Episode #51: MP - Sensory Flooding from Seeing Autism due out Summer 2021
Episode #51: MP - Sensory Flooding from Seeing Autism due out Summer 2021
Hello Synergy Autism Podcast listeners! I am so happy you are here. I have gotten some really good feedback on my podcasts, people are seeming to like the short and sweet nature of these mini-podcasts I am doing for 2021.
A couple of weeks ago, I did a podcast on The ABA Controversy or the controversy around Applied Behavior Analysis which has received some good accolades. So, if you missed it, please check it out. And today, I am going to give you another sneak peek into my upcoming book: Seeing Autism: Connection Through Understanding. This except i am about to read is on the experience of sensory flooding that so many autists find to be a part of everyday life for themselves. I have other podcasts on this subject, too, if you find it interesting. One is called “Riding High” that if you like today’s reading, you might find that podcast helpful as well.
Here goes….SENSORY FLOODING
For years people assumed that autistic people did not feel emotions in themselves or recognize them in others. By consulting with autistic adults, we now know this may be the exact opposite of the truth. They actually feel emotions more intensely than many of us. It is the ability to organize and make sense of those emotions in themselves and others that is confusing and overwhelming, causing them to either shut down or have what seem like overreactions.
A young child, for example, may quickly get overwhelmed by sensory input and emotions. The parent’s well-intentioned sound effects and words combine with the child’s own stress level and may add to the overwhelm rather than alleviate it. A kind and otherwise generous child may not be able to attend to a peer who is upset due to the onslaught of sensory and social information happening around them. Instead this child may use behaviors that challenge themselves or others to regain clarity and temporary control. A teen or adult may retreat to their room rather than being able to figure out how to manage their own internal emotional rollercoaster. Add your frustration or disappointment to the mix, and the teen or adult goes into full shutdown mode.
A man I have coached for approximately one year is exploring how we “feel” other people’s emotions. He is a very logical and concrete thinker, so he is not prone to simply believing that something happens due to its magical or spiritual qualities. He wants to figure out why and how he is overwhelmed by other people’s emotional states. He describes his experience as taking in enormous amounts of detailed information around him constantly. The information includes people’s facial expressions, gestures, and postures, in addition to the visual and auditory clutter that surrounds us at all times. The lights, sounds, colors, and movements around us result in a cacophony of sensory information.
He uses an analogy to explain his experience: a computer would overheat under these circumstances and stop working. He posits that he is simply taking in too much sensory information for his own system to manage, prioritize, and organize efficiently.
So in keeping with this understanding that people with autism are commonly and especially sensitive to the detailed information around them while being unable to successfully prioritize and manage it, we must pay particular attention to the elements we add as their partners. Your stress, your tension, and your low expectations of the autistic individual probably only add to that flood of sensory and emotional information. If you wish to engage, partner, and guide someone on the autism spectrum, your ability to be and stay regulated when engaging is critical. If you are anxious or overwhelmed, your partner in the interaction may react to that anxiety before you even have a chance to open your mouth to mitigate. Your emotions can be felt as “noise” that comes in as chaotic and difficult to manage.
I’d like for you to imagine starting your day with a full cup of coffee, water, or tea. Each day we hopefully have been refreshed with sleep, which represents our restart, our full cup. As we go through the day, situations arise that require us to drink from that cup. These situations are neither positive nor negative; they are simply situations that our minds and bodies manage. We get dressed; we take a sip. We gather up our essentials for the day, and we take another sip. But then we are a little late for work, the news on the radio is upsetting, or the radio announcer’s voice is slightly annoying. Oof. Take a big sip. We are already looking at the bottom of our cup. It is almost empty. We sit down in our comfy chair ready to work. We turn on our computer, and it crashes, showing us only a pixelated screen (yes, this might have happened in the middle of writing this book). We sit back in our chair and drink the rest of the contents of our cup trying to think of what to do next. But then we are spent. We are depleted. Feelings of anxiety creep in as we realize our deadlines won’t be met and our online appointments will all need to be shifted. We are so overwhelmed with the new and added responsibilities that we stare at the computer screen, frozen.
That depleted and overwhelmed feeling is familiar to a lot of us, but for people with autism, it reportedly happens regularly, maybe all of the time. Both autistics and neurotypicals need to figure out what works for us to rejuvenate or refill our cups throughout the day or week to be at our best. When we are depleted, our decision-making capacity and ability to take action are severely limited.
