deficit disorder may be “the official brain syndrome of the information age.”

Almost everyone you talk to feels like their life is moving too fast.

We criticize our preschoolers when they dawdle over breakfast and gnash our teeth when our teens can’t find their notebooks. We get angry at bad drivers and distracted pedestrians while commuting to work in the chaos of rush hour.

The pace in the workplace increases all the time. Friendships and collegiate relationships occur across time zones on the Internet. Conference calls replace face-to-face meetings. Canadian executives wake up at 2 am to check subsidiaries in Japan through their blackberries. TV commercials feature a small-town family doctor talking to his patient via Skype while on vacation. Information processing and information generation exceeds and certainly exceeds our ability to digest the results. Our bodies feel the tension. Our minds are exhausted and overwhelmed.

At our personal point of overstimulation, we collapse.

Overstimulation is unpleasant and aversive. We literally experience it as an attack… an attack on our senses, our emotional balance and our ability to understand and feel that we are in control of what is happening to us.

When we reach our personal point of overstimulation, we can behave like overwhelmed and exhausted children. We can melt down and demand that others take care of us, we can behave badly and coercively with others while trying to control what comes our way. We may lash out in anger, flee inappropriately, or isolate ourselves too rigidly.

Sometimes we physically collapse and experience psychosomatic or stress-based ailments. We may become hyperaware and preoccupied with body aches because they provide an acceptable reason to withdraw from unpleasant overstimulation.

Reducing overstimulation reduces stress.

Since a significant part of what we experience as stress can be simple overstimulation and sensory overload, psychologist and sensitivity specialist Dr. Elaine Aron suggests we can do some practical things about it.

Instead of melting down to stress based on overstimulation, we can respond by taking conscious and responsible action to lower our immediate level of arousal. We can proactively work to reduce the overall level of stimulation we expose ourselves to. She suggests a few strategies:

Purely Physical Strategies to Reduce Your Level of Overstimulation

• When you feel your tension rising, step out of the stressful situation for a moment or completely.
• Close your eyes for a moment, 80% of our stimulation is visual.
• Limit your use of stimulants like coffee, tea, and soft drinks, especially before getting into highly stimulating situations.
• Get outdoors: access fresh air, natural random sounds.
• Use water to reduce your stress: Take a bath or shower, drink it, walk next to it or listen to the running water, the fountains, etc.
• Go for a walk.
• calm your breath
• Adapt to a more relaxed posture.

Psychological Strategies to Reduce Overstimulation

• Give yourself permission in advance to limit your participation if a situation overstimulates you…or to withdraw.
• Practice a meditative discipline that can calm you down and re-center you.
• Nurture and value inner resources, such as spiritual or philosophical beliefs, and cultivate a basic conviction that the world is safe and caring.

Interpersonal Strategies to Reduce Overstimulation

• Respect your limits and ask others to respect them as well. Watch your interpersonal boundaries.

Strive for an optimal level of stimulation.

The human being performs to the maximum physically, intellectually and emotionally in an environment that offers him, what is for him personally, an optimal level of stimulation; neither too low nor too high. Some thought about the cumulative nature of overstimulation can help you reduce your physical and emotional stress level and stay in his comfort zone.

References:
Richard Restak, (2003) The new brain, how the modern age is rewiring your mind, Emmaus, PA., p. Four. Five
Elaine n. Aaron PhD, (1996). The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You. New York Broadway Books