Hello! Recently diagnosed! I have questions! (SPD)

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Hello everyone. I am 25 yr old female who has been diagnosed very recently with autism and SPD.

I struggle with the SPD a lot of the time... I can't go to amusement parks, grocery stores are distressing, I hate even being in parks where there are people around. I do much better in spaces with either dim light or some natural light. I am really sensitive and I hate it.

I just would like to know any wisdom anyone has acquired over the years or months that might help me with SPD and in general, autism.

My autism, my doctor says is not severe. I also do not get violent. I actually just stay silent not knowing what to say almost all the time unless someone else initiates communication.

I hope to be more active in this community.

Thank you very much.

Well, it says I am 26 although my birthday is next week. I am still 25.

Try entering your birthdate in the format DD-MM-YYYY instead of MM-DD-YYYY.

OH! Thank you.

Hello. Nice to meet you (online that is). Pleased for you that you have a diagnosis.
With regards to SPD, well the Occupational Therapists are the best people to talk to about such things.
Although some areas that are a bit behind in, such as living environments for people who are sensitive to sound.

With regards to light sensitivity
i am sensitive to light to some extent, generally wear my sunglasses outside even in the winter.
Sometimes someone tells me that its not sunny, as if telling me off!

Being unconventional, i usually ask them if i need a licence to wear sunglasses etc. Personally, i wish people would mind their own business. What harm am i doing them if i wear sunglasses or not, but there ya go.

I don't bother explaining myself when it comes to this issue. think its a bit pathetic on their part.
I mean, who are they the sunglasses police. "that's it sunny, you've had it now, i have caught you wearing your sunglasses on a day that is officially labelled as not sunny, so i am going to have to take you down to the station and put you in prison for the rest of your life!"...

well, that doesn't happen.. (at least yet, in my particular case, it may well do. as the police do generally treat me with such discrimination you wouldn't believe it, while allowing all the blatant crims get away with murder... but i guess its all to do with who you know and how much money you have in the island that i live).

When it comes to your own living environment. The rule of thumb is to use soft lighting where you can, stay well clear away from fluorescent lighting, as people with ASD often can see the flicker and get migraines, sometimes instantly.

Although i live in the country side, and my flat overlooks fields. i often keep my blinds down, so as to cut down on the sensory info. and to keep my nosy neighbour out of my sight (if only i could not hear her as well...)..

Ideally find housing in a low sensory area, away from too much going on. Ideally around a lot of greenery.
Ideally away from noise. and in walking distance of shops.

I also recommend staying away from LED computer screens, favouring the latest and ideally the fastest LCD screens that you can afford, for TV's as well.

Windows 10 as well as Mac OS has special settings for viewing after a certain time, where the screens do not emit certain colours (such as blue) as these colours can cause people to stay awake (insomnia) as i think the colours have a detrimental effect on your brain waves or melotonin production or something. can't remember exactly.

Some also say that wearing glasses that cut out blue light can also help. Not really sure.
Although i almost brought some that were manufactured by Sony and had a PS4 logo on the side.
Probably counterfeit! ... ? ...

apparently blue light no good for you...
the glasses didn't look too bad. Some other gaming companies also make them but they cost quiet a lot more
and don't always look that much better.... unless you want to look super geeky....

but that is of course a subjective opinion...
cheers

I know that feeling all too well. Here you can both initiate conversation and reply to a conversation when you are ready to do so. That makes things a whole lot better.

Welcome to wrong planet

Welcome to Wrong Planet. I think there are many tricks that Aspies can use to overcome some of the Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) oversensitivity's. Over the past several months, many of these were discussed. Some that come to the top of my mind are:

For noise sensitivity, try wearing music headsets so you can listen to background music. Or wear noise canceling headsets or earplugs.

For visual sensitivity wear sunglasses. Sometimes when I become overloaded with florescent lighting I develop ocular migraines. I begin seeing stars around my peripheral vision which over the next hours works toward the center and then I become blinded by a field of shimmering stars and then a migraine headache occurs. I have found that once this process begins, if I move to natural lighting, the effects are minimized. Another choice is to control the type of lighting and the intensity of lighting (such as with a dimmer switch).

If grocery stores are a problem, go during hours when they are not crowded. And it is always important to make a shopping list in advance and stick to the list. Again wear sunglasses in the stores and music headsets. In today's world, you even have the option of ordering food on line and having them bring the groceries to your car.

Last edited by jimmy m on 03 Aug 2019, 10:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I am a highly sensitive person. Based on online tests (I took just now) I am borderline SPD. I am not sure how much of this is sensory related and how much is executive function, but I have success with a companion, or else I limit my exposure, set expectations for myself. In college a roommate took me along grocery shopping. Now my easy-going husband does the shopping and errands. And as long as I have him nearby I can do an amusement park (with short lines). Otherwise if I focus and set an agenda, I can do things myself (but I can only do that so often). I have had success grocery shopping for 2-3 items (and only those), or to get more items, I give myself at least an hour during a quiet time of day.

