Too Loud, Too Bright, Too Fast, Too Tight- What to do if you are sensory defensive in an overstimulating world by Sharon Heller

Author:Sharon Heller
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: NF
ISBN: 0060932929
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: 2014-08-05T04:00:00+00:00

Other Deep-Pressure Interventions

There are other ways to get skin stimulation.

Some companies sell powerful vibrators that provide a deep-pressure massage with long-lasting effects. Vibrators cause the bones to vibrate and stimulate the gravity receptors as well. Some people are calmed by leaning against a washing machine or dryer or resting their head against a train or bus window to feel the vibration. As with other interventions, vibration is integrating if you enjoy it but potentially disorganizing if you do not, so follow your body’s reaction in choosing it for therapy.

Another effective means of pressure is to wear a “bear hug” vest that fits snugly next to the body, with adjustable straps and body wrap to adjust the amount of pressure as desired. For proprioceptive input, you can also add weights. At night, weighted blankets create pressure to help some sleep more restfully.

Any kind of skin stimulation will release tension, even if just briefly: loufah brushes, bath sponges, a terrycloth washcloth, a hair-brush; shower attachments that spray, needle, massage, or pulse; wooden body and foot rollers; tappers; sleeping on a terrycloth beach towel.

As part of a research study, one 22-year-old tactile defensive woman was instructed to vigorously rub her skin with a dry terrycloth washcloth and plastic bristle hairbrush for a half-hour to one hour each evening for three months.6 Over the course of treatment, physiological parameters were measured as she was exposed to light touch, a flashing light, and a loud tone. Respiration rate, hand temperature, and skin conductance responses reflected increased relaxation and ability to tune out unpleasant stimulation over the course of the study, suggesting that the treatment helped modulate her nervous system.

Body rolling, which involves sitting on a hard ball to create pressure in specific areas of the body, offers intense deep pressure and proprioception. Like the Wilbarger protocol, the effect lasts around 2 hours. It is an inexpensive self-massage, and the ball is small enough to carry with you when traveling. You can find classes in your area or buy Body Rolling, by Yamuna Zake (Healing Arts Press), and follow the instructions.

Other ways to create deep pressure include rolling across the floor, digging into the roots of your hair and yanking it and twisting it for deep pressure to your scalp, underwater swimming, and especially deep-sea diving.

Oral defensiveness is treated separately from tactile defensiveness, as the mouth is controlled by the cranial nerves. A simple technique that Patricia Wilbarger has devised that puts firm pressure against the palate is quickly effective.7 Recall that in only two days of treatment, Serena, the girl with anorexic-like symptoms, began to eat foods she had never eaten before.

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