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Now, let's get back to the topic…
What is sensory overload?
This occurs when one or more of your body's senses or sensory organs become overexposed to stimulation. You can feel overwhelmed. It can be very stressful. You find that at that particular moment, you can't cope. This has to do with things like sight, what you're seeing, sounds, what you're hearing, what you're touching, what you're tasting, and what you're smelling.
It could be, for instance, you're at work and you're finding it really hard to concentrate on what you're doing. Everybody's yapping and talking behind you. The radio is going on in the background too. The lights are on. Your computer lights are glaring in your eyes, and suddenly you just think, "I can't cope with this. I need to get out of here."
It could be you're in a supermarket queue. It's really busy. It's probably too hot. People are bumping into you. Everyone seems to be talking loudly. There's supermarket music in the background. All you're doing is trying to load your shopping onto the conveyor belt and just suddenly, there's this sense of panic. You feel you're being rushed and the people behind you are trying to push you through.
It could be that you're at home after a busy day at work. The TV's on, so there's noise blaring. Maybe you've got teenage kids upstairs and their music or games are going on. There's noise everywhere. You're trying to cook dinner. The dog's barking. The telephone's going. People are trying to talk to you through each ear. And again, you just think, "I need to shut myself away somewhere."
Common symptoms of sensory overload
If you are experiencing sensory overload during perimenopause or menopause, you might notice:
Heightened sensitivity: Your senses can be heightened and triggered much more easily. The symptoms could be that, suddenly, everything's too bright. As I mentioned before, it could be that noise is really bothering you now. You can't cope with everyday sounds. It could be the smells of certain things. Maybe you don't like your perfume anymore or you find that certain foods now just make you feel slightly sick. It may well be that you can't cope with certain fabrics on your skin.
Irritability or frustration: It may be that you're feeling really irritated, you're frustrated, you're very easily annoyed. You find that all these stimulatory things are just getting on top of you, whereas before you could basically shut your ears or just close your eyes for a minute or two, and everything would be okay.
Increased panic and anxiety: It could be panic attacks that just come out of nowhere. You might experience this, as I mentioned before, in the supermarket. Or maybe you have to travel to work on the bus or the train and the crowd suddenly becomes overbearing, and you feel that you need to escape. And in this situation, you might really panic. You might get really tense, and you might find you're getting palpitations.
Perimenopause and menopause and their impact on sensory processing
So, why on earth does this happen, especially if you were able to cope well beforehand?
There are a few things that can contribute to sensory overload during perimenopause and menopause. Here are a few reasons why the sensory process can be impacted at this time:
Hormonal changes: We know that oestrogen plays quite an important part in the neurological regulation of brain chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine. Now, serotonin and dopamine help you enhance your mood. They help with cognitive function. They help with sensory perception.
If your oestrogen starts to fall, then that can alter the way that your brain perceives these sensory inputs, so you reach a threshold much quicker than you would have done normally. Stimuli will then start these panic attacks and other sensory overload symptoms at a much earlier stage than they would have done in the past.
Poor sleep: The number of you who tell me that you're having problems sleeping is huge! This is a really big issue because if you are tired, if you are fatigued, your brain function is going to be a lot slower and it will be a lot more difficult to focus on things to start with. And if you are tired, especially if you've had nights and nights of bad sleep, then just day-to-day living, never mind all these extra sensory stimuli, can be completely overwhelming.
Mood and anxiety: We know that a lot of you can experience anxiety, low mood, mood swings, and depression. So again, in these circumstances, your threshold for being able to cope with these extra sensory perceptions will be much lower as well.
Neurological changes: There seems to be some research coming out about menopause and the fact that changes to hormone levels can be linked to changes in the way the brain functions as well as the brain structure. So, it's possible that these actual physical changes to the brain can affect the way that we perceive external things.
What can you do to help yourself?
Here are a few things I recommend to help ease sensory overload and support yourself and your senses better:
Stress management: This is so important. If you're getting panic attacks and other sensory overload symptoms all the time, when you realise you're in a situation that is possibly going to trigger this, you want to be able to implement some strategies to help.
So, one thing I recommend is deep breathing. Go to YouTube. Find some little quick deep-breathing exercise videos. Get into the habit of doing them every day. And then when something does happen, you can jump straight into deep breathing. And it's amazing how quickly slow, deep breathing can change the way you feel and reduce things like panic attacks. You've also got things like yoga, meditation, and mindfulness. All of these can help to calm down an overexcited nervous system.
Improve your sleep: Again, this is really important. Although I know this is a really difficult one for a lot of you, any improvement in sleep is going to have a positive impact on your mood the following day.
Head over to my blog, ‘How to sleep better during perimenopause and menopause’ for some helpful tips.
Have a good diet: Your brain uses heaps of nutrients in order to function well, so with all these physical changes going on, your nutritional needs go up. Make sure that you're getting a good and varied diet.
Head over to my blog: ‘Menopause-friendly foods: best foods, meal ideas, snacks & other diet tips’ for tips on the best foods to include in your daily diet at this time.
Stay hydrated: Dehydration will shrink the brain. It will affect your cognitive functioning, and it will also trigger anxiety and panic attacks; so, water is really, really important here.
Create a calm space: You can also look at creating a safe and calming place in your house if you can. Especially if you've still got family, if you're in a busy household, try and see if there can be somewhere where you can shut yourself away, just maybe for half an hour when you come in from work or if things get a bit too much.
Very often, your bedroom is a nice place. Keep it decluttered. Have really soft lighting, neutral colours, making it somewhere you can go and close your eyes and just have you all to yourself for a little while before you have to go and do whatever else that you need to do.
Limit stimulatory foods and drinks: That's your caffeine. This is possibly one of the worst things that you can have. A really good tip here: don't have coffee the minute you get up in the morning because that's going to overload your system before you've even started your day. Have a big glass of warm water, have your breakfast, then have your coffee, and it will have much less of an impact on absolutely everything.
Nervous system support: Look after your nervous system, it's really important. The stronger and more robust it is, the more it will be able to cope with everything that's going on.
You can consider supplements like our Menopause Support tablets to help. This contains magnesium, and we know that magnesium supports the nervous system and helps fight fatigue as well.
Herbal helpers: You can look at herbs such as Passionflower and Lemon balm. Passionflower is known to help aid relaxation, and we have it in a handy spray (Passiflora Complex Spray) that you can carry around with you whenever you need it.
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Talk about it: If you are finding you are getting completely overloaded at home, please talk with your family, because they may not understand why you want to shut yourself away and why you're getting so irritable and maybe getting panic attacks and just wanting to scream or walk out the door.
So, let them know what's going on because, that way, they can help you rather than maybe be a little antagonistic.
When to speak to your doctor
At some point, if you've tried all these tips, if you find that nothing is helping, if things are getting worse, if this kind of sensory overload is affecting your quality of daily life, if it's affecting your work, if it's affecting your family, please do speak to your doctor. It may be that you just need a little extra help to get you through this particular phase, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that.
If you have experienced this, how did you get on? What did you do to help yourself? Please share your stories. You know I love reading them. If any of you have any great tips, then please share them because somebody out there will benefit from what you've experienced as well.
Until next time, take care and have a lovely week.
