The Therapeutic Listening program is going very well for me, and I’ll share some experiences below. At the end of my post, I’ll also have some information about a possible alternative to Therapeutic Brushing.
But first, today’s visual.
To explain the difference between how neuro-typical people and Aspies handle sensory input, Tony Attwood employs the images of a bucket and a cup. Our neuro-typical friends, he says, have a sensory bucket, capable of holding a great deal of sensory information. Those of us on the spectrum, however, have a much smaller vessel—a cup, which gets filled a teensy-bit more quickly.
Just before Passover, my husband made an offhand comment about my sensory vessel being a thimble. At work the next day, I just happened to run across a very nice ceramic thimble. I put it on our seder table as a reminder. So here is my sensory vessel, photographed next to a very small bottle cap for scale.
And now, onto the therapeutic ways I am attempting to replace a thimble with a cup.
Therapeutic Listening
So far, I am able to listen to the CD for 30 minutes/day while lying under my weighted blanket. I generally fall into a deep sleep after a half hour of listening, and I wake up an hour later wondering what day it is. I don’t think that’s the primary purpose of the exercise, but I appreciate it nonetheless.
In terms of intended effect, I am seeing some small progress already. For example, at work the other day, I was looking at some clothing. To my left, a staff person was talking excitedly with a friend she hadn’t seen for awhile. To my right, a man was laughing loudly over an outfit that two women wanted him to put on. I had the following reactions:
1. I was not jarred or annoyed by the man laughing loudly, even though he was only about 6 feet away from me. In fact, I smiled to myself. Weird, but true.
2. I did not experience both conversations in stereo. I tuned out the first conversation because I was enjoying the laughter in the second conversation.
These responses are highly unusual. I generally get very irritated by loud people. And it’s almost always impossible for me to tune out one conversation in the service of another. I was able to do so at the store because only two conversations were going on in an uncrowded space. With more people, in closer quarters, all talking at once, I still hear everything at the same volume—the one marked “Very High, and Why Do You Look So Alarmed?”
I also noticed that I was able to pick out a line from song that I’d been listening to for weeks. I have a terrible time hearing song lyrics, but all of a sudden, this one line just sounded loud and clear. Kinda cool.
In general, I’m becoming more aware of the effect of sound on my nervous system. Usually, I’m so fascinated by visuals that I don’t really notice my body’s response to sound until I’m overloaded. But yesterday, when my husband and I were going out shopping, something changed. As we were walking down the street, four guys driving VERY LOUD Harleys drove past us and gunned their engines as they were idling. (Don’t you hate that?) My first response was to feel very angry, as though they were gunning their engines just to piss me off. Then, I noticed that my ears and head felt assaulted, and that my stomach was churning. After the motorcycles were gone, I stumbled over to the nearest wall and tried to catch my breath. When we got into the sneaker store (which was pretty quiet and calm), the stomach churning stopped.
So, some small (but welcome) progress on the auditory front.
An Alternative to Therapeutic Brushing
A friend in Minneapolis, who is an OT, wrote to tell me about an alternative to Therapeutic Brushing. It’s called “hand hugs,” and consists of someone using their hands to apply pressure to the arms and lower legs. I’m told that it’s a powerful technique, so do not try it without an OT showing you how to go about it. Apparently, Therapeutic Brushing does not work for many people, so if you’re having difficulties with it, hand hugs might be an alternative. I am going to ask my OT about it the next time I see her.
The thing that gets me is when 2 people try to talk to me at once. I can’t stand that! Good luck with the OT.
there are days when i can coast around others and their conversations and just float. and then there’s today, when i don’t float, so i can understand. i never seem to know when i crash, just that i need quiet, and i need it NOW. this is probably why i live in a city where my family is not….
take care!
Ben
Yours is the first adult account I’ve found about therapeutic brushing. I was actually going to write a post asking if anyone had experience as my son’s OT has recommended it for his defensiveness. If I can’t have research backing up a therapy, I at least like to read personal accounts. He is very young, so his OT is confident that it will be beneficial for him. We’ll see.
My daughter has had good results with therapeutic listening too.
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Hi Spectrummy Mummy,
So glad to help. I think that therapeutic brushing is a very variable thing–some people react well, some badly, some not at all. It’s just a question of seeing what works.