Looking After Your Autistic Self: A Personalised Self-Care Approach to Managing Your Sensory and Emotional Well-Being

instead I try to support myself and use strategies to allow me attend as many activities as I want to. Sometimes I feel like my sensory system is my fourth child, as it requires so much attention, planning, and care.

It’s important to remember that if you do not gather information correctly, or process it correctly, you will probably not respond to it correctly.

Your basic needs not being met. If your basic daily needs are not being met, including hunger, thirst etc., you are more likely to react to sensory stimuli.

To support myself with this, I might sit in the car to listen to calm music with my eyes closed before I enter the house, so I can then enjoy my children’s chatter and touch rather than feel overwhelmed by it.

Three steps to regulate the sensory system: 1. ‘How full is your cup?’ 2. What sense or senses need soothing or regulating? 3. What sensory soothing strategies can I use to ‘empty my cup’?

Cognitive stress. When my mind is preoccupied, too busy, or under stress, I become much more sensitive to sensory triggers.

As autistic adults, we may learn to manage our sensory challenges better, but constantly working to manage an overwhelmed or stressed sensory system does take its toll.

What Is Sensory Integration? Sensory integration is the process of collecting information through our senses, organising that information, and responding to the information appropriately.

and a traffic jam of information blocks up your brain. This makes it hard (or impossible) to think how to respond appropriately to each piece of information.