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…
Tag: sensory overload
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.…
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…
I have discovered that I like bowling. I bowl alone on Tuesdays, after teaching. It isn’t that someone else can’t join me, but I go bowling in the student center with or without anyone else. Bowling allows me to concentrate on something “meaningless.” It’s like meditating. I think I like…
Thanks to a complete breakdown in the University’s system and a professor I will never forgive, I endured a trip to the Office for Student Conduct and Academic Integrity. It was a stupid situation and far too much for my system. Before the meeting I was already in sorry shape.…
It would be an understatement to write that my time in Minnesota has been a challenge. After this most miserable, humiliating week, I spent today wondering if I am capable of finishing my university program. My self-doubt and self-criticism were familiar to me, and to my wife. It is depressing,…
I walked out of a class tonight, angry and frustrated. There is a great deal I could write about how I feel and what annoyed me, but the essential information is that there is a limit to the stresses I can tolerate. Even though I speak on surviving college, the…
This coming weekend is supposed to remain below 0F, with some areas of Minnesota experiencing a windchill of -50F or worse. Sponsors have canceled a major skiing competition due to safety concerns. It was deemed too cold for ice sculptors to work on the famous Winter Carnival attractions in St.…