Rest Days Weeks Months or even Years

There are all different types of brains. We most commonly hear neurodivergent or neurotypical. But I like to think of it all as humanness. Each person is experiencing humanness at varying intensities.

We can start with what many people are familiar with: introversion vs extroversion.

We thought at first it meant people who were not social or social. Then with further development, we'll shifted to how much of socialization a person can take and how sensitive our energy levels are to socializing and interactions. Introverts tend to run out of their social batteries sooner and are more sensitive of how they use their batteries. In order to recharge they need more quiet and alone time.

Extroverts tend to charge up when they are with others and alone time is not as much of a necessity.

BUT

All humans are human; and all humans need socialization. And all humans need alone time. We vary in the amount that we need to feel recharged and ways we achieve that recharging.

Some people require their bed and sleep and the only time they think they need to recharge. Others feel that a few minutes to an hour a day alone in quiet recharge them.

Some find they need naps, and multiple hours a day to rejuvenate themselves before they can get back to taxing socializing events.

Others, and many people find themselves needing a full day+ to recharge before feeling "back to themselves".

At this point this covers most general populations.

Then, there is a category of more sensitive humans. This is newer in development of terminology. Sensitive has transitioned to mean a lot of things. It has transitioned so far as to describing people labeled with Autism. That is where I have hit my jack pot.

Autists, or those diagnosed or self diagnosed with Autism tend to have a heightened sensitivity to life. It is seen with sounds, visuals, energy, social interactions.

You may have a relationship with someone on the Autism spectrum. They may wear headphones in loud spaces. They may have a heightened sensitivity to food or the clothing they wear. You may not even know that a person in your life is considered an Autist. There are so many varying degrees of the spectrum.

I have spend the last two plus years working one on one with an Autistic student whose needs required homeschooling and minimal bursts of socialization and demands.

Demands are key in my educator role with him. The more demands placed on him, the quicker burn out is reached, and the longer it takes to come out of burn out.

We are familiar with the terminology. Demands. Burn out.

We've all experienced feeling like there were too many demands placed on us. Some my use expectations as a synonym. This is a relative, but it true definition is a persistent request.

For some people it may be a room full of kids all asking to have their individual needs met when you have already spend the full day meeting the requests of clients or parents or inlaws. You may hit your limit, too many demands are being asked of you. You feel like you can't handle it. Too many demands either all at once or accumulated over an entire hour, day, etc.

For my student, a demand sometimes as simple as "let's go into the living room so that we aren't near the worker in the kitchen who may be making loud noises" would hit his nervous system threshold.

Demands were taxing, sometimes debilitating. A friend having a birthday party. The demand internally of having to show up at a specified time at a specified place felt like too much, and many of the times, he would not attend. Even if he loved that friend, his nervous system set him into fight, flight or freeze.

As I begin to dive into my experience more with this student, I ask you to hold space for a narrative not always accepted socially. But with more understanding of what all humans experience, you'll start to notice that my student is the epitome of humanness. Just Heightened.

We've have all experienced in one way or another demand overload. We are human.

And just like our social batteries, we all experience demand overload at different levels and thresholds. Some have a massive bandwidth to get through really intense and demanding jobs or homelives. Some, like my student, don't.

We all vary in our capabilities. And it is easy to accept when it's discuss with physical and athletic ability. Or academic strengths. Creativity.

It is less discuss and accepted when it comes to our social interactions, emotional regulation, nervous system regulation. We are quick to label someone negatively assuming they choose to feel or act exactly as they do. Now, I am not saying there shouldn't be consequences to an action. Everything in life has a consequence, good or bad. What I am saying is that just as someone might have a more natural build as a runner, some people might have a easier time regulating their nervous system.

All people have the ability to develop skills to improve where they are, yet it is not such that all people will reach equal regulation. Just as not all people will reach a professional athlete status.

We are all human. We all vary in our abilities. and that includes how we feel, regulate and interact in this world.