Thread by @ekverstania

Treating Sensory Overstimulation

Set a reminder for this Twitter Space to be held on 19 December (or 20 December if you're in the Far East).

The time shown is in your local zone (7 p.m. for me in Johannesburg/Harare/Cairo time).

twitter.com/i/spaces/1BdxY…

This topic was chosen by means of a poll.

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1467963164390219786?t=QUGHR-mn8fmBlnSCotsm2w&s=19

This time I WILL be taking questions and comments.

I've been asked about the word 'treating', and whether I meant accommodating sensory overload, reducing sensory input, preventing and coping with sensory overload. No, I'll touch on that, but other than prevention, I don't mean that. I mean treating the physiological problem.

Those are also important things. It's like, if you are treating a headache, don't do activities that could make your headache worse, and don't hang around places that could lead to a headache.

But I am NOT just talking about coping. Where possible, I'm talking about working towards a situation where you don't have sensory overload again ever (which is possible for some of us) or at least having sensory overload less often, less severely, or not for as long as now.

Some people have told me that treating sensory overload is "treating autism". Don't get your hopes up, ableist curemongers: My sensory overload has been in remission since 2015, but I don't feel less autistic yet!

Also, sensory overload isn't unique to autistic people.

In fact, I think I'll open with an example of a non-autistic person being treated for sensory overload.

If anyone wants to share favourite noise-cancelling devices, weighted blankets, light-adjusting glasses, deep pressure machines, brushes, etc. feel free to reply here with links or tips. I'm not going to focus on those things in this talk, I'm going to talk about physiology.

To some extent, I'll mention the hypothesis behind why brushing and joint compression provides a bit of relief.

If 'treating' is not a great word for trying to reduce (or eliminate) depression, tachycardia, headaches, high blood pressure, seizures or migraines, then substitute whatever word you'd use instead, and put it in front of 'sensory overload'.

I'll talk about some of the risks of trying to treat this, and the risk of NOT treating sensory overload from a physiological perspective. (Like, what else could go wrong if you just leave it?)

Also, I can tell you how you could ACCIDENTALLY treat sensory overload by treating a bunch of other problems, so maybe if you LIKE sensory overload (!) then there are a number of other health conditions you should probably ignore in case you inadvertently reduce sensory overload!

Sensory overstimulation stems from an underlying condition. The underlying causes and conditions are not the same for everyone. Some could be framed as neurological differences, some as disorders, and some even result from physical injury or neglect.

https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1470679745276919808?t=04LBgQGPOsfdeO_91PC8-A&s=19

MOST people would want to treat sensory overload up to a certain point in the cascade. But going beyond that isn't always possible or advisable.

Would be interesting to ask #MedTwitter how much they know about the topic.

Question: What causes sensory overstimulation, how do you know which of the various types of overstimulation a particular person has, and how do you treat them?

If you don't know, join my Space.