#sensory processing issues

[PT: Friendly reminder that sensory processing disorder and autism are two separate conditions. /End PT]

95% of autistic people have SPD, but autism can occur without SPD. Those 5% of autistic people still matter, and shouldn't be told they're "not actually autistic" because they don't have sensory issues.

Additionally, SPD can occur without autism. SPD can be genetic, neurodevelopmental, from incidents occuring during fetal development/birth, from brain damage, and/or in response to trauma (particularly isolation or neglect, ie, tactile processing disorder can result from touch starvation.)

And SPD is an umbrella term for a lot of conditions as well - a person with SPD may only have one of these, or they may have multiple.

Types of SPD include:

-Sensory modulation disorder, in which a person has over-responsivity, under-responsivity, sensory seeking, or a mix of them. This could be tactile, visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, vestibular, proprioceptive, interoceptive, or a combination of multiple or all. -Sensory discrimination disorder (SDD), in which a person struggles to understand the details of their senses. This can have a variety of symptoms, such as mixing up senses (ie; mixing up nausea and hunger) being unable to identify something "obvious" when slightly altered (ie; unable to recognize a basketball when half of it is covered) processing senses out-of-order or without proper clarity (ie; processing the sounds of talking, but not being able to identify the words being spoken), etc. Subtypes include tactile DD, visual DD, auditory DD, olfactory DD, gustatory DD, vestibular DD, proprioceptive DD, and interoceptive DD. -Sensory-based motor disorder, in which a person struggles with movement due to sensory issues. Subtypes include postural disorder and dyspraxia.

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!!!

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.

me and my brother had a friend who would purposely trigger my misophonia she knew i had it she knew exactly what would happen if she did it and she would not stop no matter what we aren’t friends anymore thankfully but she was genuinely just horrid to be around especially if your neurodivergent or disabled in anyway

I went to the dentist a few weeks ago and I told her I'm autistic and that causes me sensory issues that make brushing my teeth regularly harder, and she was great about it and gave me some tips!

Use disclosing tablets - you can get these on Amazon and at pharmacies. They colour your plaque so you can see where you need to brush.

Brush your teeth at night and use mouthwash in the morning - it’s better to brush your teeth at night because it’s after you’ve eaten food so your teeth are easier to get properly clean then. Obviously, if you can, brush your teeth both times, but if you can only handle brushing your teeth once a day, do it at night.

Use an electric toothbrush, if you can afford it. If you can’t brush your teeth that frequently, it’s better to use an electric toothbrush because it’ll clean your teeth better than a regular toothbrush. It’s better to get ab electric toothbrush either way, but especially if you don’t brush your teeth that often.

Get a toothbrush with super soft bristles, this will make brushing your teeth less harsh on your mouth.

If you struggle with mint toothpaste, it's ok to get a different flavour of toothpaste or just brush dry

These have helped me with my dental hygiene since, and I hope they'll help some of you guys

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