Thank you for listening to this excerpt from Seeing Autism: Connection Through Understanding due out this summer.
Till next time….
A couple of weeks ago, I did a podcast on The ABA Controversy or the controversy around Applied Behavior Analysis which has received some good accolades. So, if you missed it, please check it out. And today, I am going to give you another sneak peek into my upcoming book: Seeing Autism: Connection Through Understanding. This except i am about to read is on the experience of sensory flooding that so many autists find to be a part of everyday life for themselves. I have other podcasts on this subject, too, if you find it interesting. One is called “Riding High” that if you like today’s reading, you might find that podcast helpful as well.
Here goes….SENSORY FLOODING
For years people assumed that autistic people did not feel emotions in themselves or recognize them in others. By consulting with autistic adults, we now know this may be the exact opposite of the truth. They actually feel emotions more intensely than many of us. It is the ability to organize and make sense of those emotions in themselves and others that is confusing and overwhelming, causing them to either shut down or have what seem like overreactions.
A young child, for example, may quickly get overwhelmed by sensory input and emotions. The parent’s well-intentioned sound effects and words combine with the child’s own stress level and may add to the overwhelm rather than alleviate it. A kind and otherwise generous child may not be able to attend to a peer who is upset due to the onslaught of sensory and social information happening around them. Instead this child may use behaviors that challenge themselves or others to regain clarity and temporary control. A teen or adult may retreat to their room rather than being able to figure out how to manage their own internal emotional rollercoaster. Add your frustration or disappointment to the mix, and the teen or adult goes into full shutdown mode.
A man I have coached for approximately one year is exploring how we “feel” other people’s emotions. He is a very logical and concrete thinker, so he is not prone to simply believing that something happens due to its magical or spiritual qualities. He wants to figure out why and how he is overwhelmed by other people’s emotional states. He describes his experience as taking in enormous amounts of detailed information around him constantly. The information includes people’s facial expressions, gestures, and postures, in addition to the visual and auditory clutter that surrounds us at all times. The lights, sounds, colors, and movements around us result in a cacophony of sensory information.
He uses an analogy to explain his experience: a computer would overheat under these circumstances and stop working. He posits that he is simply taking in too much sensory information for his own system to manage, prioritize, and organize efficiently.
So in keeping with this understanding that people with autism are commonly and especially sensitive to the detailed information around them while being unable to successfully prioritize and manage it, we must pay particular attention to the elements we add as their partners. Your stress, your tension, and your low expectations of the autistic individual probably only add to that flood of sensory and emotional information. If you wish to engage, partner, and guide someone on the autism spectrum, your ability to be and stay regulated when engaging is critical. If you are anxious or overwhelmed, your partner in the interaction may react to that anxiety before you even have a chance to open your mouth to mitigate. Your emotions can be felt as “noise” that comes in as chaotic and difficult to manage.
I’d like for you to imagine starting your day with a full cup of coffee, water, or tea. Each day we hopefully have been refreshed with sleep, which represents our restart, our full cup. As we go through the day, situations arise that require us to drink from that cup. These situations are neither positive nor negative; they are simply situations that our minds and bodies manage. We get dressed; we take a sip. We gather up our essentials for the day, and we take another sip. But then we are a little late for work, the news on the radio is upsetting, or the radio announcer’s voice is slightly annoying. Oof. Take a big sip. We are already looking at the bottom of our cup. It is almost empty. We sit down in our comfy chair ready to work. We turn on our computer, and it crashes, showing us only a pixelated screen (yes, this might have happened in the middle of writing this book). We sit back in our chair and drink the rest of the contents of our cup trying to think of what to do next. But then we are spent. We are depleted. Feelings of anxiety creep in as we realize our deadlines won’t be met and our online appointments will all need to be shifted. We are so overwhelmed with the new and added responsibilities that we stare at the computer screen, frozen.
That depleted and overwhelmed feeling is familiar to a lot of us, but for people with autism, it reportedly happens regularly, maybe all of the time. Both autistics and neurotypicals need to figure out what works for us to rejuvenate or refill our cups throughout the day or week to be at our best. When we are depleted, our decision-making capacity and ability to take action are severely limited.
Thank you for listening to this excerpt from Seeing Autism: Connection Through Understanding due out this summer.
Till next time….
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