Okay, I never agreed that I would go, the wife planned it and assumed that I would come around to the idea or that I would do it for the family. I know I'm gonna get the cold treatment if I say Im not gonna go, and I cant handle shit like that. Makes me overload real easy cos of the social pressure/aspect of the whole thing.
Happens to me all the time, too.
The really hard part is how to explain the overload.
I think the hardest thing about it is that we are trying to prevent it. Therefore it is less visible and your partner/family after a while seem to somehow forget how bad it can get. I know with me if I have a heavy overload that It can take days and even up to a week or so to recover from it. And sometimes it doesnt take a lot to get a heavy overload.
QFT
Ditto.
We are all still fucked up from all the motherfucking fireworks and the overload resulting from that night.
(I have tried my best to explain this to my wife. While I was at work, she tried to take the kids out to the park today and they sat in the dirt, scratching out with sticks, little lines, circles and squares and making patterns. They were already doing that in the back yard. Actually, that IS their best defense right now.)
My kids have not the resources to find other avenues of release or defense, so they go into their own individual animal behaviors. It is much safer and easier to navigate life as an animal with a small brain and near zero memory, at times.