One time when I was seven years old I went to the planetarium on a class field trip. While everyone else was having fun, I felt like I was going to die. The sound was crashing down on me and the light from the screen seemed blinding. I was having sensory overload, something a lot of autistic people have happened to them. Unfortunately, none of the teachers knew what that was and thought that I was just acting out. They kept telling me to behave and I tried to, the sound and light was just too much. Eventually the school called my parents, and they showed up to pick me up early. I wouldn't be diagnosed with autism four six more years so I had no idea why I was like this or what was happening. If felt like such a freak and like I had messed up. Years later when I was diagnosed I realized what this incident was and that my reaction was perfectly normal and that the real people in fault in that situation were the adults. If they had better knowledge of autism then they would have understood what was happening and acted better.

This is a true story that happened to me. Although it is now just a memory and I now have better knowledge of my body, and what sensory overload looks like, there are still young kids out there who don’t, and there are adults who don’t know how to deal with autistic people's sensory overload. With our website we intend to educate both of these demographics so this doesn't happen again.