Addiction and Adult SPD – Prelude

SPD?  Addiction? A match cast in my neurons before I was born.

Although it has been many years since I imbibed in any recreational drug, including alcohol, I must admit to a somewhat sullied past regarding controlled substances.

Please remember, addiction is just a point on a long continuum of when and why a person uses a psychotropic.

The first step on that continuum is the discovery that the substance solves a problem. A person with an undiagnosed or unmanaged sensory processing disorder has plenty of problems, chief among them – little to no control over how she reacts, how she feels, and how she fits into the world.  Someone like this is bound to feel huge relief when she stumbles upon anything that helps modulate her life.

As long as we’re talking about psychoactive drugs…

I do, I am resigned to say, contribute generously to the bottom line of several major drug manufacturers by way of ongoing prescriptions.

“Wouldn’t you prefer to pocket those deductibles and co-pays?” The sensible voice of reason asks every time I put my credit card in the drawer of the drive-through at CVS.

“Well, yeah!” I answer. But despite regular exercise, a fairly healthy diet, and years of counseling, I find a myriad of normal functions in daily life impossible without them. This list includes but is not limited to:

• Getting out of bed
• Staying lucid and productive during the day
• Managing pain
• Not succumbing to crippling anxiety
• Sleeping at night
• Maintaining a will to live

Until I learned about Sensory Processing Disorder, I was confused and horribly conflicted about the origins of these difficulties. The fact that I might go a day, a week, or – sometimes – even a whole month without symptoms was particularly mindboggling.

…continued