Hi, my names Abbie and I'm 20 years old.
I was diagnosed with SPD on 24.12.2013 and only now realising how little I actually know about it.
It's hard to make people understand why I can't bear to be touched when I don't even understand it myself. I didn't realise this was part of SPD until this evening as I've never been brought up with any of the doctors, I thought I just liked my personal space. The reason I sought out medical advice was because of audio issues.
For years I struggled to explain the issues I had with my hearing, loud noises make me feel claustrophobic and ill- from hand dryers and hair dryers to planes flying over. I have to have subtitles watching telly as I could hear people were talking but couldn't differentiate the words they were saying.

After years of doctors appointments, hearing tests that came back nearly normal, consultations for grommets I finally got an answer - SPD. I was given a couple of leaflets, told there was nothing they could do and given some short advice on how to learn to live with it. After struggling a lot in several aspects of my life recently i decided to start looking into it and after extensive googling have found out that my disorder could be responsible for more than I realised - including my social anxiety.
I've never met anyone else who has SPD and have never received much, if any, real information about it. I have a lot of questions and one big fear - will it get worse as I get older? Will the connection between my ears and my brain deteriorate or is this it?
So yeah, that's pretty much how I ended up here and it would be amazing to meet people who can understand what this thing is, as I sure as hell don't and no one around seems to either!