Hypersensitivity is a real issue and I was happy and relieved to finally read an interesting, eye-opening article about it: Hypersensitivity: Are You a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)?http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/8945.html
It is an actual disorder, often accompanies ADD/ADHD and is called Sensory Processing Disorder. It also says: When ADHD and SPD do coexist, however, it’s important to distinguish one from the other because their treatments are different. I think this is the single most important thing I’ve read because I suffer from this but no one could tell me why…now I know and I don’t feel like such a weirdo about it:) All 5 of my senses feel assaulted most of the time, to the point where I’m practically housebound so I can keep my environment controlled. After reading this article, I find that I have instinctively created ways for myself to be able to cope with this problem. However, I’ve created a big problem by isolating myself because I cannot bear to go out into that chaotic world of outside, so I’ve been home for a year now, not working but on long-term sick leave from work, with the added worry of having to return to work sometime in the near future I’m guessing. Not sure what will happen with that. ONce again, there is NO magic pill to cure this disorder, nor is it really accepted in the medical community. So, where does that leave me? Oh, by the way, I did not grow up in an alcoholic home but I did grow up in a chaotic, violent home, with plenty of fighting and screaming and many many moves! It was pure hell and my siblings always told me, as well as my mother, that I was “too sensitive, needed to toughen up, overly dramatic, faking, clumsy, daydreaming all the time, don’t listen blah blah blah etc.etc.”. My mother used to beat me to try and “toughen me up”….she had her undiagnosed issues as well. Anyway, after going through some self-destructive teen years and fairly rough early 20’s, I changed my outward ways and through sheer pig-headedness and force of will, created a calm, nurturing environment and family life. It worked for 30 years, but at the age of 55, my psyche broke down, forcing me to face all issues and oddities, stop pretending nothing bothers me and now I’m trying to cope with what the real me is. I was diagnosed with ADD in July, started the meds and therapy, and am struggling to accept the fact that I cannot continue to tightly control myself so I can appear and act “normal”. It’s frustrating, to say the least, and it’s lots of exhausting work. I have been very fortunate to have a spouse that is so accepting, and that finds me endlessly amusing:) as well as him being highly organized, enabling my pretending of being “normal” to the outside world. He was as surprised as I was when all of this began to seep through my facade. But he’s rolling with it, and I couldn’t ask for a better support person. Anyway, for those of you that are clumsy and too sensitive, take a read of that article. It’s interesting and enlightening.
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