The Highly Sensitive Person and Sensory Processing Dis-Order

It is said that the senses can be the gateway to the soul, and I take that quite literally. Sight, sound, touch, smell correspond either to our mental health or mental distress, depending on our sensitivities. And at the core of our being is our genes, our biology, our childhood experiences, but also our sensory makeup. That is how our nervous system responds to and interacts with our

sensory world, what delights us and what repels us. And over time, throughout our lives, these components interact, producing layers of emotions and resulting behaviors. That's a quote from Genera Nuremberg in the book Divergent mind. And that is what we are diving into today, the sensory experience and how that impacts mental, physical health and emotional health. And I'm really excited because this really is the crux of NSI.

Welcome to Trauma Rewired, the podcast that teaches you about your nervous system, how trauma lives in the body, and what you can do to heal. I'm your co host, Elizabeth Christoph. I'm the founder of brainbase.com, an online community where we focus on nervous system health and resilience. And I'm also the founder of Neurosematic Intelligence coaching

certification. And I'm your co host, Jennifer Wallace. I'm a neurosomatic psychedelic preparation and integration guide, and I bring your nervous system into your plant healing spaces so that you can receive and download messages in your body safely from your peak somatic experience. And I'm also one of the educators at the Neurosomatic Intelligence coaching certification. And so welcome to this exploration today of sensory processing.

Yeah, this is a really big one. As I was researching and reading about highly sensitive person and sensory processing disorder, and I just love that quote in the beginning, because when we're talking about the sensory experience, like, we're not just talking about touch and smell and wanting nice sensations like we are sentient beings, that means we're alive and we can feel and perceive things, and we're always reacting to those things. So everything we experience, like everything,

is because of sensory inputs. And that's the NSI framework. It's this input based framework, and then the interpretation and then the output. So the way we take in information is different for all of us. And we live in a world where sometimes sensory information is too much, sometimes it's not enough. And we're always going to experience outputs of a brain that is overwhelmed or doesn't have enough clear, accurate information to make predictions and to generate

presence, performance output. And that the way we take in information is what drives protective outputs like pain, or dissociation, or anxiety or fatigue and the more I thought about all this and doing this episode in particular, the more I realized, like, this isn't just in our wheelhouse, this is our wheelhouse. Because in NSI, we look at everything as a sensory processing issue. And our focus is how to rehabilitate the sensory input systems,

to take in clearer, more accurate information. Through my eyes, through my body mapping system, through my intro receptive system, my vestibular system, my smell, so that I'm reducing stress on my nervous system, healing, sensory mismatch, reducing that overwhelm, and then moving through the world in a more present and connected state. And so how I'm perceiving my external environment and my internal environment, my sensations, my emotions, is it good?

Is it bad? Am I safe? Like, this is what drives so much of our experience. And then by focusing on that, we can create change in the outputs. And so when it comes to sensory processing, that's so much of the work that we do all the time. It really is. I mean, I couldn't speak more to what we do. And I really love the intrigue part of that quote, the first sentence where it is said that the sense can be the gateway to the soul, because we're literally talking about how we are designed and

wired. And although some of that can have a little bit of maybe overwhelm in some ways and not enough stimulus in some ways, and in some areas of the brain, it literally is the way that we are designed as humans, because we all feel better when we are not too bored and we're not too overwhelmed. And we perform best at a task when our nervous system is moderately aroused, right? So too little

arousal, it's boring. And we could do things like drink coffee to get that energy, or we're going to seek out stimulus in some way, maybe even reach out for a substance that might stimulate the nervous system. And then on the other hand, when we're overstimulated, it can feel really distressing, it can get confusing, and mostly it feels

really unsafe in the body. And so we can go either way when it's unsafe, we lay down, we block out the world, we turn the lights out, we crash, or sometimes we might use food or substance in any way to calm down, to rest and digest. And so there is an optimal arousal level that you can see in psychological research. And even in infants, they don't want to be too bored,

and they also don't want to be overwhelmed. And so, sensory processing disorder, it refers to heightened or altered responses to sensory stimuli. This means that the brain processes sensory input such as sight, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures differently, and often taking us away from the optimal arousal level into overwhelm or maybe into what feels like a little too much

activation. And so we can have a hyper responsiveness or a hypersensitivity when we experience sensory input more intensely than neurotypical. For example, certain sounds could be unbearably loud or annoying. They can really hit you in the nervous system. That's how I experience it excessively. Bright lights, certain fabrics can also feel irritating. And this can result

