Sensory issues

It's been a long time since last posting, so it feels a bit weird to start a thread again, but perhaps someone can give me some tips with the following issue.

I have been pretty sensitive to things like lights, sound,touch etc from when I was young. Since a few years it became much harder for me to deal with those senses, to the point where I can't bear looking at things like brick walls, brick streets, or like a lot of small things in one spot.

(e.g. adult coloringbooks, stuff in a grocery store, tiles, letters,patterns on clothing, colored text and so on, the smaller/the more going on the more painful/overwhelming).

When I'm not too tired I can deal with it for a very little time only, and when I am tired it gets worse. I get overwhelmed to the point where it hurts to look at anything at all and I cannot think clearly. I have been diagnosed with a metabolic disease (glut 1-deficiency), and wonder if it might cause sensory issues.

If anyone's got some tips to make it easier to deal with this, it'd be welcome..

I become much more sensitive to things (lights, movement, etc.) when I am tired.

I use a weighted blanket to help me calm down and decrease the sensory overload. I am an occupational therapist and was working in a psychiatric setting and started using them with patients. I had so much success with my patients I tried it for myself and it really helps. I am able to settle more easily and sleep much better with the blanket. It is so important to me that I even have a smaller one that goes to the hospital with me.

How sensitive I am has waxed and waned. I had a time when I wished I was dicromatic because the color red stood out too much and hurt my mind. Used to be super sensitive to glare as a child. Just filled shelves have in the recent past overwhelmed me, also if there are many houses and cars, but that is fine now, houses and cars are OK. I'm not sure why a thing like that would get worse over time. I kinda haven't heard about that. But I am very familiar with sensory overload and mine is mainly visual. I can make myself deaf to the world, at least at times, something I thought everyone could but that is not the case I hear.

Thestrange you have just described just about everything that I have been experiencing for years. I have put it down to being tired which seems to be all the time....but I have noticed that when my iron is also low the extreme sensitivity to being touched and light is even more intense. I am trying to use mindfulness to stay in the moment and keep me focused

The following link has a lot of information regarding hypersensitivity. Before I post it I'm wondering if you've ever been diagnosed with an autism-spectrum disorder?

Hypersensitive - RightDiagnosis.com

I made a big heavy bean bag I put on y shoulder or chest when I am overwhelmed.

i hate the lights in grocery stores sometimes but other times i can handle it. i do have epilepsy and was told it is because of the epilepsy. i also get migrains, but haven't had one in a long time, i think because a doc put me on propanolol.good luck

Just to let you know, I have had a suspicion of having autism for a few years, because I recognise multiple traits. Two years ago I have had an AQ test and scored about 32 or higher, my T wrote down ASD possible. I never asked about it till december last year. Got a new T and my mom was interviewed, afterwards I had this feeling important things were left out by my mom, it felt like she hadn't really known me that well. Had an interview myself, but wasn't able to prepare like I would have now (e.g. would have written down stuff about my past before the interview as I am not that easy with speaking).

About 8 months later we spoke about the subject again, because I thought about it a lot. Wrote down some papers and sent it to my T, to specify why it was still something I thought about. The next time I was waiting for a clear explanation why they would or wouldn't do something with what I wrote down, but they didn't see autism, because I have empathy (?) and it didn't appear in the interview with my mom (which I still feel may not have covered important information) She said this about two weeks ago. So now I try to stop thinking about it, because if a T says something, it should be true, right...

Yet a big part of me cannot let it go.

Many therapists reach false conclusions due to biases. The three main biases are: 1) confirmation bias 2) anchoring 3) overconfidence bias.

Confirmation bias is when a therapist begins with a conclusion (diagnosis) and puts added weight on certain statistics to prove the conclusion.

Anchoring is when a therapist gives too much weight to his or her first impression.

Overconfidence bias is when a therapist puts too much faith into his or her knowledge or opinions.