We autistics are highly sensitive in nearly all of our five senses. For example, I'm sure we all remember our school classrooms and dragging fingernails down the chalkboard to harrass classmates.  The screeching noise never failed to leave someone squirming in their seats. Imagine being that sensitive to everything. Light seems that much brighter to you, sounds seem more invasive to your ears, tastes can be more distinctive and you can feel the slightest stitch out of place in your clothing.

Next you have a lack of 'breakers' in your brain that allow you to filter out the input from one distraction to the next. While your hearing is fine, you can't filter out one sound from all the rest occuring around you without intense practice. You may have to ask the guy talking to you to repeat himself a few times because you were trying to get past the cars going by, the dog barking three blocks a way and the bug that buzzed past your ear. And that's only distractions to your hearing. Your eyes try go to every movement they perceive. That is part of what destroys your eye contact and makes you seem very inattentive. This lack of breakers is the first  major component in the formula of sensory overload.

Add stress, any stressful situation will do. Stress causes an amplification in all your sensory intake. This is a natural occurance for anyone, but when you're autistic it's like having a split second thunderstorm go off in your brain. You become unable to shut out any stimulus. A lower functioning autistic will go into a kicking and screaming fit while higher functioning types will become irritable and aggressive. Enough stress can provoke a violent fit in nearly any autistic, however this isn't always dangerous to others.

Allow me to use myself as an example. I have Asperger's Syndrome, a high functioning form of autism. Under enough stress, with no retreat available, I will become irritable and aggressive. Next I will become unreasonable in any fashion and possibly lose contact with some portions of reality around me as my brain overloads. The final result is a seizure like occurance where I will beat myself in the head with my fists. This will continue until either someone restrains me or I nearly pass out from the exertion and damage.

Once it starts, I am at its mercy until the end. I can be safely restrained but the personal and social damage is terrible. This can be avoided by me taking my medications and knowing when to retreat and get myself away from as much of the input as possible. My medications help me to recognize an overload when it's coming, but cannot stop it if I have one. That is why I have a plan of action in place. I have a designated place in my home that I retreat to that allows me to rest and recompose myself as the early stages resolve and I calm down. I have a fan that I turn on that helps to block out extra stimulus and cool temperatures help me to relax a little faster. I lie down in front of the fan and wait it out. During this time, I am not disturbed.

Not all autistics can run this kind of plan. It takes intervention from others or a great deal of practice to even recognize that action needs to be taken. Many autistics do not have the luxury of realization in time to do anything about it. This is why public knowledge of autistics is beneficial for both the public and the autistic.

Next I will write an article about what you can do if someon with autism or a mental illness is going into a meltdown stage around you or in public.