#sensory processing issues

[embervoices]

I hated lotions until I got old enough for my skin to start getting painfully dry in places (a trait I suspect all the obsessive handwashing and alcohol gel sanitizing during lockdown probably accelerated where my hands are concerned), at which point I abruptly switched over to being picky about the exact texture of the hand cream instead of picky about never having anything on my hands.

To that end, I've found I enjoy balm, and dislike too-wet creams. I want the coating to stay a while and make the air-is-hurting-me feeling go away. So it doesn't so much register as something icky stuck to my skin as skintight gloves that don't hamper my movement as much as cloth or nitrile.

Alas, finding that did require going to the (audio-based sensory hell) shopping mall and visiting the (scent-based sensory hell) Body Shop and Lush to experiment with various textures. Thankfully, this was post-masking, which made the latter easier, and I do carry earplugs for the former.

(I still can't stand sunscreen, which is bad as I'm a naturally pale redhead, but I'm also frequently nocturnal and overheat easily, so staying out of direct sunlight is rarely difficult.)

ive recently been able to get over my sensory issues regarding moisturizer by literally just saying "im going snail mode"

[bifflesnitch]

My disability has once again disabled me and I for one and shocked.

[kitshomeforwaywardsouls]

AUTISTIC JOY!!!

A lot of the disability stuff on here can be kinda bleak so I wanted to share the pure JOY I am experiencing today. I got my first pair of noise canceling over the ear headphones in years and they’re not only comfortable but work phenomenally!!!

Anyone with their own instances of disabled joy autistic or otherwise they’d like to share please feel free to flood me with them!

[oneradmonster]

Starting Nov 10th Walmart will be bringing back Sensory Friendly Hours everyday from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.

This will include:

No walmart radio

Dimmed lights where possible (sky lights may prevent some stores from appearing dim)

TVs turned to a static low sensory channel

Please 🔄 this post so people with sensory processing issues can be aware of it! Thank you! ❤️

[theautisticdoctor]

Entry #007

Sensory System

In autism the sensory system is a funny part of the body, it can be hypersensitive or hyposensitive. It can be a kind of a superpower and a disability at the same time. When people think about the senses, they often think about the five senses that do the seeing (visual), hearing (auditory), smelling (olfactory), tasting (gustatory), and feeling (tactile), but there are three more systems in the body that take in information for the brain to process and acts on it. It are the balancing and coordination (vestibular), the positioning (proprioception), and the information from inside the body (interoception).

I won't be explaining the visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and tactile senses separately. I think they are pretty self-explanatory, in contrary to the vestibular, proprioception and interoception senses. Generally there are three categories in how people can perceive the information through their senses, they can be normosensitive, hypersensitive and / or hyposensitive. It is not one fits all, you can be hyposensitive and be stimulating it yourself, but then suddenly get overstimulated after all. It is a journey to find out how you react and how to balance your systems. But know that all the systems work together, for example your visual system works together with your auditory and vestibular system. I have drawn out the links I have found up until now how my systems work together, so that if one system gets overstimulated it could have some effect on another system for me.

Vestibular

The vestibular sense is the sense of stability, balance, movements and position of the head on the body. It works together with the visual system to make sure your eyes look in the right direction while moving your head and to correlate movements registered with what's being seen.

Proprioception

Proprioception is the possibility to perceive the position of your extremities. It gets registered by the mechanoreceptors in the tendons of your muscles and together with the visual and vestibular system it makes sure someone can coordinate movements with correct force. It is partly conscious and partly unconscious regulated, and is responsible for body position, reflexes, movement coordination, correct tone of muscles and stability. People with autism can often have trouble with correctly positioning their body, stability and coordination of movements. This is partly because of the two other senses as well, but also because of a hyposensitivity to the mechanoreceptors in the tendons.

Interoception

Interoception includes the thermoception (possibility to perceive temperature and regulates body temperature) and the nociception (possibility to perceive pain), as well as all the other bodily sensations like hunger, thirst, pain, toilet urge, flatulence, intra-abdominal gas, nausea, etc. Notice that pain is listed twice, as 'nociception' and as 'other bodily sensation'. This is because nociception is a complex thing. Nociception is pain through a stimulus within a tissue by either thermal, chemical or mechanical. But pain can also derive from other sources, for example pain from nerves is called neuropathic pain. It's a separate study on its own, but the distinction could be relevant, because for example, I'm hyposensitive to nociception and hypersensitive to neuropathic pain stimuli. Meaning, I won't feel I'm overstretching my muscles and creating an inflammation around or even doing a little damage to a nerve. Ending up with a neurogenic inflammation pain and sensory loss across an entire nerve branch for weeks, which is excruciating for me. But hey, I was able to bend my arm backwards and get that paper from behind the cupboard without moving it.

