Costs of being affected to the patient

What makes this an undesirable disorder from the patient's point of view? For instance OCD causes unnecessary stress and anxiety for the patient otherwise it would just be a series of arbitrary and harmless rituals. I know SPD patients bite their nails and don,t like certain roller coaster rides but what are the intrinsic costs to the patient? It is fairly new to me and do not quite understand it.



Comments for Costs of being affected to the patient

Average Rating starstarstarstarstar

Click here to add your own comments

Jun 07, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Costs
by: lorileiv

Your question actually includes misinformation. My 3 1/2 year old son has mixed reaction SPD and loves rollercoasters and spinning, and hanging upside down, and swinging, and crashing into people, and jumping from any height he can get to. Although he is not yet verbal enough to completely explain what is happening to him, you can see the discomfort he is in at almost all times. Imagine if every time you vacuumed, your brain was telling you you were standing within inches of a tornado siren. In time, you would become accustomed to that tornado siren, however my son's brain tells him every time he hears that vacuum that sounds like a tornado siren to him that his body needs to react in a fight or flight manner. Imagine that every time you put on clothes, the seams or the tags were actually spiders or snakes crawling on your skin. Imagine that you were often made to sit in a barren, white room. Eventually you would start looking for anything that would stimulate you or occupy your brain...for some reason, at times, my son's brain is not processing the everyday smells, sights, sounds, touch, etc. that keeps our brains occupied and help us navigate the world. When this happens, he becomes focused on finding sensory input by doing all of the things I described in the beginning. Imagine that a school age child who needs to pay attention to the teacher and the chalkboard cannot tune out the sound of the grass being mowed outside...image how much that child would miss. Finally, children are perceptive.

My son does not typically act or speak inappropriately (although he can at times be overly affectionate to stranger children and may not respect personal space boundaries), but even when he is acting as normal as any other child, he is shunned and picked out of the crowd. It is at the same time intriguing and heartbreaking to watch the children at a McDonald's playland gang up and ostracize him. These are only a few of the ways that sensory processing disorder inhibits my son's ability to reach his full potential. I'm sure as you look through the site, you will find much more information.
Jun 06, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		this website
by: Anonymous

ok so while I could list how it "costs" my son and my family my first question would be have you explored this website? the sections how does it feel and the real spd stories section might help you some. Spd affects each person differently based on the severity and the type or senses that are effected. There is no way to just list all the costs. There are also several books that do a great job of explaining this. Several of them are listed in the resources section of this website. But I will say that anxiety is created with this disorder no matter what each person struggles with hands down every time. But then again anything that makes you different or not be able to handle something the way it is expected or the way everyone else does would do that.

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to The SPD Q & A.