from the brain sensory processing centers, like the thalamus. We love to talk about being overly reactive or having heightened neural activity in response to sensory input. The brain may amplify signals leading to intense or overwhelming experiences. Or we can have a hypo responsiveness, also known as hyposensitivity, if we have diminished response to sensory stimuli. For example, you may not feel pain as acutely, or seek out strong sensory experiences like loud music or spicy foods,

or fail to notice sensory inputs overall. And so hypo responsiveness can result from the brain not registering sensory input, leading to under responsiveness. The sensory signals may not be processed effectively, resulting in a need for stronger stimuli to elicit a typical response. So relatable. So relatable. And it's so interesting, as you were talking about that too, because I was thinking, you can also have both going on, right where some stimulus you're hyper responsive

to, you know, the sounds are really irritating. I was just thinking of myself, but I see this in a lot of clients, too. Certain sounds and noises really make it difficult for me to focus and push me into that agitated state. But then I also don't feel pain and my internal signals very loudly. And I can sometimes be, like, oblivious to those signals coming from my body. And so you can have this mix of both. And it's like a spectrum, as we always talk about

on here, and then that can drive our behaviors. Like, you can have sensory seeking behaviors where you're actively seeking out intense sensory experiences to satisfy these neurological needs. Because our brain and our nervous system, just like you said, it wants a certain amount of stimulus. We don't want to be bored because we need stimulus for adaptation and

growth. And so that could look like some of the things that you typically think about as sensory speaking, like spinning around or jumping or touching different textures when we're talking about, like, this typical neurodivergence thing or this typical way of looking at neurodivergence. But it could also be stimulants, like you talked about substances, depressants to

blanket out sensory inputs that are too harsh. It could be food, it could be certain environments, types of social interactions that are either more or less stimulating, depending on where you are in that spectrum. And so it doesn't just drive little in the moment behaviors, but our ways of socially interacting in the world. And all of these behaviors are ways to regulate sensory inputs and to get that

balanced state. That balanced sensory state and the brain might require more input to reach optimal functioning that then leads us to engage in these behaviors. And so, again, that can look like our social interactions. It could look like how we deal with education and workplace settings. It could have to do with our emotional processing capabilities and the emotions that we experience, like anxiety or stress

or frustration due to our sensory overload. And so this shows up in affecting all of our outputs that we talk about. This is why NSI has been so hugely impactful in both of our lives. And the clients that we see is because we start to learn a little bit about, like, what our boundaries are in a sensory experience, and then learning to take tailor a sensory experience to what is maybe more aligned with our sensory selves. And I know for me, auditory is a big one. I

can hear. I can hear the rooms. I can hear the room I'm in. I can hear the wifi and the light bulbs, and there's electrical things on. And that has always just been like, it's a couple different things, right? Because it's, like, kind of cool. Okay, yeah, you've got a cute hearing. And that's like, it scares me inside. When I can hear the Wi Fi, I start to get really kind of freaked out, to be quite honest with you.

In the interoceptive part, I also find really interesting, because it's attuning to, for me, attuning to the people in the room so deeply, because I'm so sensitive to the frequency that people put out themselves, which I think makes me wildly successful in medicine spaces. But it's also overwhelming and kind of burdening when I'm in a social experience or when I'm just trying to kind of relax. And so what NSI does, it helps me regulate myself and give myself stimulus

while I'm in real time with people. There's so many tools that you can use to regulate your nervous system in real time. Well, for me, so that I cannot get too stimulated, that I need to shut down, because I will use food so easily in a sensory overload experience. And to be honest with you, I'll eat if I'm bored. So like you were saying, it's just like this pendulum and this spectrum.

It's like, gosh, and then we're back. To food, always coming back to that output that shows us stuff so clearly. Yeah. As you were speaking, I was thinking about how, like, all these other ways of being neurodivergent, we talk about how it's both, like, an asset, a gift, and also that sometimes it leads us into outputs that we don't want or has cost for our physical health, our mental health, that we want to start to work with our system so that we don't have to face those

necessarily and we can still maintain the gifts. And I was talking to someone just this weekend who had been listening to our anxiety episode, actually, and realized, oh, I've had anxiety my whole life. And I think some of this might have to do with sensory mismatch and how I'm processing information. And she's a very gifted, somatic therapist with that ability to really attune to people. And so it has served her really well in some

ways. But she was saying, like, the anxiety is always there because my system is so sensitive, and I can. The anxiety will go away if I'm completely alone and out in nature. And so I've had built a life for myself that's pretty isolated. But the truth is that I also want more. Like, I want more social interaction. I want to contribute more into the world. I kind of want to live in a city, but I don't want to have to face the anxiety. That's

