Sensory Defensiveness Ideas

It can be very uncomfortable to be sensory defensive, to be overwhelmed by the sensations that the world throws at you.Sensations that most people dismiss as background sounds or sights may seem harsh and irritating, making it hard to focus on work, lessons or conversations. The easy answer is just to avoid whatever causes these bothersome sensations. In real life, avoiding them isn't very easy.Here, in this third of three blog posts on Autism and Fibromyalgia both sharing issues with sensory defensiveness, are some ideas for coping better.(Check out the 1st post, Sensory Defensiveness here, and the 2nd one, Sensory Processing and Pain here.)
For auditory issues: earplugs, listening to, or better yet, making music, white noise machines, nature sounds, water fountains. For visual: turn down lights, wear sunglasses, wear hat with a brim to shield from light source
I have had problems off and on with tactile defensiveness. I need to take the tags out of all my clothes, because they scratch and claw at me. I have sections of my skin on my arms and legs that are so hypersensitive that I am constantly aware of the sensation of my skin. Sometimes it is a slight burning feeling, other times it is a little more intense, not quite painful, but constantly in my awareness.Some ideas for tactile defensiveness, besides taking tags out of clothes- make sure fabrics of clothes are acceptable, buy used clothing that is already broken in, use fabric softener,  wearing skin-hugging clothing like spandex,  massage,  rub skin with lotion, warm bath, bean bag chair, hammock. In addition, any kind of activity that requires muscle work- exercise, gardening, pushing, pulling, carrying, etc, seems to calm the signals down a bit.
As with anything, everyone is different. Experiment, try different things, try variations on what I suggest, find what works for you.  


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Sensory Processing and Pain

In my post last week, I did some comparing and contrasting of sensory defensiveness in people with Fibromyalgia and people on the Autism spectrum.To sum it up, the main similarities are the tendency toward over-sensitivity to light, sound, and touch. The main difference is that those of us with Fibromyalgia acquired it after our neural pathways matured, and our sensory systems had time to organize. We learned how to respond to things, based on experience and social norms, so when we got Fibro, we were able to adapt to it with varying degrees of success..People on the Autism spectrum, on the other hand, grow up with their disorder, and must learn to live in a society that does not share or comprehend their over-sensitivities.They may not be able to communicate their discomfort, or they may not realize that others experience the world differently.
Keep in mind that this is very much an over-simplification of the situation. Everyone is different, not all people on the Autism spectrum have sensory defensiveness, and not all people with sensory defensiveness have Autism. In fact, there is a distinct disorder known as 'sensory processing disorder'.
One of the areas of sensory study that I find most fascinating is 'habituation'. It is related to the word 'habit'. When something is a habit, it is automatic, we don't even think about it. Habituation is similar. When our body is bombarded by the same sensory input over and over, our body stops responding to it, and just ignores it.This is why you don't constantly feel your clothes, or why people who live near the train tracks don't hear the train after awhile.
Imagine what life would be like if we did not have this shut-off valve in our system? We would be constantly bombarded from all directions with sounds, smells, sights, we would feel out clothing, the air, etc. It would be overwhelming. It is believed that this is what life is like for some people with Autism.They are so overwhelmed that they shut down, and don't respond, because they don't know what, of all the input,  to respond to.
People with chronic pain can have a version of this, where the pain signals continue bombarding, and the habituation mechanism fails to kick in to shut off awareness. This may be due to the intensity of the pain signal, or in the case of Fibro, the pain signal mechanism itself is faulty.
Stay tuned: my next post will be on some things you can do when your pain signal won't shut off.      

Sensory Defensiveness

We experience and interact with our world through our senses. When the system is working properly, your body responds to sensations effectively and efficiently, without conscious effort.You automatically make adjustments to your position if you are in a rocking boat. You can tell how much pressure to use when buttering bread. For some people, this doesn't happen so smoothly. Some people are under responsive to sensory stimuli, others are overly responsive. Most people on the Autism spectrum have sensory processing problems, either under or over, and often a combination. I want to focus on sensory defensiveness, the over sensitivity and over reaction to sensations, which is not just in people with Autism.
I have a new job (I am an occupational therapist) with children in a school. Even though it is the end of the school year, I do have one child I am going to see for the last couple of weeks of the school year. He has some sensory defensiveness, and I have been reading up on it, to refresh my memory. I have made some interesting observations, and had some Aha moments.
As I sat here reading, my legs were bothering me. Besides the muscle tenderness and tendinitis issues, my skin was feeling irritated. As I was reading about sensory defensiveness, MY sensory defensiveness was reminding me that it was there. In Fibromyalgia, pain signals, which normally function to let us know something is wrong, get greatly magnified, as well as triggered for no apparent reason. People with Fibromyalgia have pain where there is no trauma; even the caress of a loved one may cause pain. My cat, sleeping against my leg sometimes causes pain. My small netbook computer hurts my legs when it sits in my lap without a pillow under it. Certain fabrics irritate, tags in clothing hurt.Wrinkles in the bed sheets, both under me and on top of me, cause discomfort.
Besides tactile issues, people with Fibro tend to be overly sensitive to other sensations: bright lights, loud noises, smells. I never thought about this similarity before between the sensitivities that people with Fibromyalgia have, and people on the Autism spectrum.I found the reading fascinating, as I related it to my experiences, comparing and contrasting. One big difference is that our bodies had a chance to learn to process and integrate the sensory signals in a "normal" way before the malfunction occurred. People who were born with or were very young when their sensory issues started have never known anything different, and may not even know that others function differently.
More on this at a later time.