Hi there Dave. As someone with SPD and anxiety issues, I can certainly relate to your story in several places.

I am curious, what anxiety disorders, if any, have you been diagnosed with? Do you believe your hypersensitivities may have existed throughout your childhood? Perhaps they got milder for some time but then came flaring back up?

As a child, they were checking me for a few things, including OCD. They didn't know what to make of all of my symptoms really, and I ended up going without drugs or treatment from a psychological health standpoint. Once I learned about SPD, I discovered that a good number, if not all, of my anxiety issues suddenly made a boat load of sense.

Obsessing over things? Well, yeah, when your nervous system fails to calm you down about the signals you are receiving from your environment and your own body, you tend to hyper-focus on sensations. Separation anxiety? Agoraphobia? Yeah, when it seems like the whole world can hurt you so easily, it's pretty easy to get attached to the few places or the only people that seem to help you feel safe. Social anxiety? Mhm... hard to feel confident interacting with other people when you're never sure what you're going to be able to handle sensory-wise on a day-to-day basis and the many small things people would want to do in your company can cause you sensory overload issues.

Of course, it's also possible that the anxiety issues can preclude the sensory issues, like a sort of chemical imbalance, but I actually believe the sensory-based approach makes a lot of sense to those of us who have SPD.

I agree that you should try to find an occupational therapist, and I support you in those endeavors. It can be a challenge to find an OT who is willing and able to work with adults, and many doctors either haven't heard of SPD or are skeptical of whether or not it's real or that OT can even help. It's best to ignore that skepticism, though, if you think SPD may be effecting your life. I would say your life is being effected a good deal, no matter what the root issue may be, just based off of what you said alone.

As other people do, I certainly wish you the best as you begin this journey. I hope you are able to get the most out of your time on this site, so please feel more than welcome to post around and get to know people. The more of us there are sticking around and posting, the better this place becomes. Welcome.