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- #13
Add to that, apart from various forms of intellectual disability, sensory therapy is typically focused on children so it’s even harder for adults to access these. My son and I had a trauma I couldn’t protect him from and he was able to access sensory equipment in primary school and at his special purpose (MH) high school, but if he was on the spectrum he would’ve had more options for sensory profile.Truth.
Even if the therapist knows full well it’s not autism, that’s how to get insurance companies to pay for it &/or public schools to provide accommodations or it (which they’re legally required to anyway, but without a well recognized name, they can also legally claim that there’s no “way” for them to ‘reasonably’ blah blah blah. Meanwhile if it’s autism, they get told to suck it up and hire a speech pathologist already, and that they should have had one on staff for yonks)…. which is why the diagnostic code is now essentially useless.
There are couple dozen disorders that share sensory processing “issues” (in various directions!) as a symptom… but the black hole of Autism sucking everything in… is making it increasingly difficult to find people who specialize in best treatments for sensory issues from other disorders, or as a stand alone issue.
I think also sometimes the trauma means relearning social cues and how to interact outside the safe place of say the home (I know it’s not always, just for example) which could appear with dissociation as remoteness, poor social skills, sensory overwhelm, etc, and there’s a lot of people in the media (largely women) speaking out about how ASD is not getting recognised in females and diagnosis is being made in 30’s or later. Perhaps it was to rule it out, but if you already had a rapport the T should’ve known better.
Labels go through phases and can be so frustrating. I got given an ‘in’ label a couple of decades ago and didn’t even meet the dsm criteria for it at the time, but the label caused so many issues and a lot of harm, and actually the label caused a prejudiced decision where the action of the decider was trauma for me. My son got a couple of labels after our trauma, but after what I’d gone through I used them to access supports not available without labels (they wanted me to test him for adhd amongst other things, I did minimum testing, enough to get supports), his behaviours were from trauma, but it was a canny psychologist who said use the labels to get supports but ignore them in daily life, he’s survived trauma and needs time and reassurance that he’s safe and you’re going to be there and love him regardless how he behaves, whilst helping him relearn appropriate ways to release those emotions. I’d had to relearn emotions so I strengthened that skill by helping him. We use the labels sparingly and with red tape, but he’ll never meet the ASD label so he’ll have less access to support ms like therapy dog (which his psychologist suggested to help him feeling safe going to school etc, and she checked in session and only for kids with ASD). I’ve worked with people, largely kids, on the spectrum and I don’t doubt the supports they can need, especially the low or non-verbal end, however so many people have sensory issues, there’s a reason MH public facilities are starting to build up a room or box of bookcase of sensory items for patients, they help and sensory therapy and profiles should be an option for anyone, but at least expanded to be offered adjunct to any/all trauma survivor services/treatment.
Rambling, and teen to wake for school. He uses my sensory kit too (his NDIS was rejected, I got mine after AAT and as I needed sensory items I got a couple of doubles of smaller items put many in box and showed my son where and he uses as needed or brings to me when I need, some items are pretty cheap like 1-5$).