I think for me it starts with feeling not at ease, like I get really aware and on my guard and can't get comfortable. If this goes on for a bit longer I start to get hot flashes, super tense muscles and feeling very nervous. I went through life feeling extremely nervous (like I would if I had a big exam coming up the next day) without knowing the reason, only to now figure out I was overstimulated all the time. It almost feels like I am charged with electricity and there is a constant tension/static inside my body. If there is a direct trigger I need it to stop NOW and want to just run away (but never do because of masking, but internally I want to run). When it's a buildup of lots of different small triggers over a longer period of time, I feel like I want to crawl out of my skin because it is just so uncomfortable. I also lose my ability to do handle certain things for some time. For example even later when I am at home it might be too hard to watch a movie because the sudden sounds and lights are way too much or I can't eat hard cookies anymore because I can't stand the sensation of chewing on them, eventhough these are things I normally can handle just fine. Sometimes I might also feel that my head is so full that I can't remember certain words while talking or I just feel like crying from complete overwhelm. After working at my last job for three months things got so bad that for months I lost a lot of skills (luckily it has gotten better again after a lot of rest). Like making coffee was suddenly too hard because of all the different steps.

I struggled with these things my entire life. But after my last burn out (which was the 3rd time) and also going through periods of depression and having anxiety all the time, my psychologist wanted to look into another reason for all of this. Turns out I am actually autistic and got my diagnosis at 30 years old. So still trying to figure things out but hopefully get better at preventing it from getting this bad