Sensory processing disorder is common in people with brain injury, PTSD, and developmental disorders and some of us might not even know we have it.
6 years ago I was diagnosed with Narcolepsy because I could not stop falling asleep in the middle of the day. Whether I was at work on the computer or in a car or at the grocery store, my brain would just completely shut down. When I started neuroplasticity brain therapies my brain map showed alarming amounts of delta (deep sleep) brain wave activity had taken over my whole front half of my brain. Once we trained those waves down to help me stay awake I realized that my brain was producing those brainwaves to defend itself from the sensory overload I experienced in busy places.
My sleep was much better, but I couldn’t even stand to be in a grocery store or look at a computer screen. This made me realize that my narcolepsy was probably caused by my sensory processing disorder that I didn’t even know I had. Proper auditory and visual processing testing later confirmed this.
Now time for a victory story. A year ago I could barely walk in this store and if I did go with my husband, I could be of no help picking anything out. I just walked around like a zombie and could not even hold a conversation. I’m still a work in progress, but after a year of hard work doing my vision and auditory therapies, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and taking the right supplements, here I stand in the store, awake and able to process the environment around me enough to pick out the foods we need and have a conversation with my husband at the same time. I’ve come a long way baby! Praise God!