Looking After Your Autistic Self Quotes

“To explain sensory overload: Imagine you see a toddler screaming and screaming at their parent. At first the parent can cope with the screaming; they try to reason with the toddler, and they try to distract the toddler with a toy. The child keeps screaming. This continues for a while, but eventually the parent starts to lose patience; they start to look stressed, and they start begging the child to stop screaming at them. The child continues to scream. Eventually the parent can no longer cope with the screaming. They reach their limit. They cover their ears, they close their eyes, they clench their jaw. They cannot think rationally any more. They are overloaded, and they feel out of control.”
― Niamh Garvey, Looking After Your Autistic Self: A Personalised Self-Care Approach to Managing Your Sensory and Emotional Well-Being

“Female hormones have been found to affect the severity of hypermobile symptoms in women, for example during puberty, prior to menstruation, on oral contraceptives, and after pregnancy (Hugon-Rodin et al. 2016). I get more painful joints at certain times of the hormonal cycle, and my proprioception deteriorates during menstruation; I get clumsier, I walk into things, I sometimes stub my toe up to four times a day, and I crave more tight hugs (this is also because I get more emotional and crave affection). I therefore need to be more aware of my proprioceptive system at this time, as it needs more attention to stay regulated.”
― Niamh Garvey, Looking After Your Autistic Self: A Personalised Self-Care Approach to Managing Your Sensory and Emotional Well-Being

“The Vestibular Sense The vestibular sense collects information about balance and where your head is. It collects information through the inner ear, and also through other senses including the sight and sound senses. The vestibular sense tells us if we tilt our head to the side, if we bend forward, that we are standing up straight, how fast we are moving etc. In autistic children, vestibular dysfunction can lead to delayed milestones including sitting and walking, poor posture, eye gaze differences, and poor gait. These can lead to coordination problems later in life (Mansour et al. 2021). The effects don’t just wear off when we grow into adults, although they might affect us in different ways. A poorly regulated vestibular system will alter how you take information in through your other senses. It is therefore really important to work on regulating your vestibular system, so that your other senses can collect information about the environment and your body, and communicate this to your brain and nervous system.”
― Niamh Garvey, Looking After Your Autistic Self: A Personalised Self-Care Approach to Managing Your Sensory and Emotional Well-Being

“A study published in 2015 (Bishop-Fitzpatrick et al. 2015) found that autistic adults without intellectual disability experienced substantially higher levels of stress than non-autistic adults. Not only that, but when stress levels increased, autistic adults’ social functioning went down significantly.”
― Niamh Garvey, Looking After Your Autistic Self: A Personalised Self-Care Approach to Managing Your Sensory and Emotional Well-Being

“Store photos of strategies and tools on your phone. You can make a folder with images of tools you find helpful, for example noise cancelling headphones, eye mask, weighted blanket, something to do with a special interest. When stressed, just scroll through the photos in the folder to give yourself ideas about what tools to use. It’s likely that as soon as you see the tool that will work for you, you will know it. You can make different folders for different activities, such as ‘Quick Calm Plan for Home’, ‘Quick Calm Plan for Work’ etc. If you scroll through the images before you go out, it will help you not to forget any tools you want to bring with you.”
― Niamh Garvey, Looking After Your Autistic Self: A Personalised Self-Care Approach to Managing Your Sensory and Emotional Well-Being