In which I am freaked out by Santas

I was out for lunch with friends yesterday at our normal Saturday place. Which was good, I hadn't seen two of them in a couple of months. But then the place starrted to fill up, with Santas. There was a Santa fun run in aid of some charity or other in town yesterday, so there were hordes of people in Santa costumes, hyper from having just run, coming into the bar. And of course they then added beer or wine to the hyperness and the noise levels started to climb.

It isn't the first time I've started to feel uncomfortable from sheer noise levels in there, but it's the first time it's progressed far enough for my friends to notice and ask if I'm all right. I brushed it off as being tired, and fortunately it quietened down a bit, but if I'd been there on my own I couldn't have stayed. Having helped someone log this stuff for a PIP application just recently I was probably in a better position to analyse what was happening, and as far as I can tell it really was classic neurdiverse sensory overload, and specifically people talking that was the trigger. I wouldn't have enjoyed background music at the same level, but I don't think I would have been quite so freaked out by it. Sometimes you need that external perspective to understand what's happening to you.

Not much I can do about it, but hopefullly I'll have a better understanding of what's going on when it happens again.