I have an amazing resource to share with you! I’ve observed that most autistic adults manage their sensory wellness mainly through buying new gadgets or through avoidance. These are definitely important parts of the process, but that can only take you so far. Sensory wellness is about so much more than fidgets and ear plugs, which are temporary fixes. What if I told you that there was a seemingly magic way to reduce your need to avoid or seek sensory experiences? This is some real medicine here, not just a band-aid.
This magic trick is commonly called a sensory diet. But the term “diet” probably makes you think of denying oneself things like food, which brings with it feelings of shame. Also, a sensory diet isn’t about denying things. I think the creators used the word “diet” as if to say “a healthy, balanced diet.” So in my Sensory Empowerment Program, I call this a “sensory empowerment plan.” This fits much better to me and these plans include more than a typical sensory diet does! But since the rest of the world calls them “sensory diets,” I’ll do the same here.
A sensory diet is a sequence of activities that you can do throughout the day to regulate your sensory system. The idea was developed by occupational therapists in 1991. Most of the information you’ll find on sensory diets is directed toward children, so it can be challenging as an adult to develop an appropriate one for yourself. And they tend to still live in the realm of occupational therapists who work with children, so it’s hard to get support with them as an adult.
For someone who tends to be sensory avoidant, these activities act to calm your sensory system down to a less sensitive state so that it gets activated less easily. Picture your sensory system as a pot of water. If the water is hot, it won’t take much heat (sensory stimulation) to get it to boiling (sensory overwhelm). But if you’ve added some ice cubes (sensory regulating activities) to the water, it takes much more heat to get to boiling, so you can handle more before boiling over.

The same applies to those who tend to be sensory seeking, just in reverse. Imagine your goal is to heat the water up to a baseline temperature so that it’s harder to freeze. So the sensory diet works to keep your pot of water at a lukewarm temperature so that the sensory experiences that bother you actually bother you less.
Does this sound too good to be true? That’s what I thought before it worked for me. When I worked with an occupational therapist on a sensory diet, I very quickly found my body to feel more regulated and that feeling kept increasing the longer I did it. But I will say that I only took a few things from our work together and mainly figured out my own sensory diet because her suggestions were not tailored enough to me as an individual. She also had the goal of desensitizing my senses through exposure therapy, something that only made me feel worse.
The key to a sensory diet is finding the correct activities that regulate your personal sensory systems. This can be very complicated when each of us has 8 sensory systems in our body that all interact and can each be over- or under-sensitive. And we each have our own preferences in each sensory area. Say you’re very sensitive to smells. There will still be some smells that you enjoy and will calm your olfactory system instead of overwhelm it. So you can see how sensory diets do require some focused upfront work. But it is so worth it for the amazing results!
Here’s hoping you’re excited to work on your own sensory diet now, because I really want every autistic adult to feel this same empowerment and relief that I’ve felt after regulating my own sensory system. I think most of us are living in a state of chronically being very close to boiling or freezing, so any sensory challenge can feel overwhelming very quickly. It can be hard to imagine another possibility, but a sensory diet definitely can help anyone reach a more regulated state most of the time. And if you want coaching support on your journey, my Sensory Empowerment Program and I are here for you.
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