Today I want to talk a little bit about sensory processing disorder. I’m not an expert, but I’ve soaked up a lot of knowledge and experience over the last few years and I feel like it’s something people don’t know much about or understand. I certainly didn’t before I got Dylans diagnosis. Now, I know you are probably looking at the title for this post and you are thinking I’m totally nuts, but I promise it will make sense in the end. 

As I said above, I’m no expert on the subject, but I’d like to explain my understanding about sensory processing disorder. It seems to me that the stereotype about autism includes people on the spectrum being sensitive to loud noises, do not like to be touched and are sensitive to bright lights or flickering neon lights. Though this is true for some people on the ASD spectrum, it’s not true for others. 

We all have senses: sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing. Everyone experiences these senses differently. Some hear better than others. Some see better than others. Some love salty flavors and some don’t…etc.  When someone has sensory processing disorder, it’s common for them to have super senses, where they feel these senses on a greater level than your average person.  In some cases, it’s the exact opposite. A particular sense may be dull for some people. 

When I was at the Wisconsin Autism Conference a few years ago, there was an expert speaker who gave some examples of this. These examples always stuck with me. She talked about a girl who had very sensitive skin.  Someone would barely touch her, and she would start to cry because she was in pain.  There was a story about a little boy who barely felt pain. His family had to keep a close eye on him and inspect his body often because he would get cut or injured in some way and not even feel it.  A skinned knee could easily get infected because the kid didn’t notice it, so he kept playing instead of going to an adult to get it cleaned up.  There was the women who couldn’t feel when she had to urinate.  She fell into a rhythm of using the bathroom every two hours so that she didn’t have an accident. She went every hour if she was drinking coffee. 

These are just a few examples of how people can feel senses a lot differently than most people.  There is more to it than this though, but for now, I feel like this is enough info to get my point across. Over the years, I have found some of Dylans sensory issues to be really obvious and others took a while to pick up on.  One thing that never changes for him is his discomfort with haircuts.  This is very common for people on the spectrum or with sensory processing disorder. It causes Dylan to have a lot of anxiety and fear.  Over the years, his therapists and I have worked with him to hopefully be a bit more comfortable with it.  I’m really not sure if he actually feels any better or if Hes just better able to sit through it just to get it done.  Even on a good day, it’s obviously a hard thing for him to go through so I just prefer to do whatever I can to avoid those sensations for him.  

A while back, I was reading an article that talked about a study that was done with people who were on the spectrum that really struggled with haircuts or nail trimming.  They hooked their brains up to some sensors and they watched their brain activity while cutting the subjects hair or nails.  What they found was that some of these people’s brains lit up in the pain area of the brain.  The study showed that there are people who feel physical pain when getting their hair or nails cut. 

I’m sure there are people who will look at this and think it’s crazy, but this is just another example of how sensory processing disorder can affect a person.  Dylan has always said “Ow” or “Ouch” while getting his hair and nails cut so I feel like it would be a terrible thing to just dismiss it and tell him, “Oh, that doesn’t hurt.”  Who am I to judge that? I don’t feel pain during these things, but I can’t dismiss the fact that he very well could be feeling some sort of pain! 

Since he struggles with anything having to do with his hair cutting, brushing or washing, I’ve found that it’s just so much easier to just buzz it really short at home. Less hair equals a lot less discomfort for him and it’s easier to just shave his head outside rather than trying to get him to sit still at a salon. I know some people might think, well, he’s doing better with it so maybe it isn’t bothering him as much as it used to. I used to think this too, but I’ve learned that his ability to sit through it isn’t a gauge of how well he’s handling it. 

This situation is similar to getting a tattoo. For some people, it doesn’t hurt much but for others it hurts a ton.  No matter what pain level you are feeling while getting one, you are going to do your best to sit still and get it over with.  Your ability to sit through it is definitely not an indicator to others as to how much pain you are feeling.  And the more tattoos you get, the better you’re going to get at sitting through it.  The same goes for Dylans haircut.  Just because he is better able to sit through it doesn’t mean that he’s feeling any less discomfort.  I’m not the one going through it so it’s not my place to decide, and since I certainly do not know how bad he feels, I just prefer to do what I can to help him be comfortable. 

Haircuts are like tattoos and tattoos can be a bitch!