the output of that. And so how can we start to work with the system to, like, keep the gifts and also be able to move into the life that we desire if we want to? That's right. We have to be able to harness our gifts in a way that. And, I mean, that's a whole

other conversation, isn't it? Like, how do we live through our gifts in a world that isn't necessarily designed to support your gifts, which is really, I mean, a lot of what we're talking about this season through neurodivergence and working through the nervous system. But it's relatable, isn't it? Like, the anxiety that comes from sensory overwhelm or lack of totally sensory input. Let's talk a little bit about the highly sensitive person, because that's kind

of what we're describing in this case. So the highly sensitive person, you'll hear this referred to as HSP. It's a term coined by psychologist Elaine Aron, and they were really the first person to give this a name and define it. And according to their theory, HSP's are a subset of the population who are high in a personality trait known as sensory

processing sensitivity, or SP's. And people with high levels of SP's, they do display increased emotional sensitivity, stronger reactivity to both external and internal stimulus, like pain or hunger or light or noise, and a complex inner life, too. And about 15% to 20% of the population are thought to be highly sensitive. But I actually think there's a lot of us with these sensitivities in different areas that we just haven't

thought about it, or maybe we don't want to identify that way. That's another thing that came up with this woman that I was talking to. She was like, you know, I probably am highly sensitive, but I've never really wanted to identify that way because we think maybe that makes us weak or we don't want to focus on that. So I think that might be like an under represented trait in

people. And highly sensitive people are thought to be more disturbed by violence or tension or feelings of being overwhelmed. And then that can lead to a real effort to avoid situations where those things are more likely to occur, or even big social situations where you're taking in all that stimulus. And then there's also the positive, higher levels of creativity, really rich interpersonal relationships, a greater appreciation for

beauty. And Elaine Aaron talks about the key really being to navigate it, right, to understand your sensitivity. And it's important to understand that it's an innate trait. It's not something that goes away or changes dramatically with time, is what Erin says. And I do agree with that to a certain extent. But I do also believe that there are ways to work with the brain and the nervous system to mitigate some of the stress load that it can create for people. That then leads to the burnout, the

poor health outcomes, the pain, the fatigue. So there is a huge component of embracing who we are, recognizing our gifts, creating a life that works with our nervous system, an environment that supports us. There's also ways to work with the nervous system, to train it, to do things like reduce sensory mismatch, or work with our visual system, work with our interceptive system, and rehab some of those deficits so that we're predicting less threat and experiencing less dysregulation all of

the time. It's really interesting because this is not. HSP isn't necessarily something that is diagnosed. You know, you have to, you just take a test and you see, like, how much of this do I relate to. And how much of this am I experiencing with both of these? Like, I agree with Elaine that there is something about the way that we can navigate and understand our sensitivities. Yes. And work around that. And some of the things on that on the test are things like

startle response, right? Like those kind of reactions from the nervous system. And so, like when you have a high startle response. And this is where I think things can get a little bit confusing for people too. Like when I think about having. When I took the test years ago, I scored very high on it. Very high now on some of those things, like say, start a response, I don't really have

that anymore. I mean, sure it could happen every once in a while, but there's a more settledness and a more groundedness and safety in my nervous system overall that I actually scored still high, but much lower than I had before. And what I've learned over time, really through NSI and through some other work that I did, like, I really believe, like I am inherently designed on a very sensitive way. And it was very hard for me growing up. Like, you're so sensitive. You're so

sensitive and it's like pushed on you that that's not a good thing. But in all actuality, it's the most brilliant thing about me, honestly. We definitely want to live and be in our own expressions of neurodivergence, that they can be and often are an innate sense of ourselves. People are different and equals one. Everyone is different in how much their nervous system is aroused or activated in the same situation under the same stimulation. These differences can be inherited and they

can also be observed in animals. And interestingly, according to Elaine Aron, within various species the percentage that is highly sensitive to stimulus is around the same amount as humans at 15% to 20%. So we're looking at a natural biodiversity here. But of course we also want to explore the intersections of complex trauma and the neurodivergent identity. How can CPTS shape our system to be more sensitive and alert? And also explore how it is traumatic to move through the world in a system

that is constantly overwhelmed by the stimulus load? Especially the world we live in. Right? There's screens, there's lights, there's noise, there's expectations, there's hustle, and there's really just a lot put on us. And I think for someone who's experienced complex trauma, there is a level of sensitivity baked in because of your surroundings, your surroundings in a physical way and your surroundings in a relational way, in your community, in your schools. And so

