I'm the same way. Two weeks ago when we celebrated my grandson's 5th birthday, we had about 20 people and half a dozen little kids in the house, and I thought I would lose my freaking MIND. I finally had to leave, under the pretense that we needed more napkins and a bag of dog food, and just disappeared into town for a couple of hours......I felt bad about it, but this one little girl only seemed to be able to communicate by screaming, and somebody was going to have to scrape me off the ceiling if I stayed any longer.

Funny thing is, I was easily overstimulated even as a kid---I hated the sound of popping balloons, hated being startled in any way. Then as a young mom, I had trouble dealing with my kids' noisy play and repetitiousness......I never knew that it had anything to do with my being bipolar. I didn't even know I WAS bipolar back then, didn't know for certain until about six weeks ago. Now it all makes sense. Doesn't help me handle my grandkids' excessive (to me) rambunctiousness with any additional grace, but at least when I have to beat a hasty retreat, I can give myself the care I need without making them feel bad for just being normal, rowdy boys.