Living with the effects/residuals of Encephalitis (which I acquired at the age of 2 years) I truly wish more people would understand this. I've felt so much misunderstood all my life - only when I discovered "Survivors+" on the Internet and Facebook I
found other people in the same situation.

Hi, I'm Elisabeth who just posted a comment. I'm from Denmark where I don't know of any other survivors at my age (I'm now 47 years old). You are welcome to contact me at my mail address if it has your interest ;-)

A couple of things that help me to limit/balance my levels of overstimulation: (1)have a highly desired "quiet activity" to engage in (painting, crochet, reading, walking sans-ipod), etc and (2) have a designated "quiet hour" For me, I choose nights when
at 9:00- I turn off all electronics (cell phone, laptop, tv, ipod)and keep them off until the next day. These are just some ideas that have worked for me.

This is an excellent article highlighting something I've seen for a while: our society is increasingly pushing information on us. We are a hunting-gathering species: we're designed to absorb enough information to keep alive and reproduce. For this we need
to quickly process incoming data and decide how to react (fight or flight); between meals and survival we sleep and prepare for tomorrow. Personally, I had a severe brain injury in 1973: I find that I have a definite limit to my multitasking, beyond that my
cognitive performance decreases sharply, just as Dr. Nilsson describes. As a counselor working with many people with brain injury, I have seen this time and time again, both in my clients and myself. So I guess we're on the 'front guard' of this headlong rush
to brain freeze (now, THAT's an example of seeing the glass half-full!) Thank you for a most enlightening article.

Yoga will definitely help you
yoga swing

Mike Webster played for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Having a hard time reading the article since you've said he was one of your favorite Players. How much do you know about the sport ?

Good catch! Of course he played for the Steelers. I guess I was in the "Wisconsin Zone" when I was writing this. Thanks for the feedback.

When I feel overstimulated, overemotional, stressed, etc I have a bad habit of "emotionally flying off the handle" where I dump a lot of what's on my mind in the lap of someone who really had nothing to do with the situation! Later I often feel embarrassed that I acted in such a way. I've tried to find different ways to deal with "irritablity." Medication has helped the most. Getting exercise, having down time, reading, just breathing have also been effective. My main goal for myself is to delay the reaction time, wait and see how I feel later.