it's a lot of stress for a little body. Yeah, absolutely. And I think those intersections are so deep, like how we're developed, what's inherent, what happened from our primaries, what happens from the society at large? It almost is impossible to totally separate them. Who knows where this exactly comes from? And even if it is coming from my cpts, that doesn't necessarily

mean that it's all bad either. Maybe it was my cpts that made me more hyper vigilant and aware and attuned to a bunch of different nervous systems, more reactive to that. And that can still be a gift. Our trauma can still give us gifts of heightened sensitivities, even if it's coming from those experiences. So I definitely want to dive into looking at cpts and sensory processing, but I do want to touch on the neuro a little bit, too, just to give people a big picture of how this

works in our brain and our nervous system. So there are different lobes in our brain that process sensory information. We're taking in all of this information from our different input systems. We have our extraception, which is the world around us, that comes in from our eyes, from our skin, from our smell, from our hearing, auditory. And then we also have, you know, our balance system in our inner ear that lets us know where we are in space, tells us about gravity. We have our interoceptive

system that tells us what's going on inside of us. We have our proprioceptive system, our body mapping system, that tells us where our body is in space. All of this is sensory inputs. And then our brain is taking that in, is being filtered through the thalamus, which decides what of that. Sensory information is important and

kind of distributes it out to these different lobes in the brain. So we have, like our somatosensory cortex that processes tactile information like touch or temperature, pain, proprioception. We have our visual lobe, which is in our occipital lobe, and it processes our visual information from the eyes, including light, color, shape, movement. We have the auditory cortex and the temporal lobe. That's auditory information like frequency or

pitch or volume. We have our gustatory cortex and the insular cortex that processes taste, bitter, sweet, salty. And all of that is all these different areas of the brain are processing and interpreting that information. How our brain processes that and what it decides that it means determines the output that we get, right? So if that sensory information comes in and we think of it as, for whatever reason, unsafe, then we're

going to move into a protective output. We might find that in pain or dissociation or trauma response. But everything is coming from that interpretation. And all of these areas are impacted. And then all of that, how that interpretation occurs is impacted by the clarity and the

accuracy of the information coming in. If I have a blurry body map, if I have a visual deficit, if I have an interoceptive deficit and those signals are not being communicated clearly to my brain from inside of my body, that's creating stress, it's going to be inherently unsafe. When we can work with those sensory systems to get more clarity and accuracy about the world around us and about the world inside of us, then we're reducing the threat load and how our brain

interprets those signals. And this is where the peripheral nervous system really comes into play and has a lot to do with the way that your brain is receiving stimulus. Because your peripheral nervous system is the other main part of your body's nervous system. You have the central nervous system, you have the peripheral nervous system. And your PNS feeds information into your brain from most

of your senses. With this peripheral nervous system living outside of the brain and the spinal cord, this is where, when we talk about NSI and we talk about proprioception being so important in body mapping, right? And finding the nerves that are the mechanoreceptors that are mobilizing your joints and the nerves that are feeding information from your toe to your pelvic floor, right? Like this is like proprioception. So important.

Sensory stimulus and body mapping and letting your brain know, like reassuring it is what I kind of think of sensory stimulus is like reassuring to my brain where my body is in space. This is my left hand, this is my right foot. That's really important information for your brain to know accurately. Affects everything, affects our gait, it affects all of our posture. And so we use nerve mobility and nerve glides. Those are super important. Some

nerve slacking. And those areas of the brain that process information, they need clear, accurate information. Because if they aren't getting those clear, accurate signals in the first place, it's always going to be more threatening. A lack of clarity equals a lack of safety, 100%. There's so much you can do by rehabbing these input systems to provide that clearer, more accurate information to the brain.

And then when we talk about how our brain interprets that information too, we're going to have to circle back to the interceptive system and the insular cortex, which we've talked about quite a bit in here. But that is kind of our big sensory integration hub and our insular cortex, it takes all of that information as well, and it integrates the sensory information, and it links it to

emotional and cognitive responses. Right. It's the part of our brain that takes the data from various parts of the body, processes the information related to touch or temperature or pain, the body's internal state. And then that integration allows us to have a coherent and a holistic experience of our body sensations. And so that processing impacts our emotional experience. What do these sensations mean? What's the reaction that should come from it? How much threat is

there to this feeling? What is that? Is it good? Is it bad? And that impacts our cognitive function as well, because it communicates with our prefrontal cortex. And so it gives all of this significance to our sensory stimuli and associates them with emotions and memories. So, for instance, the insula is involved with experiencing disgust or empathy or self awareness. It impacts our perception of pain. It processes our threat signals. So we don't actually have pain receptors in our body. We have

