Thursday, March 26, 2009

Overstimulated?

Funny thing happened to me today, again. Usually it happens when I make a warp, but today it happened while I was threading.

Sometimes textures, colors and the anticipation of a project can overstimulate my brain and I become giddy and restless. In extreme cases, I can't sit nor stand still, and can't stick with the task at hand, so I rush around the house, start something, drop that and get back to warping, drop that and start something else. It feels as if my own body is in a rush, and my brain just tries to stay inside my scull. Which is very strange considering I was on the slow side when I was a child, not an overactive one.

Gardening can be worse. I always listen to a tiny radio when I garden so I can keep track of time. Sometimes I start remembering all the radio broadcasts I ever heard while I gardened, and it gets all a bit noisy inside my head and I start to get a tad annoyed.

Dr Eva and I used to joke about my schizophrenia, but I don't have that, and I doubt all the textures and colors would give me an anxiety attack. Does this ring a bell with anyone? Or does this sound a little extreme?

I finished threading 7 1/3 inches; 8 2/3 to go.

8 comments:

  1. Does this sound like you? http://www.hsperson.com

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  2. Happens often, specially when I'm planning something.

    In knitting blogs there is a name for it, startitis.

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  3. Alison, I had never heard of it. I wouldn't call myself shy in most cases; sometimes more like a misanthrope (!!), and I'm not sure if I'm observant as most times I would have thought I'm blissfully unaware, but it's an interesting thought.

    KD, SOOOO glad I'm not the only one, that's for sure. I thought I was a bit further down the crazy road than I thought...

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  4. I never thought of it in so many words but just about everytime I am on the verge of creating something new (weaving, painting, bookmaking) I too get I guess what you'd call restless -- this unbounded energy that can roam about. It's definitely excess energy. I don't worry about it but I do notice it happens just about everytime that creative "process" occurs!!!

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  5. Hello, Gail. When I'm making up nice drafts, when a perfect soufflé comes out of the oven, or I connect two dots, I have this happy feeling, where I might do a Tim Allen/Tim Taylor dance, or remember a phrase from one of the Springsteen songs.

    What usually happens when I warp, plus yesterday, is more physical, as if my body is on auto-drive and I can't control it, as if my brain has almost given up and is going with the flow. What happens to me some of the times when I garden is more in my head, where I hear the past radio bradcasts as vividly as the present one, and my body goes into auto-drive weeding. Come to think of it, it happens usually when I'm weeding, rather than something else in the garden.

    These could be extreme cases of chemical/adrenaline rushes, perhaps, but the degree of giddiness sometimes concerns me, as if one day it'll go just a bit further and I might explode.

    Which, when you think about it, is not a bad way to go.

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  6. Do you have this thing that happens to me, if I'm listening to a radio programme when I'm doing something, then I go away and another time pick up the same task, my brain replays the radio programme to me - it's as though I hear the voices again. It sounds a bit like what happens when you're gardening, however, normally one voice at a time. I think it's something to do with having a very strong and vivid imagination.

    Do you drink coffee? I had to give it up because of getting hyper giddiness like you describe. Rarely happens now, but can happen as you describe.

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  7. I just followed the link given by yarninmypocket and scored 24 out of 27 - indicating high senstivity, how about you Meg?

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  8. I only got 15 just now, Dorothy. Which surprised me a bit, but I found many of the questions were repeated.

    But I do know what you mean, and when I was in junior high, I used it to my advantage when I studied. Dad hated it, but played Vienna Boys Choir LPs when I studied, so when I couldn't remember an answer, I tried to listen to the song I heard while I was studying the subject, and then sometimes I remembered what I needed. Or else it put me in a good mood and I started writing poetry on the back of the exam sheets!!

    I drink 1 cup of coffee a day if I do that, before 12PM. I avoid tea and green tea after 2-ish as well, and again, limit myself. That's to do with my insomnia, and also in season, hey fever.

    I'm so very relieved to find out it's not just me. And though my two scenarios produce different (to me) effects, I think they are different faces of the same phenomenon.

    Curiouser and curiouser...

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