Irritation

Pattern blueprints describe how emotional states actually show up in real time - in your body, behaviour, and thinking.

They're tools you can use to recognise what's happening and respond more effectively.

When Everything Feels Like Too Much

This might be you if

• You just want the world to shush and leave you alone
• Sensory demands are too much: people breathing loudly, or standing too close, or just...existing near you
• You want to retreat into a blanket fort with your laptop or a book and not come out for several hours

What it feels like

Your nervous system is activated, more alert than normal to sensory cues, noise, demands.  It feels like you want to swat everything away, like a fly that's buzzing around you persistently.

Movements look like 'get off me!!' - shoulder wave like shrugging off a blanket, wrist flicks, brief sharp shakes of the head.

Facial expression is subtle and often fleeting - includes nose pulled up/wrinkled as though faced with a bad smell, eyes close for long blinks then gaze refocuses on task.

Walking is upright, long strides, purposeful - as though wanting to get on/through without interruptions, distractions, or delays.

Focus of irritation is broad and diffuse, with sensory elements often particularly aggravating - people breathing loudly, chewing 'obnoxiously', just being there in general.

It's not one thing that's the problem.  It's everything...all at once.

Repetitive sounds and actions are often challenged - windows slammed shut to cut out noise even on a hot day, 'stop tapping!!'

Gestures that help to block sensory inputs are common - hands near or over ears, eyes closed, mouth shut.

Skin can feel as though it's not quite positioned properly over the skeleton - like skewiff clothing.

What's actually happening

Your system is signalling 'too much load!'

• too many inputs
• low tolerance for threshold breaches
• protective filtering activated

Function

Reduce input, restore control, protect system stability

What helps right now

• walk away/outside for 5 minutes
• take a bathroom break and breathe deeply
• 'give me a minute, I'll be right with you'
• take a long, slow drink
• run up and down a flight of stairs, do star jumps, shake arms and legs

How to experience it less often

• reduce load, or increase load capacity
• improve resilience capability

common misreads

• annoyance
• frustration
• anger
• being 'oversensitive'

what happens if you ignore irritation

• Your ability to tolerate input drops even further, and even smaller things start to feel unbearable (the way someone wears their socks, the font used on a road sign, someone being happy...)
• You snap at whoever happens to be there
• You lose or see a reduction in your ability to filter your thoughts before they become speech