Integration

It's useful to make an inventory in what categories one is hypo- or hypersensitive for certain stimuli and what practical problems it creates for you. Beneath this sensory system inventory worksheet I have included mine too, so you have an example as well.

Mine looks something like this:

It's probably not finished yet, but I thought I might already share it. How I think my sensory system works together or influences each other for me, that I found out up until now (the faint and bolder green lines are both interactions):

[foxless]

neurotypicals will be the most overwhelming people ever & then be surprised when i get overwhelmed

[autisticdreamdrop]

You're gonna have sensory and processing issues. You're gonna be over / understimuated. You're going to have meltdowns and shutdowns. You're gonna need breaks. You're gonna deal with autistic burnout. You're gonna have verbal loss / shutdowns. And that's okay. And if you don't deal with all, or some of all of these, that's okay too. Autism is a spectrum after all.

[crippy-tangerine]

Auditory processing userboxes for you, teehee! 🍀.

(Part 1 of 2- the second part will be in a reblog of this post 🩷).

This post is based on our personal issues as an autistic dissociative system. But anybody with any auditory processing difficulties can use these!! If they resonate, they are for you ⭐️. (/genuine tone!).

The photos used are all sourced from a wonderful small business that makes handmade tiles; they post their creations on Pinterest under the @ “emuarttile”. (You can click here if that’s easier for you!).

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

Autism & Bright Lights

The Autistic Teacher

[the-blanket-dragon]

"it's so loud here... let me put the loudest most cacophonous music on in my headphones to cope"

[therapyshoppe]

[cyber-therian]

they should invent cuddles/hugs that don’t involve any forms of physical touch including implications of touch

[the-boxy-journals]

This image about audio processing seemed to resonate with folks on Twitter before the Musk-pocalypse:

I also made this some years before that. Today, I might describe it more as a radio receiver that hops from one frequency to the next mid-sentence without warning. Like a radio scanning.

Before I had my ASD diagnosis, I was diagnosed with Sensory Processing (or Integration) Disorder, which is why I use those tags.

[thekentraptor]

Dropout Background Music Problem

I've noticed an issue with Dropout content that's been coming out since this fall: the background music for a lot of shows is constant and much too loud. The first time I noticed this was the premiere of Gastronauts. I don't think I made it even halfway through because the constant music made it near impossible for me to understand what was being said, and it made the viewing experience extremely stressful and unpleasant. But fine, I was curious about Gastronauts but it was new, I didn't have an attachment to it, the sound doesn't work for me so I just won't watch.

It's not just Gastronauts.

I had to stop the finale of MisMag2 halfway through, and at this point I don't think I'll ever see the ending. I was SO excited for Dungeons and Drag Queens 2, but I only made it about 10 minutes in. The music was blaring so loud over the recap that I could hardly hear Brennan, and while it got a bit quieter after the intro it never went away and it remained overwhelming and distracting. I could feel my anxiety levels going crazy from the sensory overload and had to turn it off. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW MUSTARD EXISTED UNTIL I WAS SCROLLING THE TAG HERE.

This is happening on all devices. And I've rewatched older stuff on the same devices with no issue, so it's not just my TV or my Dropout settings. There's definitely music and sound effects on older seasons, but only at certain moments and it's all much quieter. The audio production on the new stuff is Different, and unfortunately that means it's completely inaccessible to me due to my auditory processing issues.

Have other people noticed this? Please let me know so I feel less isolated and sad about this, and more importantly PLEASE send feedback to Dropout at this link. I sent in feedback about this and got a response that they'll be passing it on to the post-production team, but things are more likely to change if they know it's affecting more of their audience.

[dreamdropsystem]

needing captions to enjoy media (sensory processing)

[tumble-tv]

The sensory overload moment where I'm just listening to the same song on loop for 5 days because every other song is loud and ugly and this is the only appealing song on my playlist and the only consistency of work and school at this point