Sensory Pleasure While Driving in the Car

 

Driving in your car can be an amazing opportunity for your sensory diet.

Auditory: Listen to the music that you need at that time to either perk you up or calm you down and sing along with it. Turn off the music and chant, or listen to the sound of raindrops or falling snow. Open the window and listen to nature’s sounds, especially if you are driving along the ocean.

Scent:  Infuse essential oil with a device that you plug into your cigarette lighter. Choose the oil you need to either perk you up or calm you down. If you’re lucky to be driving through an orange, cherry or apple grove in bloom, open up your window and inhale deeply.

Tactile:  Use a vibrating mat behind your back or a back massager. Massage parts of your body with wooden rollers. Open up your window to feel the warmth of the sun on your body or the refreshing cold of lightly falling snow. Stick your arm out the window and let the grounding surge of the wind against your skin perk you up for amazing body awareness. If you are drowsy, rub something with rough texture against your skin to perk you up.

Pressure:  Put weight on your lap.

Oral/motor: Drink cold drinks of peppermint tea or lemon water through a straw to alert you and especially if you are driving while drowsy. Also, chew gum or suck on a lemon or lime. Drink warm chamomile tea to calm you.

Proprioceptive:  Push into the steering wheel at a light. 

Vestibular:  Driving in your car naturally gives you vestibular input and especially on a bumpy road or going up or down hills.  

Copied from: Uptight & Off Center: How Sensory Processing Disorder Throws Adults Off Balance & How to Create Stability: Heller PhD, Sharon: 9780692544808: Books - Amazon

www.sharonheller.net

Stress of Living with Vibration Noise

 

I’ve been living in my two-bedroom, second floor condo at Kings Point in Delray Beach, FL since last August. It’s cozy, functional and, with many windows, refreshingly bright.

I enjoy especially the calming relaxation of lying on my zero-gravity chair on my screened-in balcony. Surrounded by pots of pink, yellow, and purple flowers and green plants, and silhouetted by a blanket of tall green trees as far as the eyes can see, my balcony view is a feast for the eyes. Blue jays and other birds hop from tree branch to tree branch, singing away, while the wind stirs the song of hanging chimes.

All changes as I walk into my house. Penetrating the walls, especially the bathrooms, kitchen and hallway is this horrifically disturbing vibration noise that sends my body into overdrive: my stomach tightens, my shoulders tense, my breathing accelerates, my heart pounds.

The noise comes from the overhead compressor on the roof from my downstairs neighbor’s AC unit.

This vibration noise is common when home, apartment, or condo A/C condenser units are installed on roofs, decks and upper floors. When the AC is operating, occupants of space adjacent to or below these units experience disturbing noise/vibration.

According to research, vibrations can cause several health-related issues, such as fatigue, headaches, stomach problems, among others. For this reason, many regulations aim at controlling the exposure of humans to vibrations. For instance, car manufacturers are required to reduce vibration levels to ensure the comfort of passengers and prevent health hazards.

Unfortunately, such regulations don’t exist for the AC condensers on the roofs of Kings Point. It’s up to individual unit owners to take measures to reduce the noise/vibration coming from their compressors and that's costly. Very costly.

How have I solved the problem? White noise in each room!

Sharon Heller, PhD, is a psychologist and consultant in sensory processing disorder.  She’s the author of Too Loud, too Bright, too Fast, too Tight, What to do if you are sensory defensive in an overstimulating world and Uptight & Off Center, How sensoryprocessing disorder throws adults off balance & how to create stability. Her website is www.sharonheller.net and email info@sharonheller.net.