Sensory Issues & Work
Can Occupational Therapy (OT) help me with noise and sensations that are interfering with my performance & mental health on the job?
By Kathy Mulka, BScOT(c), MEd
Over the years I have helped teachers, doctors, lawyers, students, administrative staff, camp counsellors (and the list goes on) with managing busy work environments, stressful workloads, meetings, presentations, classrooms, office staff and a multitude of other work-related sensory disturbances. Understanding how an individual’s brain and nervous system is impacted by varying sensory stimuli is key to recovering, managing and overcoming sensations that seem to be unmanageable on a daily or regular basis.
For those individuals who experience sensory issues daily, life can feel extremely impairing. What seems harmless to most people in an office, may be extremely triggering and create panic, anxiety and overwhelm to someone with sensory processing challenges. Coworkers talking, typing or other environmental noises can feel so difficult to manage, the impacted individual needs to leave the room because they may feel extremely anxious, dizzy and overloaded by the sensory environment. For others, sensory processing difficulties are experienced only under very specific situations. For example, a teacher or a student may feel fearful or very anxious about school assemblies because the noise and movement feel so intense and inescapable to them. And yet another person, such as a student in a classroom, may be able to manage their work when it is quiet, but cannot manage their music class with a variety of different instruments and their teacher’s high pitched singing voice. And yet for another person, their retail work may feel impossible to perform, when unexpected noises, lighting and/or multiple conversations are taking place. The list of upsetting sensory scenarios can be vast and long.
Some clients contact me because after spending all day in environments that feel like an onslaught on their senses, they feel unable to recover from ‘sensory overload’. They often develop high levels of anxiety, depression or seclusion because they simply cannot manage the daily deluge. Many times, clients have taken sick leave, a leave of absence or cannot find work because of their symptoms and sensory challenges. They may have seen their doctors, psychologists and a variety of other specialists in the hopes that there is some remedy for their challenges. Often, despite all their searches, strategies and help from others, individuals suffering with sensory concerns are unable to get the relief they so badly want and need, so that they can function better in their workplaces, at home and in the community. These are typical stories I hear from clients and often what leads them to my practice.
SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) affects up to 20%(1) of the world’s population. SPD commonly occurs in people diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)(2). There are also many other conditions that we are learning that trigger and/or play a part in developing or exacerbating sensory problems in adults including traumatic brain injuries and concussions, PTSD, and many other developmental disabilities/disorders. Science has begun to find brain differences in those with significant sensory sensitivities and continues to study sensory processing & the brain in the hopes of finding better treatments and therapies for the long term(3).
OTs with specialized training, certification, as well as knowledge and skill working with adults suffering from sensory processing issues can help. If you or a loved one, struggles with how to deal with sensory processing challenges and have questions or want help about specific challenges, please contact me at ktmulka@outlook.com.
1 Counseling Adults With Sensory Processing Disorder: An Exploratory Study. Emily Goodman-Scott; Melanie Burgess; Gina Polychronopoulos Journal of Mental Health Counseling (2020) 42 (3): 234–250.
2 Chapter 8: Sensory Processing and Intolerance in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder by Katherine A. Collins; Stephanie J. Grimaldi & Emily R. Stern. In Complexities in Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders: Advances in Conceptualization and Treatment. Published August 2021.
3 Abnormal white matter microstructure in children with sensory processing disorders. Julie P. Owen, Elysa J. Marco, Shivani Desai, Emily Fourie, Julia Harris, Susanna S. Hill, Anne B. Arnett, Pratik Mukherjee. In NeuroImage: CLINICAL. Volume 2, 2013, Pages 844 – 853.