This is the first time I'm posting something in this particular forum. I have some questions about "sensory overload", which is why I'm posting here today. Before saying anything else I'd like to mention that I'm not diagnosed with autism/Asperger's. I'm getting assessed for both Asperger's and AD(H)D in March or April or something (I've waited for an assessment for more than a year now) but I'm really not sure I have it and I find that very confusing. Anyway, on to the questions.

I'm a student and I live in a different city than my family (I moved for university). This weekend my mother's visiting and yesterday she wanted to go see the city. I showed her where I study and then we went to the city centre to buy some things. As soon as we arrived in town I started to get overloaded. It was noisy, people were moving in different directions everywhere, there were a lot of different things in different colours all around me, people bumped into me etc and on top of that it was too warm in the stores. I started to get really anxious and agitated on the inside. I got all quiet, hyper-vigilant (more than usual that is) and irritated. I felt like closing my eyes, shut out all the noise and escape into "my own world" (which is what I call it when I just shut down and stare at something while listening to one song on repeat in my earphones that block out a lot of other sounds).

My mother told me she could see how anxious I got. She took me to a pretty quiet restaurant where we sat down at a table in the far back and had lunch. That plus the fact that I bought two new books to my collection made me calm down a little bit but I was still exhausted and on edge. When I got back home I was incredibly tired and I kept being that tired for the rest of the day.

To me that's a sensory overload. I get them from time to time. They make me anxious but they're different from anxiety attacks because the triggers are different and they don't cause me to panic. Instead I become really anxious and gradually shut down. I've been pretty sensitive to stimuli since I was a child but it has definitely gotten worse with time. Anyway, my questions about all of this are:

1. Do you experience sensory overloads similar to mine?
2. If "yes" on the previous question, how often does it happen for you?
3. Do people without autism/Asperger's experience sensory overloads as well?

Please let me know what you think.