Lately Abby's sensory needs have been heightened, due to several different factors: schedule change, school changing, therapist changing, vacations etc. She has been overstimulated for the past month and in the past day has been coming down - what I call sensory letdown.
The best way I can give you a visual of what Abby is like when she is on sensory overload is this: imagine a cat - now imagine a cat after a catnip treat and you have sensory overload. She can not calm her body - she hops, she chews, she bites, she pinches, she talks (non-stop), she is completely out of control. This is the behavior that is the hardest to deal with from a parents point of view. She is unable to sleep and unable to stop talking and as a parent you can not take much more, you pray every night that it will stop, you pull out the bubble mountain, the rice bin, the balloon, the brush, the trampoline. As a mom you try everything in the book and it still doesn't stop. You are forced to listen to her talk to herself until the early morning, sleeping for short amounts of time. She explains that there is so much to see and so much to hear and so much to do. She becomes anxious about what to wear, what to eat, what time she goes to school, when is her birthday: how far away is her birthday, months, days, hours. You might actually think she is OCD at times but she is just trying to get ahold of her surroundings. It is very exhausting for her at times and definitely tiring for her family.
I become angry and frustrated when she is overstimulated. I feel bad for her and I feel bad for me and I feel bad for her brothers and I feel helpless when she is like this. All the at-home therapies and techniques just do not seem to work for her when she is that out of control. This is when her private OT sessions are a godsend. At these times is when I realize why SPD is so often confused with ADHD.
As hard as sensory overstimulation is there is another state of SPD that is so much harder for me as a mother and Abby and that is the letdown. Today Abby is in the sensory letdown. Her body is exhausted and fatigued. Her other senses are over sensitive. The circles around her eyes take up it seems her whole face. She is emotionally shot, physically exhausted and 100% overwhelmed.
Abby is having a very hard time with touch tonight. Abby was playing with her brother and he pushed her playfully this made her burst into tears and run screaming to me to let me know that Andy hurt her. During teeth brushing she put the toothbrush in her mouth but said brushing hurt too much. She asked if I could hug her but then said I was hugging her too hard and to "do it softer", her "softer" was me hovering around her.
Abby is also having a hard time with her auditory input. She complained verbally and covered her ears about multiple sounds tonight, these sounds include: daddy frying up hamburgers, the A/C, the water running from the faucet, the sound of the light in the bathroom and the sound of the dryer. Needless to say we did not vacuum tonight and she outright refused to flush the toilet.
Tonight Abby picked a very quiet story, she made me turn her music up (I think this helps with the white noise) and was very happy to have the light turned out. Her body relaxed under the weighted blanket, which had to be placed no higher then her waist because it was making her not be able to breathe, but she can not sleep without it. She fell asleep instantly it seemed.
This is the time I really remember how hard the things in her daily life can be. She will be in this letdown phase for the next few days. It will be emotional for me as her mother especially when I just want to hold her and comfort her but know that she will find that uncomfortable even though she too wants it. As her mother I know that her body and mind needs to reset and I know how good her days will be when it does. But I also fear the next overstimulation and letdown knowing that it will come but not knowing when.
I become angry and frustrated when she is overstimulated. I feel bad for her and I feel bad for me and I feel bad for her brothers and I feel helpless when she is like this. All the at-home therapies and techniques just do not seem to work for her when she is that out of control. This is when her private OT sessions are a godsend. At these times is when I realize why SPD is so often confused with ADHD.
As hard as sensory overstimulation is there is another state of SPD that is so much harder for me as a mother and Abby and that is the letdown. Today Abby is in the sensory letdown. Her body is exhausted and fatigued. Her other senses are over sensitive. The circles around her eyes take up it seems her whole face. She is emotionally shot, physically exhausted and 100% overwhelmed.
Abby is having a very hard time with touch tonight. Abby was playing with her brother and he pushed her playfully this made her burst into tears and run screaming to me to let me know that Andy hurt her. During teeth brushing she put the toothbrush in her mouth but said brushing hurt too much. She asked if I could hug her but then said I was hugging her too hard and to "do it softer", her "softer" was me hovering around her.
Abby is also having a hard time with her auditory input. She complained verbally and covered her ears about multiple sounds tonight, these sounds include: daddy frying up hamburgers, the A/C, the water running from the faucet, the sound of the light in the bathroom and the sound of the dryer. Needless to say we did not vacuum tonight and she outright refused to flush the toilet.
Tonight Abby picked a very quiet story, she made me turn her music up (I think this helps with the white noise) and was very happy to have the light turned out. Her body relaxed under the weighted blanket, which had to be placed no higher then her waist because it was making her not be able to breathe, but she can not sleep without it. She fell asleep instantly it seemed.
This is the time I really remember how hard the things in her daily life can be. She will be in this letdown phase for the next few days. It will be emotional for me as her mother especially when I just want to hold her and comfort her but know that she will find that uncomfortable even though she too wants it. As her mother I know that her body and mind needs to reset and I know how good her days will be when it does. But I also fear the next overstimulation and letdown knowing that it will come but not knowing when.
I would love to talk to you at some point, Kaden's recently been diagnosed with ADHD (I think its something more) as well as impulsive disorder and "sensory issues" and i say it that way cause there just throwing that out there due to kadens recent meltdowns. But after reading your posts a lot of Abby's issues sound a lot like how Kaden acts anyway... when you have some time..
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