As a person pretty new to all of this (diagnosed in January), I thought maybe what I've found from how OT has helped me might help some others in deciding whether to try OT.

I'm 30 and hypersensitive on my senses (all except visual, although that can be pushed if I'm not careful) and have reasonably poor proprioception. I'm probably on the mild side of things, although sometimes it doesn't feel mild.

My OT has actually kept it minimal as to how much she's intervened - I've had 30 years to find what works for me/doesn't in a lot of ways with managing my SPD.

Brushing has ended up being incredibly important/useful for me. At times with my work I have to work at heights, which strains my vestibular system a lot. Twice I've had the reaction of extreme tiredness (like I need to have a nap right now) after doing the work at heights. The third time I've done it (which was actually worse with the fear side - it was a different place working at heights) I had the advice from the OT: brush beforehand, joint compressions while at the height, brush afterwards. I couldn't brush immediately afterwards, but I did do the joint compressions before I had the chance to brush.

And this time - there was no extreme exhaustion. I was a little bit more easily tweaked for the rest of the day, but I didn't crash out.

OT has made me more aware of the fact that I was overloading without realising it. My job involves a lot of teaching of school groups (up to around 100 over a 1.5 hour period usually) and if I do two of those in the morning and then drive 3.5 hours, mostly in the rain, I reach the point where visual can trigger me. Brushing mitigates that a fair bit.

Weight has ended up being very useful. Weighted blanket for home and wheat bags for the car. I found with a fish tank that I was setting up that running my fingers through the pebbles felt very nice, so now I have a box filled with marbles and different size pebbles/glass to run my hands through. For shopping centres, etc. I have a squeezy ball to carry around to distract me. I've also started shopping a lot at a smaller shopping centre (just the grocery shop, rather than a mall), which helps, but I can't do all the time.

I know that certain classical pieces of music will calm me down, now. Probably explains why I've loooooooved for years instrumental soundtracks from movies/tv shows.

I've started yoga, which I'm finding nice (and good for my dodgy back as well), although easier on the whole from home from dvds (smelly people, too loud music, etc. at yoga classes). A miracle for me, I've survived being around a kid who farted at work - while my brain was still working on its extraction plan, I couldn't get out of the situation, and managed to stay there without heaving. First for me.

I've also learned how to put some barriers in place with the kids that we have at work - personal space and also to stop them shouting in my ear when I try to get them to find an answer for a prize.

Still learning - am going to go back to the OT to get some strategies to help with touch sensitivity on my face in the morning (gag from washing face/eating/teeth cleaning/talking in the very early morning).