Anxiety and Sensory Processing Disorder – Which Comes First?

 So today we’re talking about sensoryprocessing ill and suspicion and which comes first.Is it sometimes that we get anxious and therefore we become sensory reactive andsuper sensitive or under energized or is it that our sensory causes theproblem and this is a really good question and it’s a really important oneto address well so we’re really just going to introduce some of the conceptsjust now and generating some things into the room that we need to think aboutwe’re not going to solve all the problems that the issue fetches upbecause that would take days.So let’s give it a go from anoccupational care position when we think about sensory processing disorderand anxiety we’re really starting to wonder if the distress that our client is carrying is really secondary to the sensory processing disorder thechallenges that that generates and so that’s really where I’m going to speakto today and we will bring in a psychologistlater to talk about when feeling is the primary part of the picture and more ofthe root cause of what’s going on. So if we think about the sensory systems andreally try and unpack them and go deep with what it might mean to have adysfunction in one or many of them then we can start to understand that it wouldnaturally be a cause of nervousnes because fluctuation needs to be organized and underour assure to feel safe our sensory structures have a awfully primitive functionof impeding us alive as well as helping us to move, move beautifully, move withfinesse, navigate gaps and become social creatures.The firstly patch though is this safety keeping us aliveOur sense of balance, our vestibular sense that spirit level ofliquid in the inner ear and quartzs that tells us if we’re upright againstgravity or where we are that method, its first part is to keep us aliveand if we get turned upside down real quickit’s gonna make all the alarms go off and it’s going to be telling us that weneed to change something pretty quick so we go into a regime of flight or into astate of push or even more serious into a freeze district when this system sendsall the alarms off.Also when the system isn’t getting enough informationit starts to wonder if I’m safe and alarm systems, alarm bells start to ring.So for example if you’ve ever been in an elevator and there’s that time beforeyou can really tell if you’re moving yet or not, there’s that instant andpeople start to look at each other like are we okay? what’s about to happen here? because we’re not had enough data sufficient information from our vestibularsystem to really assess if we’re safe, if the situation is okay which course we’removing. And again that sense of frighten that you get when you’re on a publictransport, maybe a bus and the bus next to you which one’s moving is it me orthe bus next to me? My visual arrangement and my vestibular arrangement are in conflict andI can’t tell what’s going on, I go into alarm.So these are just examplestrying to help us empathize with individuals who struggle with theirvestibular information on a daytoday basis and that state of deepened fright, arousal that they get into or that they exist in for most of the day, which wouldlook like an anxiety disorder but it’s not it’s not clinical nervousnes in thosesituations, it’s anxiety that’s caused by a lack of integration of the vestibular arrangement with perhaps other organisations contesting report , not enoughinformation and being too quickly and too often in a state of oppose or flight orfreeze.The same falls for our position sense our proprioceptors which arepredominantly in our joints and when we get compression or when we get tractionon our seams we know where we are in space. I often would fall asleep on myarm and go to that level past pins and needles when my limb is just like is iteven there ?! and that if you’ve ever known that is really alarming, thealarm systems go off and your mas starts to say this is not okay, I’ve losta whole limb here and you know what’s happened is that there’s that blood flowhas been a problem, the proprioceptors aren’t serving very well.Your senseof proprioception maintains you fastened and grinded in your own body and when thatsystem is inaccurate, it’s inconsistent, it’s not giving you greatinformation then your arousal goes up and you start to have alarm bells goingoff in your lower mentality saying I’m not safe, I need to be wary, I need to orientto everything that’s going on around me and that inspects again that caution, thatanxiety.But it’s got a sensory root in these cases, but we don’t call theseanxiety agitations, we’re visit that a response to what’s going on with thesensory systems and we could go on with speciman after speciman. A reallyimportant one to think about is the child who really has trouble withmultiple sensory organisations at once and the most challenging environment for thatchild generally speaking is institution because the school environment isloud, it has buzzers, it has visual jumble, there are things hanging from theceiling, there are Mobile’s, there are still posters, there’s Halloween presentations, there’s resembles in the cafeteria, children are entirely unpredictable and they slap you andthey push you and your nervous system is constantly vigilantly trying to keep youalive and you looks just like a uneasy child an vigorous child a child withbehaviors but it comes back down to sensory processing. So this is wherewe start to say with some of our children is the sensory or is thisanxiety? When this child’s at clas they cannot coping, their patience for stressis minimal because they’re using all their resources just to get through theday, or are they so stressed that they’re reactive and we need to figure out whichone comes first.And some of these children where the multisensory piece isthe problematic piece so what we do with those minors is we increase as much stressas possible, we cater to their sensory systems, we nourish their sensory plans, we settled them in the claim regiman, we look at the other accentuates in their life arethey getting enough sleep? Are they imbibing enough water? Are they eatingenough food? How are their relationships? How is their timetable? How are theygetting to school? What’s their socioeconomic status? All of thesestresses we look what i found, we nourish the sensory systems and then we wait and wewatch and we start to unpack.And if this child is able to adapt better when wenourish their sensory systems and adapt the environment, then we know thatfundamentally what’s going on here is not anxiety but that the sensorystresses are so great that they’re causing an anxiety response. But if afteradapting and treating for sensory the suspicion is still particularly prevailing then werefer we find a really good mental health provider who are familiar with sensory but we refer to them and we get them involved and we start unpacking the restof the picture and what’s going on and that’s really important. So that’s been alittle introduction to sensory processing disorder and nervousnes and theinteractions between the two. It’s sensory awareness month. I’m VirginiaSpielmann the associate chairman of STAR Institute now and weare trying to raise awareness, educate and research more into sensoryprocessing ailments so there will be a link that we’d love you to click on toshow your subsistence. Please share, note and give us know what you want todiscuss .. As found on YouTubeNew Explaindio 4 is revolutionary technology which creates fascinating videos by combining 2D & 3D animations, whiteboard sketch elements, and full motion video, all into one powerful, attention grabbing video. This is why I am extremely excited to be able to tell you that now there is Explaindio 4, which is an easy to use video content creation software that allows you to combine 2D & 3D animations, whiteboard sketch elements, and full motion video, all into one powerful, attention grabbing video.