Ep. 106 — Sensory Processing Disorder and ADHD: “Maybe I’m not crazy.”

This week, Megan and Michelle take a little detour from the parenting book because they stumbled into something that immediately felt too important not to talk about. The conversation starts with sensory processing disorder, or SPD, and pretty quickly turns into one of those Spicy Brain moments where a whole bunch of old experiences suddenly start making a different kind of sense. Not in a neat little “we solved it” way. More in a “wait a second, this might explain a lot” kind of way.

Michelle brings in what she has been reading about sensory processing disorders and the way the brain can struggle to receive, organize, and respond to sensory information like sound, light, texture, smell, and movement. And as they start talking through the examples, Megan just keeps having one of those "oh no, that’s me" moments. The long shifts at the aquarium. The way certain sounds physically hurt. The perfect chip. The manga scrolling at night. The food textures. The blinking lights. The chewing. The box paper. The moving chaos. Suddenly this old label of “too sensitive” starts looking a lot less like a personality flaw and a lot more like an actual pattern.

What makes this episode really interesting is that they are not talking about SPD in some detached, clinical way. They are talking about what it feels like to live inside it. What it feels like when a sensation does not just annoy you, but completely hijacks your ability to focus, connect, or stay regulated. Megan talks about pain, body awareness, and how years of chronic pain may have taught her to interpret every body signal like an emergency. Michelle starts connecting dots too, especially around auditory overwhelm and the way some people get mislabeled with anxiety when the real issue might be that the world is just coming in way too loud.

There is also a really tender thread running underneath all of it about language, accommodations, and what it means to be believed. Because if you do not know what is happening, you end up thinking you are dramatic, difficult, lazy, rude, or broken. And if the people around you do not understand it, then every request can feel like you are asking for too much. This episode does not wrap it all up in a bow, but it does open a really important door. Sometimes the diagnosis you already have is not the whole picture. Sometimes there is another piece of the puzzle, and finally seeing it can change everything.

Favorite line from the episode: “How does that help me right now?”

00:00 welcome back and why this is a detour episode

01:30 Michelle introduces sensory processing disorder

02:30 aquarium shifts, overwhelm, and Megan realizing this sounds familiar

04:30 the perfect chip and food texture rules

06:30 pain tolerance, bruises, and body awareness

09:00 chronic pain, PT, and learning the difference between pain and sensation

10:30 why SPD often gets mislabeled as anxiety

14:00 the manga scrolling at night and visual overwhelm

17:30 why ADHD alone may not explain the full picture

20:00 moving boxes, paper, smell, and sensory overload

24:30 auditory overwhelm, chewing, and needing quiet to think

27:00 acting school, sense memory, and “the body of your nature”

32:30 the sensory checklist and where they want to go next

If this episode hit something for you, especially if you have ever felt like ADHD or autism explained part of the picture but not all of it, you are probably not alone. Sometimes just having language for what is happening takes a little weight off your shoulders. We are really glad you are here while we keep following this rabbit hole in real time. Stay curious, joyful, radically accepting. High kick.

sensory processing disorder, SPD, ADHD, neurodivergent, sensory overwhelm, sensory issues, auditory sensitivity, food texture sensitivity, chronic pain, body awareness, anxiety and sensory processing, neurospicy, Spicy Brain Podcast