Sensory Overload (A Poem by Amanda Best)

Sensory Overload is when a person experiences the over-stimulation of one or more of the body's five different senses because of their environment. For me personally, my sense of smell and taste are interconnected at times, which can lead to problems when I am eating food. To give you an example of this, there is a Jelly Belly Jelly Bean called "Buttered Popcorn" which for most people would taste like popcorn with butter on it. However, when I eat one of these jelly beans, I don't experience the flavor of buttered popcorn. Instead I taste what buttered popcorn smells like. I'm fairly positive that most people know what Cranberry Juice tastes like. It tastes like Cranberries. I'm also fairly positive that most people know what wet dirt smells like. For me though, there is a type of Cranberry Juice that I came in contact with during my senior year of high school that didn't taste in the least bit like Cranberries. It tasted like the smell of wet dirt. I have never come in contact with that type of Cranberry Juice since my senior year of high school, but there have been other things that have tasted like the smell of wet dirt in my life. During Christmas time when my mom boils a pot of water with cinnamon sticks in it, I taste the smell of the cinnamon in the air. When I open a bottle of mint extract, I will taste the smell of the mint before the bottle is fully open. This happens with vanilla extract too, which is not the most appealing thing. I can taste the smell water running from a garden hose and feel it's coolness on my tongue long before I see or hear the water running. Ever since I was a little girl, I have been able to tell when it going to rain, even when the sky it completely clear. This is because when there is a great deal of moisture in the air, I can both taste and smell the moisture in the air. I can also feel the coolness of it on my tongue. After I broke my ankle in October 2010, which required surgery to fix it, I would experience all of the same things right before it would rain, but I have the added bonus of getting to experience many different levels of pain before it rains depending on how bad it is going to rain (which is not really an added bonus at all unless you consider that I know when to dress warmly without having to watch the weather part of the news). These are just a few examples of how I can experience an overloading of my senses. When I finally realized that I was experiencing an overloading of my senses, I decided to write this poem as a way of expressing that realization. Although this poem was written long before I broke my ankle, when I found out that it was going to require surgery, I knew that my senses were going to overloaded at least once every winter for the rest of my life.

ENJOY!

As Always,
Amanda

Sensory Overload
--by Amanda Best
I am constantly in a state of sensory overload.
Smelling the crisp, cold taste of water,
Tasting the bright, joyous sights of Christmas,
Seeing the sweet, musical sound of vocal expression,
Hearing the slow, deliberate touch of envy,
Touching the light, delicate scent of roses.
Yes, I am constantly in a state of sensory overload.