nociceptors, which just signal threat. And so, like, if I touch a hot stove, I get some threat signals coming, and then my brain takes that data and interprets it as threatening. It wants me to engage in a certain behavior, which is remove my hand from the hot object so I don't get burned. So it creates the sensation of pain to get me to do the

behavior that it wants me to do to keep me safe. And so all of that comes from how our brain processes that information and that contributes to our subjective experience of pain, including the emotional aspects of pain. And that's why pain isn't just a physical sensation. It's also an emotional experience. I think the interoceptive system is so fascinating. And my favorite, one of the most interesting things I think about the interoceptive system is that it is

predictive. And it's not only predictive in a way of, like, I love the example that you give, but what happens to its predictive nature when you go out into public? What happens when you jump on for a podcast recording or something? That is a big ask for your nervous system. Like, how is the interoceptive then predicting? And then again, another one of the interesting things about it is the awareness and

accuracy that the interoceptive system really wants. And so when you look at prediction and then also awareness and accuracy, you can see how these two really, you do want to train the anteroceptive system for accuracy and awareness so that you do get the predictive response that is more aligned with the actions in your life that you want to take. It be like getting on this podcast and totally getting dysregulated and not knowing what to say and tripping up my words, and it's like, no,

the prediction for the podcast is safe, right? I have the tools that allow me to just show up here and sit and have a big conversation. And that's totally due to training for interoceptive accuracy and awareness, for better prediction, more safety. Yes. And when we talk about those two components of interception, I think it's important for people like, stop and think about that for a minute, because interceptive awareness is just being able to feel the signals. Can I even feel what's going

on inside of my body? Can I read that? Can I hear the signals? And for a lot of people, the answer is no. And so the training starts there, right? With, can I start to connect to those signals? Can I bring them back online? And then for a lot of other people, or once you do start to have some interceptive awareness, for a lot of people, there's too much threat associated with those signals. So

that's the accuracy part. Am I really having the appropriate response to these signals for the situation at hand, or is my body preparing to, like, run and fight for a situation that that is not really called for? What's the interpretation of these signals? And is it accurate to match the present moment? And again, just like you said, all of this is predictive based on our past experiences. And we can get kind of locked into this place of having a lot of threat

connected to that. And when I think of a really clear example of this, it's somebody who wakes up every day in an anxious state, even though they're just waking up to the same day, like they've gone through this day many times. They're going to go to work, they're going to do the same things. They're going to come home, they're going to cook dinner like, there's nothing actually life threatening most of the time, unless you are in a really unsafe

environment, that is going to be happening that day. But your body wakes up prepared for a day where you're actively in danger, in a threat response. And so that is an interceptive dysfunction. We're predicting too much threat where there isn't, and it's on repeat. So every day I'm waking up in that state, leading to the anxiety because those signals aren't being interpreted with

accuracy. That is a really painful place to be. And so the really neat thing is that we can train our interoceptive systems to function better to make more accurate predictions. And, you know, I gave the example of like, even being on this podcast or really interoception has played such a training. My interoception, it helps me keep time, helps me keep better time, helps me keep a better

calendar. It helps me keep my management skills for how, for some of the more like daily life tasks that you kind of have to do through life, you know, and training that interoceptive system so that even. It sounds silly at one time that keeping a calendar was like, not possible for me or keeping things organized was very challenging. And so I can see now that that predictability has changed that now it's like, no, it's actually easier in my life if I do time block, if I schedule everything,

then I kind of know what's happening throughout the day. I don't get as many surprises because surprises during the day are really threatening for me sometimes. I don't want to say that, but surprises in the schedule, they can really throw a neurodivergent person totally off their game. And I've even known, and I used to do this as well where I would say, okay, I have an appointment at noon. So that means I need to leave here by eleven to eleven. So I need to eat by this

time. I need to. And I would work backwards from the time that I had something important to do because I couldn't understand the time frame moving forward to the time to the appointment, if that makes sense. I couldn't navigate going forward, but I could work it out going backwards from the time I was expected to be somewhere. It's so relatable and myself to like, it leads to this very rigid relationship with time because it's confusing and like we said, unclear is

unsafe. And so we start to have to put all of these structures in place. It makes it hard to like, go with the flow of life sometimes when we have to work so hard to make something like digestible, understandable for ourselves because of some of these deficits. And again, some of this is natural. Biodiversity sensitivity is an evolutionarily selected trait that can provide certain advantages in certain situations. Heightened awareness of potential dangers, a

