Sensory Processing is a complex neurological process in which the central nervous system receives stimuli and signals from the environment and from within the body, organizes and interprets them, and translates them into physical, emotional, and behavioral responses. The brain acts as a continuous "switchboard" that needs to regulate the intensity of incoming information to allow us to function in daily life.
Within the neurodiversity community (autistic people, people with ADHD, Dyspraxia, and more), Sensory Processing is an innate and essential core characteristic that defines how the world is experienced. The variation in this processing is not a "disease," but a different neurological wiring that affects the threshold of stimulus registration.
The Body's Eight Senses
Beyond the five familiar senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch), the Sensory Processing system relies on three critical internal senses:
The Vestibular System (Sense of Balance): Located in the inner ear and responsible for perceiving movement, speed, and the head's position in space.
The Proprioceptive System (Sense of Body Position): Receptors in muscles and joints that report to the brain where different body parts are located without the need to look at them.
Interoception (Internal Sensation): The ability to feel what is happening inside the body (such as heart rate, breathing, hunger, thirst, pain, or the need to use the restroom). This sense is closely linked to Alexithymia (difficulty identifying and naming emotions).
Two Extremes of Sensory Regulation
Variations in Sensory Processing often exist on a dynamic continuum between two states, which frequently occur in the same person across different senses (a spiky sensory profile):
Hyper Sensitivity: An exceptionally low registration threshold. The brain perceives stimuli with high intensity and struggles to filter out background noise, fluorescent lights, smells, or clothing and food textures. This state quickly leads to Sensory Overload, where the nervous system enters a "fight or flight" emergency state, leading to a Sensory Hangover, Meltdown, or Shutdown.
Hyposensitivity: An exceptionally high registration threshold. The brain does not notice normal stimuli (such as pain, temperature, or someone calling the person's name). This state often leads to active sensory seeking, where the person performs strong movements, jumps, or intense Stimming to "feed" the brain with missing input.
The Impact of Sensory Processing on Daily Functioning
The constant effort to manage an environment that is not adapted to a person's sensory profile takes a heavy toll:
Increased "Spoon" Consumption: Maintaining concentration in a noisy classroom or busy office burns a person's mental energy (according to Spoon Theory), impairs Executive Functioning, and exacerbates phenomena such as Autistic Inertia and Analysis Paralysis.
Forced Adaptive morphing: To fit in, many people are forced to engage in Masking and Camouflaging and suppress natural self-regulating movements, which accelerates the onset of chronic Autistic Burnout and Complex PTSD (C-PTSD).
Impact on Comorbid Conditions: Difficulties in Sensory Processing exacerbate and integrate with common physiological phenomena in the community, such as motor clumsiness resulting from Dyspraxia, or chronic pain and joint instability resulting from EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome) and hypermobility.
The Accepting Approach: Reasonable Accommodations and Unmasking
According to the Social Model of Disability, the solution to Sensory Processing difficulties is not an attempt to "fix" a person's neurological system (as suggested by the deficit-based approach of the DSM-5), but rather to make the environment accessible:
Providing Reasonable Accommodations: Approving the use of noise-canceling headphones, dimming lights, providing quiet workspaces, and allowing for remote work or study.
Legitimizing the Unmasking process: Giving a person full freedom to engage in Stimming, use chew or weighted items, and respect their need for disconnection and rest without judgment, punishment, or Infantilization.
