So I’m autistic, Level 1, and I have extreme sensory processing issues.

And I wanted to talk about how sensory processing relates to autism, and how it potentially doesn’t relate to autism.

Because there are a lot of people who have sensory processing issues that are not autistic.

So let’s start with what sensory processing disorder is.

Sensory processing disorder is where the brain takes sensory information and then isn’t sure what to do with it.

It either over or under-responds to that sensory information, and then you have internal reaction to that.

It could be anxiety. It could be anger. It could be a lot of different things.

But the idea is that the brain is misinterpreting the sensory inputs and having an over-response to it or under-response to it.

And this is actually considered to be a feature of autism.

So autism is broken out into two main categories.

The first one has to do with social communication challenges and the second has to do with restricted, repetitive behaviors.

And sensory processing challenges are actually considered to be one of the four subcategories of restricted repetitive behaviors.

That is where sensory processing lives within the context of autism.

Now here’s the thing… there are a ton of people who have sensory processing issues and aren’t autistic. They’re not.

So what research has found within the past… I don’t know… about ten years… is that sensory processing challenges do exist separately from autism.

And actually, when you think about a condition like ADHD, the research does show that a significant number of people who have ADHD also have sensory processing challenges.

But sensory processing challenges are not considered a feature of ADHD the way they’re considered a feature of autism.

So it’s important to realize and recognize that a person can have sensory processing challenges and not be autistic.

There’s a lot more to this, and I’m happy to talk about it if there are questions, I can go into them. 

October is actually SPD Awareness Month and ADHD Awareness Month, so I fee like this is a good topic. 

And also, just because sensory processing has been considered a part of autism for so long, I think that there’s a lot of misinformation going around, or just confusion, around how sensory challenges relate to these other neurodivergent conditions. 

And there are actually other conditions that have a high prevalence of sensory processing issues associated with it. 

They’re not considered a feature of the conditions like autism, but they do have a high prevalence in people who have those conditions, like OCD or generalized anxiety disorder and a variety of other conditions. 

Anyway, I hope you guys found this helpful. If you have questions related to sensory processing disorder, or ADHD, or autism, please comment below, and let me know, and I’ll see about doing a follow up post.

Happy Saturday.