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

This rest and regrouping time during a sensory hangover is something I call filling your sensory bank, which is essentially understanding your particular sensory needs (especially after having been dysregulated) and going out of your way to accommodate them.

Another way to understand all of this advice is to remember how we began this chapter, by appreciating that your infant/body’s earliest and still most basic need is to be held and protected from overstimulation. On that strong basis, you can go out and explore, feeling secure about that safe harbor of the good caretaker’s arms. If you think about i

It’s most important to remember that dysregulation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. There’s always a cause, as subtle as it may be to the untrained eye. It could be the smallest extra shard of sensory input or even a nanosecond without sensory input. It could be an ongoing onslaught of sensory information or hours without engagement.