deeper understanding of social dynamics. But like we talked about, it can also be something that develops as an adaptation with trauma. Right. If I grow up having to be hyper vigilant around reading social cues for my survival, really paying attention to someone's vocal tone or facial expressions, my system does become primed for that. So I can start to read again. Here we are talking about the accuracy. I can start to read too much

threat where there isn't any. So I'm having a conversation with someone and their vocal tone changes a little, or I'm picking up on these little micro things in their face, and it's really. It's okay. Like, it's nothing. It doesn't have to do with me. I'm not in any kind of danger. Like, everything is fine, but my system starts

to move into that big threat response. I get these really big internal reactions when someone does or says something that's interpreted through that lens as maybe rejection or abandonment or possibly real physical danger, and I might pick up on some social signals and I might miss others all the time. And that could be just. Again, there's different levels of being underaware and hypersensitive.

And that heightened awareness can also lead to overthinking everything, the anxiety about how I'm being perceived. So highly sensitive people tend to process information really deeply, and that can, again, be really beautiful and lead to big insights, but it can also lead to ruminating on past social interactions, worrying about future ones. It is a form of social anxiety. For sure, and it's a lot to take on. HSP's are often highly empathetic and attuned to the emotions of others. It makes them

compassionate listeners and supportive friends. It helps foster deep and meaningful relationships, but it can also create a lot of overwhelm. Let's think back to the empathy episode, and then this will circle us back to

the insular cortex. Anytime we're talking about self awareness, there's a little prefrontal cortex involved in how we view ourselves and how we understand our own behavior as we start to relate to other people, it really comes back to the anterior insular cortex as reading social cues belonging to the tribe, understanding the emotional standing of everyone who's present in the situation. Empathy is something that should be hardwired into all of

us that our brain is able to do and experience. But becoming an empath is when that gets ramped up to another level. It's as if the volume knob on the radio is taken to a volume that's almost so loud that you can no longer turn it down. You can't ignore it, you can't dampen it, and it's kind of always there with you. And it's often very overwhelming for that person to have that volume knob stuck on that level. That's why the

difficulty in all of the different situations. But still, it primarily comes back to an insular deficit of some kind, just like we talked about in the narcissism conversation. That could be something that's conditioned through social interactions or in a household where I. Someone's raised in someone's developmental

situation. But perhaps it could also be an infection that affects the brain, some kind of meninges, like a viral infection, like meningitis or a bacterial infection that affects those areas. It can throw things off in the brain. And so there's several potential causes. But ultimately, it's like a normal sense of empathy taken to the utmost level, where we have a very difficult time dealing with it at the point where it's kind of overwhelming to our own sense of boundaries and our own sense of

self at times. And we really dive deep into the neuro and trauma components of empaths with Matt in our empathy episode in season two. And then you'll find narcissism right after that one. Yeah, there's so much overlap in this episode and that empath episode. So if people are really resonating with this one, that would be a great one to go back and listen to and take that deep dive.

And I also want to connect some dots here about how this drives our behavior and maybe like some procrastination or, quote unquote, self sabotage that people might experience because of this. Because all of this processing, it impacts what we want to move toward in life and what we want to avoid. And so as we're taking in this information about the world, we organize all of that data that is coming in and

those signals, those sensory signals coming in. And that can increase our dopamine, which is our motivation chemical, and really push us toward engagement. And something when we are interpreting that as safe, as like a reward, as a win. And that's whether that's social engagement or physical activity or learning, that's all of that is driven by our behavioral activation system. And then we also have our behavioral inhibition system, which is when that

stimulus elicits more. More of a amygdala threat response, more of a danger response, and then we move into avoidance. And so at this subconscious level, depending on how things are interpreted, we're going to either have that dopamine response or we're going to have a fear or threat response that's

going to push us away from something. And so what we find we're naturally inclined to, or why we might find ourselves avoiding certain things, even though we cognitively might want to do them, is driven so much at this deeper level that's below our conscious awareness. And so we're taking in everything around us through our sensory input systems and comparing it really to past

experiences. So we have to think about the hippocampus here, too, and go back and listen to the memory episode, because our hippocampus impacts whether we're going to have that dopamine response or the threat response based on our memories and how those memories have been integrated. But when there are differences in our predictions and what's happening, when there are new changes and our brain can't quite figure out what's going on, then it pauses and it moves us into more of a

threat response or an activated state. And so, like, for example, say you have two kids, same age, generally same environment. They walk into their classroom. One kid sees the classroom, the teachers, the colors, the kids, the smells, and they interpret that as the same as the day before. Great. Everything is all good. They feel safe. They go play. They interact with their friends. They do things with a sense of ease. You have another kid that comes in

and notices a whole lot more. Maybe the teacher is giving these subtle signals of being in a bad mood with their facial expression or their vocal tone or their posture, their movements. There are some new items, maybe in the classroom, that weren't there the day before. Somebody left some bags in the corner. There's another child that looks upset, unsettled. Something's different now. All of a sudden, that same kid is in the same environment.

