Thanks for this. When my daughter was in middle school (She is now 26 ), she had two approximately 2 week long bouts of extreme pain in her lower abdomen. Lots of imaging and consultations yielded no diagnosis. At the same time, as she was nearly bedridden, she asked me to run a shower for her. She came right out and said it was too painful. I asked her if it was too hot and she said no. She couldn't take the pressure of the water. I knew it was a very low pressure shower head that most people would find too weak. I knew something was very strange but I did not know what. My daughter had an ADHD diagnosis in elementary school but these types of symptoms were never mentioned to us. We still don't know what the first symptoms were.
Thanks for this. I’m still learning how much I have tried to tune out, and how thoroughly my discomfort and overwhelm has translated into other reactions.
A dissociative disorder on top of ADHD meant historically tuning some things out…too much. So I would experience sensory overwhelm without knowing it, which meant reacting to the overwhelm in extreme ways but because I didn’t know the cause, both I & others misconnected the reactions to other triggers.
No wonder nothing started getting better! Until I got the dissociative diagnosis and began somatic trauma therapy, learning how to feel things in my body and understand them.
That work has been amazing (if hard) and my ADHD dx last year has brought a new level of understanding to my sensory issues and I’m starting to learn how to practice being proactive in my management and more deliberate in my responses. I still tune out more than I probably should, but I’m getting better all the time.
Thanks for this. When my daughter was in middle school (She is now 26 ), she had two approximately 2 week long bouts of extreme pain in her lower abdomen. Lots of imaging and consultations yielded no diagnosis. At the same time, as she was nearly bedridden, she asked me to run a shower for her. She came right out and said it was too painful. I asked her if it was too hot and she said no. She couldn't take the pressure of the water. I knew it was a very low pressure shower head that most people would find too weak. I knew something was very strange but I did not know what. My daughter had an ADHD diagnosis in elementary school but these types of symptoms were never mentioned to us. We still don't know what the first symptoms were.
There so much we need to understand about neurodivergent girls
Thanks for this. I’m still learning how much I have tried to tune out, and how thoroughly my discomfort and overwhelm has translated into other reactions.
A dissociative disorder on top of ADHD meant historically tuning some things out…too much. So I would experience sensory overwhelm without knowing it, which meant reacting to the overwhelm in extreme ways but because I didn’t know the cause, both I & others misconnected the reactions to other triggers.
No wonder nothing started getting better! Until I got the dissociative diagnosis and began somatic trauma therapy, learning how to feel things in my body and understand them.
That work has been amazing (if hard) and my ADHD dx last year has brought a new level of understanding to my sensory issues and I’m starting to learn how to practice being proactive in my management and more deliberate in my responses. I still tune out more than I probably should, but I’m getting better all the time.
🫶🫶
That makes so much sense to me.