PSA: Overstimulation

I went to a thing this weekend with a friend. The nature of the thing is immaterial, except to say that it was incredibly well-attended thing in the midst of a major metropolis[1]. 

We went, despite all that, because it was an important thing. One's dislike of crowds and traffic should not stop one from doing important things.

And there we were, in a small, hot room smushed tight enough together that if my personal bubble had been a spaceship perimeter field, the cabin would be lit up in pulsing red, alarms blaring, and a computerized voice saying, "Intruder alert, intruder alert, set condition 1 throughout the ship." 

Crowds, man. Crowds are not my jam. 

But hey, it was a thing my friend needed to be at, so I put my back to a wall and stuck it out. Until there was no more sticking. Because you see, I had reached my limit, and had taken all the stimulation I could stand. I'd had enough being hot, being close to people, listening to a drone-y voice about a topic that I wasn't terribly interested in. 

So I left. 

The great thing about being an adult, y'see, is getting to decide when you've had enough. Of whatever: cheese[2], drama, stimulation. Your enough-level is yours; it doesn't matter what other people think is right and normal. And if you're an introvert, dear reader, your enough-stimulation-level will often be much lower than that of your extrovert friends. And that's okay.

Pay attention to yourself, not just the pressures and voices that say you're weird or oversensitive. Your way of existing is valid and much more normal than you may realize. (We're introverts, after all, and not prone to talking about our internal existence.) To continue the metaphor from above, get to know the warning indicators on your spaceship. Mine is the I've-gotta-leave-right-now-or-I'm-going-to-throw-up feeling, a lovely combination of corporeal and mental freak-out. 

There are lesser warnings, that I (and you) can choose to ignore, depending on their severity and the importance of the thing. Doing difficult and out-of-the-comfort-zone things is healthy, expected, and needful. But not everything is meant to be endured. 

Sometimes, you just gotta say "Enough," and peace the heck out. 

xo, 
Devo


[1] Not *the* Metropolis, alas

[2] Nigh impossible