But because they're taking in all this different stimulus, they move into more of a threat response. So they're responding differently. They don't have the safety to go play and interact socially. They may be shut down. And so, again, we can see how that could come from inherent differences in sensory processing, but it could also definitely come from how we're shaped in our development around hypervigilance with social cues.

And all of that input leads to someone who is more activated and in more of an f response, a survival response of the nervous system more of the time. It's so interesting, it's been so harmful to think that we're supposed to all be responding the same, or that we would all look at this curtain I'm looking at and see the same shade of blue, right. To even be experiencing that our eyes will be taking in the exact same

thing. And, like, what a gift it could be to feel the subtle nuances in a room and to a person, like, isn't that what we would want as far as our detection of threat, our detection of safety, to be attuned into the environment so well that you could predict that something, uh oh, something's. Something's about to drop, right? Something's about to happen in here and like, to have the fight flight, to have the f response system just be as a. Yeah, this is how

it's supposed to respond. But with everything getting shut down and those responses not being understood and then not being understanding of like, n equals one. It's all very, very harmful and damaging to a nervous system. And social situations, for me, used to be highly threatening experiences. Like, we've talked about the lights, the sounds, the people, all the noise. And then it's like the hyper vigilance of watching everybody's facial cues and,

like, what's everybody doing? What are they watching? And I am someone who I still. This is like something that I do if I'm in a social situation. I monitor people's alcohol intake. I monitor what other people are doing and how they are receiving their stimulants. And sometimes that can lead me to not a lot of ease in my body as I'm trying to just be present, stay grounded. It can get really challenging. And so learning how to dose myself in social situations, and I'm totally guilty of

avoiding social situations. I really love being at home. It's a sensory experience that I can mostly control, right. Except for then also finding the balance of the moderate amount of stimulation. Right. Like that is really the key is understanding. Like, what is, like, we talk about minimum effective dose. Like, what's the amount of stimulus that my body needs to remain safe, to remain

present, to remain engaged? And then it's also maybe around, like, of course, my social scenes have changed very much over the years from the loud, intoxicating, very overstimulating to things are much more gentle now in my life. That's by design, because I know how to dose myself. And of course, some of the behaviors and maladaptive behaviors I've just trained myself out of so that I wasn't harming myself anymore. And really, that's what sensory processing

disorder does sometimes, too. It's harmful. Yeah, yeah. It is really about finding that balance in, like, honoring what our system really needs, but then also knowing that some of that is honoring that we do need some of that stimulus too. And how do we create relationships and environments where we can get those needs for

social interaction met without having the big consequences? And then something that I want to say here, too, that's just kind of coming up for me is that another part of it, I think, is also honoring that there is some

truth in our heightened sensitivity. And I think for myself, I can sometimes go into this place of being like, oh, I'm moving into a trauma response because of my patterns and because I'm traumatized and, like, what's wrong with me in this situation that I'm picking up on these certain cues and feeling really dissociated or activated. Fight, flight, freeze, shut down. And sometimes there. Sometimes the situation really isn't safe. And I am picking

up on it before other people because I have that sensory awareness. And I was in a situation recently where I was in a big group of people, and there were some people in that. That container that were not safe people. And I felt that right away in my nervous system because I'm very attuned, and I can read that coming from another nervous system, and I can watch how people interact. And I kept thinking, like, what is my resistance to this? Why am I being so triggered?

Maybe it's just all my past trauma, and it turned out it really was unsafe. And so there's also this balance of, like, understanding. Like, you do have the ability. Sometimes these signals are accurate and learning how to know when do we work with our system? But not always just falling back into that pattern of, like, I'm traumatized and I can't trust myself. I think this is, like, such an important thing for us to talk about, because when we work with our nervous systems daily, we really

cultivate a deeper level of trust within ourselves. And it's like, sometimes, especially when we're in a group, we can have that much more easily, because it's like. Like, I'm the only one who's feeling like this. Obviously, everyone's looking like they're getting along, and everything is totally fine. I'm obviously the only one having these alarm bells, but it's also like, no, these alarm bells. We are wired to have these alarm bells and to listen to our body.

