SPD Support Forum

I'm 43 and have lived all my life with being thought odd, a liar, clumsy, lazy and a host of other things. Today I was talking to a wonderful o/l friend about the fact that I am phobic about the cinema. When I explained what it was about them he said he thouhgt it might be a sensory sensativity, so I looked online and hey I found descriptions that are ME.

I'm not the only one who can hear electricity, has issues with food textures, socks, seams, noise and bright lights.

For the most part I can live with my quirks, I had to develope coping strategies, being parented in the 70's I wasn't allowed to be different! I'm still not sure what if any help there is available in the UK, but there sure wasn't any back then!

Any way I am so happy this evening because its not just me, there are reasons for why I am the way I am

Hi Jan,
You are certainly not alone with this. I am new to this site too. My 5 yr old has recently been diagnosed. It's a difficult world to live in when things aren't the same as for others.
I live in the uk. My child was sent to see Occupational Therapist who was the one to discover he had it.
There isn't as far as I am aware a lot that can b done about it, she said you learn coping mechanisms as you get older. For my son he has things like weighted pad to sit and eat his dinner to watch TV. In school he has a mat he sits on to jiggle his bum so he will stay seated.
He too hated loud noises, smells, labels, certain clothes, texture of food. He would scream till he was sick when having his hair cut. He frequently goes in to screaming and crying mode where he use to drop like a stone to the floor. His thermostat seems to be broken too.
Now I know why things are happening and that he can't help it life doesn't seem half as bad. Would still like more info about it though.

I can no longer go to the movies. I haven't been able to for 6 years, but I started having problems in the theaters in 1998. I don't know how much of it was due to SPD and how much was due to my other disability Hypokalemic Periodic Paralysis at first. I couldn't get up out of the chair at the end of the movie. During the movie I would cry from the too bright screen. The sound was always too loud at the movies or "off".

When I developed an inhallant food allergy to Popcorn, that was the final straw to my movie going. Especially once I started getting Anaphalyctic Shock for just walking IN FRONT of a theater on the street.