When comfortable I talk a mile a minute and interrupt with questions and clarifications. When I am not comfortable I either concentrate ("mask") and can pretend well enough for a bit, or I am very quiet.

Welcome to the community!

@madbutnotmad - Thank you SO SO much! I believe my laptop is LCD! I find my laptop and cell phone very soothing, for the most part. But the bright white lights in most places such as in offices or stores, I start to feel very scared. 
It sounds like the intensity of our sensitivities seem quite similar… AKA pretty intense? I feel like I’m shattering and breaking when it gets bad. 



@ASPartOfMe - Thank you for your warm introduction. It feels so good to know you also know the feeling.

@jimmy m - Thank you very much! Sunglasses do help unless the stimulation is too intense in other ways. I Will have to play around with this and find what works. 

I am just beginning to accept that this is a part of me, even though it’s been going on for a rather long time, and I understand that I have a legitimate reason to say “no” to certain social situations.

@SharonB - Oh my goodness, I can truly relate to pretending that I am well enough when overstimulated and freaked out. It is so so so painful. 
I also talk to people only if they understand my interests and have the same interest. For me, that’s usually science, psychiatry, psychology, and spirituality. 
Thank you for the welcome!

I use high fidelity earplugs that are designed for musicians to use at professional events to save their hearing.

I've also reduced the wattage of the lights in my home. All I need is five or six watts of LED lightbulbs to light up a room. When I bought the place the fixtures had a pair of 60 watt lightbulbs, so I've gone from 120 watts to 6 watts! A considerable savings on my electric bill.

@BTDT - Oh, very nice! I will look into them, thank you very much. I have tried wearing my sister’s beats headphones while walking a dog before and it helped immensely. & Yes, where I live, the lights are very very dim, it is comforting even if it’s still stimulating. When it’s too bright in houses (without natural lighting), I start to freak out.

Welcome,

My sensory issues cause me much misery, so I can relate. I have found planning for and pacing my energy is vital to me getting through through any sensory warzone. The more tired I get the worse my sensitivities. Do others find the same thing? and it just goes downhill from there.

For me a loud or cluttered auditory environment quickly wears me down till I feel sick and get a headache and I can't focus on anything. If I must stay for any time in a nasty place, then I try to give myself breaks from it, find a relatively quiet place, or use heading protection for a while to recover and then return. That way I've found I can last longer. I have an assortment of earplugs, earmuffs (that look like headphones) and noise cancelling headphones to take the edge off and declutter the sounds.

Aspies generally experience more stress than the average individual. It is almost like our middle name is STRESS. As you become stressed the Asperger symptoms that you hold buried deep within you come to the surface.

So the key is that if you can learn to manage the stress load properly, then those characteristics will fade away and become dormant again. So how can you manage your stress loads? One strategy is to focus you energies on obtaining an adequate amount of daily Deep Sleep (which heals the body) and REM Sleep (which resets the mind).

But what is an adequate amount? The average adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep at night. Once a person dips below 7 hours of sleep at night, they start to experience negative effects of their physical health and mental acuity. The amount of deep and REM sleep an average adult needs will be about 20-25% of their total sleep, depending on how many hours they actually sleep. At 7 hours, that would be approximately 84 to 105 minutes. Source:How Much Deep And REM Sleep Should You Be Getting Each Night? So those are the metrics that you need to track.

So how do you meet these metrics? Some simple answers can be found on the Internet. Such as 14 Things To Do Before Bed That Will Put You Into A Deep, Restful Sleep But your exact roadmap to obtaining adequate Deep and REM sleep will vary. It is not just rolling into bed at an early hour. I minimize light, and noise. For me I have found that a waterbed provides me a great nights sleep and generally I am asleep within 5 minutes after I roll into bed. There are a variety of tools that can help. Items like weighted blackets. Try them and tailor the available tools to your needs and check the metrics to make sure they are moving in the right directions. Some Fitbits can provide you a daily sleep analysis.

So to reduce your level of SPD, one approach is to reduce your stress load and one of the tools for doing so is getting adequate REM and DEEP sleep. Make that one of your focuses and make your sleep environment sleep friendly.

@jimmy m. Good advice. My symptoms were manageable while stress was lower. I had a college professor who "taught" his class about sleep and a psychiatrist who said I could get through parenting only with sleep. I took both seriously and have gotten this far well enough with 8-9 hrs sleep, more when I am under physical stress. During a medical hardship EFT (tapping) worked for me. Now during a social (work) hardship... I need a new tool! Interesting to think I am more SPD with the stress than I might be without it.

Hi, love2connect! Welcome to WP! I was diagnosed with what was then called PDD-NOS at a very young age, so I don't know what it's like to be diagnosed as an adult, but it must not be easy.

I had pretty severe sensory issues when I was a child, though I was never diagnosed with SPD outright (to my knowledge anyway). I hate but have learned to tolerate fluorescent lighting, and also prefer warmly- or naturally-lit environments. I get anxiety being in out in public on my own, but that's more of a social anxiety thing for me than a sensory thing, for the most part. I am better at responding to communication than initiating, much like you. I hope you find our community helpful and understanding!