So, like, working with the interoceptive system, training that insular cortex, using our, like, lighting up all the areas of the brain, getting that good body map. Like, it. It really means so much in these situations where you have that ping and it's like, wait a minute. Is it me? Is it them? This is where regulation is just so vital, and sometimes it's going to be them. Yep. Maybe a lot of times. Maybe a lot of times. Yeah.

Like you were saying, like, people drinking a bunch and being really intoxicated, like, maybe that is not safe, you know? And the more I work with my system, the more I cultivate that relationship of trust, and it's easier for me to move into the original narrative will come back of, like, you're too sensitive. There's something wrong with

you? You're so traumatized. And then I'll start to actually listen to my body because I've spent so much time developing that relationship and start to put boundaries in place. I won't force myself into situations that I don't want to go into. And it makes it easier for me to protect myself and honor myself and is a really powerful thing to develop that different relationship with the body and to learn the nuances between. I'm reacting to a past trigger and I'm accurately interpreting a

situation that I need to protect myself in. And I think one thing that we're talking about, too, is lifestyle changes. You know, I've talked about, like, being in louder social situations, how that's changed. My friend group has changed based on the other decisions that I've made. And, like, when you begin to move in a way of your own rhythm, your lifestyle is naturally going to change. Your social interaction, your relationships are going to change. Like, boundaries shift

right in the. And it's really beautiful. Although sometimes I do think it can feel. It can feel like a lot because, you know, in the example like you gave, it's like part of identity, too. What we're talking about, like, if I identify as someone who is highly sensitive, or I have a neurodivergence or a sensory processing deficit, I think of myself in a certain way. I think that I respond in certain ways, and I have patterns in place that help

me respond. And when we get on this journey of intentional healing, intentional pattern change, subconscious rewiring, and all of this, we have a pattern in place. But now we also have an awareness of how and who we are in an environment that is now different than we used to have the awareness of before. But the pattern is not laid for the new identity, for the way that

you have to walk that over and over and over. And then we talked about self sabotage very briefly earlier, and it's like, self sabotage is that like, get back on the path? The brain is saying, like, hey, you're over here. Like, you're not in the pattern that we've laid for 2030 years. Like, you're on another path. And it's like, cue that margarita, smoke that joint. Like, get back over here. This is what we do. And it's like, NSI is what always brings me back to walking the pattern that I really

want to walk. The path that I intentionally wake up and make a connection to and a promise to every day. A recommitment to every day. Yes. And sometimes that self sabotage is really our system being like, you don't quite have the capacity for this yet. This is maybe a little bit more than the system can handle. This is going to lead

to some high stress loads and protective outputs. And so then the answer is not to just keep pushing through into the thing, but to really spend time working with our body and our nervous system to increase the capacity. And that's how we move out of that self sabotage pattern. Rather than being like, what's wrong with me? Why do I ruin this new job opportunity or this new relationship?

Well, I got to go at a deeper level to start to create the capacity for that so that it's really just another protective response. Yeah. And capacity is so interesting because I think as we're in a place and then we have an experience where we're like, oh, that's different for me. I'm experiencing this different. My capacity has increased, but also

in that you have to keep walking into that capacity. Right. We can't push against the capacity and force us to be more because then it's like doing too much and then we have to, we can't. Just because the capacity pushes in one day doesn't mean it's set there. Like, you have to swim in that more open water now into that capacity and then it continues to, in its own way, push out. But you can't push again. You can't push into it. You just have to,

you have to learn to ride with it. Because today I have a big capacity, but that doesn't mean tomorrow I'm going to wake up with the same capacity or that maybe even in three or 4 hours from now that I have what I have in this moment. Yes, 100%. We're doing a series on the site, actually for, especially for sensory processing and different types of neurodivergence, for rehabilitive. This is one of the best ways, one like, to start to learn about yourself. Let the narrative start to

shift. Understand that there's nothing wrong with us, that there are gifts with the sensitivity, just awareness, recognizing and then starting that process of nervous system rehabilitation. And on brain basedwiretrial.com comma, you can get two free weeks. And we're doing this series right now for really geared toward ADHD and sensory processing and highly sensitive people to start, to begin that rehab process. So I would love for people to join us there.

Yes, y'all, the more you really know about yourself at this level, you can become the expert of your own nervous system. So I hope to see you on site with us@rewiretrial.com. and thank you so much for joining us. Thank you guys. This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered medical or psychological advice. We often discuss lived experiences through traumatic events and sensitive topics that deal with complex developmental and systemic trauma

that may be unsettling for some listeners. This podcast is not intended to replace professional medical advice. If you are in the United States and you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health and is in immediate danger, please call 911 or specifically specific services relating to mental health, please see the full disclaimer in the show. Notes.