Podcast 0012; Season 01, Episode 12; June 12, 2018 During the summer months, I need to ease off some of my workload to better manage time with family. After this podcast was recorded, I found that I did need to take a break from our littlest one’s pre-K graduation because…
Tag: sensory overload
Holidays offer a number of challenges for individuals with sensory processing challenges. For me, the lights and sounds of the holidays can lead to migraines and tremors, along with a general sense of overload. Imagine being a child without the ability to escape the sights, sounds, smells, and touches of…
One of our Facebook and Twitter followers asked: “Are you sick often? My son is.” Ask my wife or my mother… or even my college students. I am susceptible to everything. It stinks. Oh, yes. Definitely. I’m sick right now. It seems like I’m sick twice as many days as I…
Driving has been causing back pain, which leads to headaches, and some of those headaches become migraines. A migraine is not merely a bad headache, either. I don’t mind driving on fairly flat, smooth, un-congested routes. The problem is that the roads where we live go over and around hills.…
A reader asks, “If you don’t think about the autistic traits, what about your wife? They tend to notice what husbands fail to see in the mirror.” Is my wife more aware of my autistic traits than I am? Probably. I suppose the above is true of all friends and…
Now, for some paradoxes about where we choose to live. Greater Pittsburgh (more accurately, the region north of Pittsburgh), as a community, has proved to be a great place for my wife and me. The region, which includes parts of West Virginia and Ohio, offers excellent opportunities for people like…
Naps and extra sleep help a little, but after too much social interaction and too much stress, I need some time to compose myself and prepare for yet more socializing. I’m not alone: most introverts experience this same need to recharge alone, in a quiet space. For me, the quiet…
After so many stories about autism and genetics in the news media, a parent asked me “that question” yet again: Would I want to be cured? What if my “autistic traits” could have been prevented? I have answered this multiple times, on this site and elsewhere. First, my life is…
It has been three days since I attended an academic conference. I only attended one of the two days, knowing I was not doing well physically. I’m still “shaky” — the best adjective I can conjure at the moment. It is like my senses are turned up a notch even…
I am not going to fly when I have any chance to avoid it. I hate the experience. The planes are like crowded city buses, but instead of being able to take a break at any stop along the way — something I have done in the city — you…