Overload – sensory overload and sensory deprivation
From the book – Chapter 6: The Five Senses and Mental Health
Overload
Occurs when the senses receive too much stimulation:
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Crowded, noisy, bright, or chaotic environments.
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Multiple screens, notifications, and tasks at once.
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Strong smells, uncomfortable temperatures, tight clothing.
Signs: irritability, anxiety, headache, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, emotional outbursts.
Helpful responses:
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Move to a quieter, calmer space.
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Reduce screen time and notifications.
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Use earplugs, sunglasses, or comfortable clothing.
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Practise slow breathing or grounding exercises.
Read the full chapter – Chapter 6: The Five Senses and Mental Health
Stories from real life
- The Window Seat Experiment – Aarav, fourteen, lived in a Delhi apartment and spent most of his holidays indoors with the curtains drawn, playing games on a screen. By July he…
- The Smell of Her Mother’s Kitchen – Ayesha, thirty-five, lived in Birmingham, far from her mother in Lahore. Her mother had died the previous winter. Weeks later, in a supermarket, Ayesha passed a…
- Sugar Highs and Sunday Lunches – Dev, nineteen, studied in Kolkata and lived in a hostel. During exams he lived on tea, packets of chips and sugary drinks, skipping proper meals. By…
- Too Loud, Too Quiet – At a family wedding in Kochi, eight-year-old Nila covered her ears, hid under a table and then screamed when an aunt tried to hug her. The…
Shloks
- Bhagavad Gita 15.9 – Presiding over ear, eye, touch, taste and smell, and over the mind, the person enjoys the objects.
More on this topic: The five senses, the five elements and the mind
More questions
- Deprivation – sensory overload and sensory deprivation
- Understanding sensory sensitivity and mental disorders – the senses and mental health
- Understanding using the senses therapeutically
- The senses and the five elements – explained simply
- Which sense has a direct pathway to the limbic system (emotion and memory centre)?
- Visual information from the eyes is primarily processed in which brain lobe?
- Which statement about senses and mental health is TRUE?
- What is true: auditory (hearing) information is primarily processed in the…?
- The sense of touch sends signals to which brain region?
- What does Bhagavad Gita 15.9 mean for the mind? (Chapter 6)