Overstimulated

As near as scientists can tell, an autistic person is one receives outside stimulus (lights, colors, touch, etc...) and has a hard time processing it. When things are calm and normal, an autistic person will react normally - even though they are being bombarded with things we consider normal - but when things are not calm and normal, when they are trying to deal with a confusing overabundance of outside stimulae or new stimulae that they've never dealt with before, an autistic person will freak out (that's not the scientific term). They have yet to discover what causes autism and I will not venture to guess here, but I did have a realization the other day that may help me to understand the situation.

I spent the day on Friday at my desk taking numbers from one computer, writing them down, and then reentering them into another computer. It was boring work and my brain was going on overdrive trying to process all of these numbers. At the end of the day, I climbed in my car and started the engine and the radio kicked on. I immediately switched it off as the sound of people talking was suddenly just too much. I accelerated out of the driveway, turned on to the road, and immediately became agitated driving behind someone who was barely going the speed limit. And that was when it occurred to me... I was reacting like someone whose brain was overstimulated and who suddenly found it impossible to handle all these conflicting stimulae without freaking out.

We live at a time where this is more stimulus than at any other time in history. We are constantly bombarded with images, sounds, thoughts, emotions, smells. Our phones can now take pictures, receive pictures, play music, play video games, send and receive e-mails, play TV, play video... and make phone calls. And these are just our phones.

Ten years ago I was manager of the Hyatt Movie Theater in Burlingame. During the six months I managed the theater, I had two days off. Not vacation days. Not sick days. Two days, period! And one of those days, I still went in early to open the theater for the employees. During that time, I remember one thing very clearly, the phone constantly rang - and everytime I answered it, it was bad news. I got to the point where I hated the phone.

I still do. To this day, I can't hear the phone and immediately go into sensory overload. My phone rings and a little touch of panic runs through me. I talked on the phone so much in six months, that I learned to loathe the device. Today, while I have a cell phone and a phone at home, I still use it very infrequently to call people. I much prefer e-mail.

I think we are experiencing a period in our history where we as a society are making ourselves autistic. We are cramming so much stimuli into every situation (its not enough to watch a good football game, we have to have 65 hours of pre-game, Billy Joel singing the national anthem while Blue Angels fly overhead, fireworks, a marching band with neon lights, 2.5 Million Dollar 30 second commercials, and Prince singing a half hour half time show with electric guitars and even more half naked cheerleaders) that we are literally overdosing on the stuff. It is causing us to freak out. We are unable to react normally to situations. All of this extra stimulation is preventing us from keeping a sense of perspective about life and about the world. We are ADD Cafinated Sugar Laden children trying to have a time of quiet prayer and reflection. Good luck.

Its no wonder we go into our homes and try to shut out the world. We'll happily trade the relatively quiet stimulation of an IPOD for all the outrageous stimulation that American life is trying to throw our way. We don't have to deal with too many things that way. We can try to be alone with our thoughts by blocking everything else out with a song that we've heard so many times that it no longer distracts us.

That's why I've decided this Lent to give up the one thing that overstimulates me the most - Telecommunications. For forty days and forty nights, I will not watch or listen to television, radio, video games, movies, etc... Unfortunately, I can not include computer on that list since I have to work on one (and I have film classes as well as a novel). I will spend the time instead reflecting and trying to work on real life relationships - stimulation of a positive and healthy nature - with friends, family, and God.

It will not be easy. In addition to missing Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, etc... I will also be purposefully missing March Madness. This will be a great sacrifice for me. But, hopefully, it will open up new channels of communication and allow me to exist in my world in a more satisfactual way.