Have you ever used these words to describe yourself?
Sensitive
Picky
Clumsy
Dramatic
Too much
Over-reactor
Meltdown
Shutdown
Overwhelmed
Exhausted
Anxious
What if, instead of being character descriptors, these words actually pointed to another reality instead?
What if they indicated that the way you interact with your environment is based on your neurology and wiring rather than your inability to behave appropriately?
Would that change how critical and mean you are with yourself?
Would that invite curiosity and a desire to understand yourself better? I certainly hope so.
Character Defect or Neurodivergent Trait
People who are prone to having the above labels might not actually be disobedient, willful, stubborn, bad children. Children who internalize these labels and forever seek to prove themselves good enough. People who might describe themselves with these labels might actually have a Neurodiverse way of processing information. Neurodiverse is a term that describes how some individuals are acutely attuned to the environment and people interacting with them
Believe it or not, professions who are aware of Sensory Processing Disorder (which has a few different subtypes) can help you learn to identify triggers that might hold keys to your optimal levels of arousal and stimulation and how you operate best in the world. Occupational Therapists lead the way in helping individuals with sensory defensiveness (aversion to different types of sensory input) or sensory seeking (behaviors that increase a persons alertness) traits to find a “just right” space to function in the world.
Mental Health Therapists rarely learn about SPD. When clients come into therapy seeking help for anxiety and depression or mood swings, anger and meltdowns - we use the tools we have been trained in. However, once we add the lens of SPD we might see that a whole different approach is necessary.
We see a huge amount of anxiety. People who are very sensory defensive, super sentitive to sensory information, are being bombarded their whole lives with sensory input that is hard to manage - so essentially they are being exposed to ongoing trauma. The disorder itself is actually just life - it’s traumatizing them. So those individuals are likely to have higher rates of anxiety because they live in a world where everything is making them anxious. Also related to that is depression, since anxiety and depression are interrelated.”
Teresa May-Benson quoted in the book Divergent Mind by Jenara Nerenberg
Sensory challenges lead to emotional challenges
I find it interesting that most people who talk about anxiety or trauma use the word trigger. “That triggers me” And in true anxiety form, avoidance of anything that triggers us is the desire of the moment. Unfortunately, when we begin to avoid situations, people and places that might trigger us, we end up shrinking our world and our opportunities to live a full life and experience joy. So while avoidance is a short - term strategy, it has long-term consequences that actually make the anxiety more powerful and controlling in our lives.
Sensory processing issues bring a different definition to the word trigger. It’s true that for people with SPD sounds, tastes, textures, temperatures, body positions, external sources of stimulation can cause a person to perceive a threat and move them into Sympathetic Activation (fight, flight, hyper vigilance). Anybody who spends any length of time in Sympathetic activation without agency to do something about it, will experience anger and or anxiety.
So when you say “I’m feeling anxious” and you start scanning your experience for what could be causing the anxious feelings, how often are you actually able to identify a cause?
Sometimes there is an actual threat. Good job nervous system for alerting me. And hopefully I will take action to remove myself from that threat. This may be speaking up or removing ourself out of harms way.
Sometimes, in searching for a cause, we come up empty handed. Could it be the buzz of the fluorescent lights are causing you to feel keyed up and on edge? How about the tone of your coworkers voice - could that be causing some discomfort of a sensory variety? Other times, the act of adulting limits our ability to move our body in a way that would feel good and keep us alert and focused. We literally feel like we could crawl out of our skin. Movement might help.
Is it possible that instead of another panic attack, that something in your environment may be causing you to feel overstimulated? Having negative space in our immediate environment can give our eyes a gentle place to land. This is turn can help us find a sense of internal self-regulation when our external environment might be too much for us.
Stephen Porges, the researcher behind PolyVagal Theory has developed a listening program called The Safe and Sound Protocol aka the integrated Listening Program, that can help provide a nicely balanced amount of stimulation for nervous systems that tend to get dysregulated. Self and co regulation are therapeutic goals
The STAR Institute https://sensoryhealth.org/basic/spd-adults has many resources for both children and adults who experience sensory integration difficulties. The good news is it is a manageable condition. It could be making your anxiety worse. With proper care, which includes learning what things help you feel grounded, balanced, alert and well, this is a part of being uniquely you. Being a sensitive individual has many upsides. Its a both/and scenario. Once the over or under stimulation can be identified and managed, you may find that your sensitivity allows you to connect with, nature, creativity, animals, people and the world at large in a beautiful way.
Just some extra thoughts:
sensory challenge leads to emotional challenges
meltdown
gifted, sensitive individual
middle school high school adds mental health layer, anxiety, depression, bipolar descriptions that may or may not fit
touch, sex, intimacy, sharing space with others,
too much, too loud, sounds, textures, smells, pressure,
physical exercise is key with SPD
STAR institute in Colorado
“Feeling an overall sense of ‘regulation’ is what many sensitive neurodivergent women are after, as anxiety is so common.” What does the right amount of sensory stimulation look and feel like. How do I know when I have enough, vs too much, and where is Just right...?
Eisnck “emotional overwhelm and meltdowns - emotions are always overplayed with senses. Neurologically there is a “dual coding” anytime a person has a sensory experience, and emotional experience happens at the same time.
“It’s imperative to address emotions AND sensations, because they’re both happening and they[re both real”
SENSITIVE, CLUMSY,PICKY
“We see a huge amount of anxiety. People who are very sensory defensive, super sentitive to sensory information, are being bombarded their whole lives with sensory input that is hard to manage - so essentially they are being exposed to ongoing trauma. The disorder itself is actually just life - it’s traumatizing them. So those individuals are likely to have higher rates of anxiety because they live in a world where everything is making them anxious. Also related to that is depression, since anxiety and depression are interrelated.”
environment can be triggering - fight, flight, freeze activation of Polyvagal states - modulation of inputs is a struggle so what others ignore easily SPD folks react to