I am the mom to a young adult son that is miserable. He is sensitive to noise, sits outside most of the time to get away from household and family noise, more recently light bothers him terribly. He can barely function. What to do? We feel desperate.

Hi DsMom, and welcome to SPD Support.

I'm really sorry to hear about the hard time you and your son are going through. Has he been to an OT before? What he's going through does sound an awful lot like SPD, to be honest, so I'm glad you've come here. I think you're in the right place.

How old is he, if you don't mind my asking?
There are OTs who work to treat adults with Sensory Processing Disorder, but even more who work with teenagers. A good place to start is either by asking for a referral to an occupational therapist through his doctor. Aside from that, you can also use the search engine on the SPD Foundation website to find a good OT in your area:
http://spdfoundation.net/directory/index.html

I really hope you are able to get the support you need for him, and for yourself here on the site.
Best wishes.

I use Irlen Lenses to help with my light sensitivity that started developing at age 24. I am now 35 years old and the Irlen lenses were one of the best investments I ever made.

Without the Irlen Lenses I am stunned by the light, reading is impossible, and if I can still move I walk into walls like a newly blind person with a balance problem does. With the Irlen Lenses I can manage in most lights (not disco ball), I can usually read all text types, and I can walk in a straight line most of the time.

I have other sensory issues, but I only really have major problems with a few specific noises.

Hi and welcome! I'm glad you found us. It does sound like SPD.

I often need alone time to recharge my batteries after I've been in a group of more than 6 people or so. It gets too overwhelming for me after a couple hours of holding it together. So if it helps your son to be alone a bit, definitely let him do that. He'll rejoin once he's ready.

Maybe try ear plugs to cut down the noise level if that helps.

I'm okay with most light. I just have problems driving at night because I feel like the on-coming headlights blind me and I can't see the road at all.

Hugs! I hope you can find an OT and maybe a therapist as well, to help cope. Does he have Amy anxiety?

(06-17-2012, 06:00 PM)Dan Wrote: Hi DsMom, and welcome to SPD Support.

I'm really sorry to hear about the hard time you and your son are going through. Has he been to an OT before? What he's going through does sound an awful lot like SPD, to be honest, so I'm glad you've come here. I think you're in the right place.

How old is he, if you don't mind my asking?
There are OTs who work to treat adults with Sensory Processing Disorder, but even more who work with teenagers. A good place to start is either by asking for a referral to an occupational therapist through his doctor. Aside from that, you can also use the search engine on the SPD Foundation website to find a good OT in your area:
http://spdfoundation.net/directory/index.html

I really hope you are able to get the support you need for him, and for yourself here on the site.
Best wishes.

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My son is 25. He had what we thought was an emotional type breakdown in Feb this year and came to us for help. He was treated for depression, but never followed up with the psychiatrist, stopped taking the antidepressants. We just realized this weekend that he's having trouble with light and vision as well as audible stimuli. I googled sensory overload today and found this forum. I had never heard of PSD. My husband and I realize that he has had it all his life as we look back. We had no idea. So, no, he's never been to an OT. He thinks he's crazy. He cried whenI told him that there're many like him. I pray that we can get him the help he so desperately needs.

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(06-17-2012, 09:26 PM)beck7422 Wrote: I use Irlen Lenses to help with my light sensitivity that started developing at age 24. I am now 35 years old and the Irlen lenses were one of the best investments I ever made.

Without the Irlen Lenses I am stunned by the light, reading is impossible, and if I can still move I walk into walls like a newly blind person with a balance problem does. With the Irlen Lenses I can manage in most lights (not disco ball), I can usually read all text types, and I can walk in a straight line most of the time.

I have other sensory issues, but I only really have major problems with a few specific noises.

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Amazing, that sounds exactly like what we're dealing with. How did you go about getting your glasses? Does the problem with light come and go? He's been able to work, but this weekend has been horrible.

(06-17-2012, 05:17 PM)DsMom Wrote: I am the mom to a young adult son that is miserable. He is sensitive to noise, sits outside most of the time to get away from household and family noise, more recently light bothers him terribly. He can barely function. What to do? We feel desperate.

I would suggest that your son be evaluated by both a neurologist and an OT familiar with SPD. The neurologist can make sure that is no physical problem causing the increase in symptoms and an OT can help look at the overall sensory picture and begin treatment or make recommendations.

Something else to consider is allergy testing, particularly for food allergies. Another test to discuss with the doctor is for celiac disease, because gluten sensitivity cause the symptoms you describe - my son experiences major sensory changes from gluten.

SPD is not a mental health problem (despite what some rather nasty people say); it is a medical condition which arises in the brain, but it can be triggered by other parts of the body. Ruling out medical triggers, and eliminating you might find, gives OT the greatest possible chance of success.

I second having your son get checked for Neurological and Allergy related problems. The other adults I have talked to who had their SPD become a problem as an adult usually had some other health problem or medication for that problem that ended up triggering the increased sensitivity. I have an Ion Channel disorder that causes a lot of stress on the body. One of the medications for that disorder that I took for a few years did actually have increased light sensitivity as a potential side effect.

I got my Irlen Lenses from the Irlen Center. http://irlen.com/index.php

Hopefully you can find your local Irlen Center and check them out. The initial tests are pretty simple and are close to affordable. Your son will know by the end of the tests if this is the right track for him to look further into it. If it does look like the Irlen Lenses might help him, they will start him out with an overlay to go over anything he reads for two weeks. If he isn't suffering from as much eye strain and his reading is improved in those two weeks he should go back for further testing. This time the testing is with the lenses themselves. I took the lenses that seemed to help me the most for test walks about 10 feet. The difference between the right lens, wrong lens, and my standard vision was quite great. Buying the lenses was very expensive (just under $300), but it has helped me so much that it is worth it.

I wear prescription glasses and the $300 was to tint the glasses so that the wavelengths of light that were irritating my brain couldn't get through. It is possible to get Irlen Contacts, but that is even more expensive and only if you are wealthy is the vanity bonus worth it.