Sharing my journey

Hello my lovelies. I know many of you probably noticed that I haven't been around much. Some of you may follow my personal account on Facebook, but for those who haven't, I'll explain.

I decided to be open about my struggles with anxiety the last time I vanished for a while. I thought I had everything under control, but I started to struggle yet again. I had heard about something called a weighted blanket, literally a blanket filled with pellets to a certain weight, and finally I decided to find one and try it. I take enough medications that I didn't want to have to take any more, particularly for anxiety since I figured there HAD to be a way to control it without medication.

Best. Decision. Ever.

Having purchased my weighted blanket from a wonderful woman local to me, I've started to see a vast improvement. I'm able to control my feelings of being overwhelmed. I also realized something.

I'm not as anxious as I first thought.

I've known for years that I had an auditory processing disorder. Basically, I can hear volume just fine but I can't always understand speech. It sounds garbled, like gibberish, or sometimes I just hear the complete wrong word.

Through my research when I was looking into weighted blankets, I realized something crucial. It's not just an auditory processing disorder. It's a SENSORY processing disorder.

I experience some of my senses differently than other people, most significant being my auditory and tactile senses. Things that don't bother most people or are just minor annoyances are incredibly overwhelming to me, to the point where I start to shut down just to cope. I described some of my experiences in a previous post and I will strive to describe more as I'm able.

This is something I struggled with my entire life, never really knowing what exactly was wrong. Now I'm starting to see the difference between when I'm going through sensory overload and when I'm having anxiety/panic attacks.

I'll be copying over some of my statuses from Facebook where I described what I was going through so you can follow my journey. I intend to share my experiences as I start to understand and cope with my sensory issues. I'll also share my experiences with my weighted blanket and my weighted shawl (the shawl I use at work).

I hope to share these experiences to potentially help others identify if they have similar problems as well as to hopefully encourage others to speak about their own issues. Too often, things like anxiety are almost taboo. Nobody wants to talk about them. Well, I want to share my journey.

So, let me introduce myself.

I'm Lindsay Avalon, author of Dark Fantasy Romance.

I have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (emphasis on hyperactive ;) )

I struggle with anxiety.

I struggle with a sensory processing disorder.

These things do not define me, they just make me that much more unique.

Lovely to meet you my lovelies. What's your story?