Has anyone seen an OT for Sensory issues?

Post Reply New Topic

Hi,

Has anyone here seen an occupational therapist for help with sensory processing problems? If so, for what specific issues, what was the therapy like and did it help?

I have hypersensitive hearing which for some reason seems to have worsened recently? It's the main source of my very persistent anxiety and SIB. I also stim a lot, crave deep pressure and have very bad pain/heat perception.

I was for a short time. Hypersensitivity for touch, hearing, body awareness, slow motor skills, and overall sensory processing. OT helps my anxiety and challenging behavior.
It helped me a lot... though I need it for years but it costs too much.

I went to one in 5th and 6th grade and it got rid of my defense to touch for clothing I was finally able to wear jeans and not react to touch from getting touch from behind and freaking out about it and I was able to let people touch me without getting so defensive to it and pulling away like people were hurting me. It was also to help identify my feelings and to slow my brain down and to improve my balance. It did help me out and I improved that fast and outgrew sensory disorder and dyspraxia. It like rewired my brain. My mom was lucky to find a therapist who did my age group and it was a neighbor that told my mom about her because she was friends with that person. I needed it too when I was little but Mom never took me to it because she wanted me to feel normal than broken so she found other ways to help me like pottery and gymnastics and swimming and I also took voice lessons to help with my speech and to learn to pause and take breaths during sentences.

I haven't - but it does sound like a good idea.

I did for a short time. The problem was my OT and all the other OT's at the center where I went had only ever worked with young children with Sensory Processing Disorder and so they were not quite sure what to do with a 17 year old. The few helpful things that the OT knew how to do with a teen were exhausted after a just a few visits. I haven't been able to find an OT that has experience working with adults on the spectrum.

I happen to be an OT, and my kids have had OT in school. I have not had a lot of luck with the tactile sensation defensiveness with my daughter. We did joint compression and 'brushing' but she will only wear short sleeve shirts, leggings, and hates bras. We still have the brush and do it from time to time. She says some clothes feel like needles. She used to be very picky with food and we did the strategy of first look at the food, then pick it up, then smell it, then touch it to tongue, then take a bite. She is still picky but will try most foods now with no problem. She is still hypersensative to sound but it does not interfere anymore with regular schedules. Look into Therapeutic Listening with an OT. Certain music is enhanced to progressively work from calming music to more stimulating music to address attention and executive functioning. It's good to know if you are generally a low arousal or high arousal person because low arousal people need to keep themselves occupied in school or work or tend to drift off. High arousal people can get over stimulated easily and need to know some stress relief strategies to regulate their arousal level (quiet, darker room to focus).

Thanks everyone for your replies!

I have a question about brushing. I was wondering if you might have come across anything similar to my experience with it. Brushing was one of the things that we tried to do when I was in OT but it felt horrible and was truly agonizingly painful for me. I would do it and my by body would outwardly relax, but I felt like I needed to tense every muscle in my body, but I couldn't. It was like my body was on fire. I really wanted the brushing to help and I know it is usually a little uncomfortable at first, but it was so bad for me that I would have awful panic attacks and my doctor finally told me to stop doing the brushing. Have you heard of this happening before?

I'm currently doing occupational therapy for every single sense being overloaded to the max (and a few also being underresponsive), as well as for motor skills/motor planning and hypotonia.

I've been doing it for about a month, and it's already working. I mostly do various things with a therapy ball and resistance band. I also use an electric toothbrush, which I don't like because it vibrates my whole head, but it's helped a bit with my food texture sensitivity.

I can feel thirst better, and I don't overreact to certain kinds of pain as much.

I am the same as you. I can't handle it but my kids can. Maybe just do the joint compression part. I like massages though.

Interesting. My daughter never felt thirsty either for years. Now she does. She also never felt the need to urinate. I taught her to go to the bathroom at certain times.

I have those same exact problems. My mom nicked named me a camel

What exactly do you do to help with these? How does the schedule and electric toothbrush work?

(Sorry for so many questions.)

What does thirst feel like?

I never liked the brushing thing either. But it feels good when I rub it over itches.

I don't do anything specifically for them. That just happened to be the result of the proprioception exercises I do. Pulling on a resistance band is one, rolling on my front on a therapy ball is another. I don't know what you mean by schedule. As for he electric toothbrush, I just brush my teeth with it instead of a regular toothbrush. The sensory input from the vibration can help sensitivities in the mouth.



The best way I can describe it is sort of a weird tightness in my throat. I don't know if it would feel like that for anyone else, though.

My mouth or throat is dry when I know I am thirsty but that just means I am not drinking enough water. Same as if your pee is yellow or real dark.