When the World Feels Too Loud, or Not Loud Enough: Rethinking Sensory Processing in Neurodivergent Adults.

It’s not always visible. But it shapes everything.

The way someone eats. How long they stay at a gathering. Whether they answer your text, wear tags in their clothes, or recoil from your perfume. These aren’t quirks. They’re clues.

For many neurodivergent people, the world arrives not just through ideas or emotions, but through sensation. And when the brain processes that sensation differently, daily life becomes an obstacle course of intensity, overwhelm, or absence.

What Is Sensory Processing?

Sensory processing is the brain’s ability to register, interpret, and respond to information from the environment. That includes the five external senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste) and three internal senses:

• Interoception: awareness of internal body states (e.g., hunger, thirst, emotion)

• Proprioception: sense of body position and movement

• Vestibular: balance, spatial orientation, and motion perception

In neurotypical systems, this sensory input is automatically filtered—prioritised, dampened, or ignored. But in neurodivergent systems, the filtering is often too little or too much.

This is where hypersensitivity (over-responsiveness) and hyposensitivity (under-responsiveness) come in.

Hypersensitivity: When the World Feels Too Much

Hypersensitivity means sensory input is amplified. You don’t just hear the hum of the fridge, you can’t stop hearing it.

Common experiences include:

• Sound: Startling easily, overwhelmed in noisy environments

• Touch: Finding clothing textures or light contact unbearable

• Light: Needing dimmed lighting, feeling physical pain from glare

• Smell/Taste: Gag reflexes triggered by specific textures or scents

• Interoception: Feeling every heartbeat, hunger pang, or bowel movement as intrusive or distressing

Hypersensitivity isn't just about discomfort. It's about a nervous system that doesn’t down regulate, a brain that treats neutral stimuli as threat signals.

Hyposensitivity: When the World Feels Distant

In contrast, hyposensitivity is a muted sensory experience. The volume is turned down, or the signal doesn’t land at all.

Common expressions include:

• Movement-seeking: Rocking, spinning, bouncing, or deep pressure

• High pain tolerance: Injuries that go unnoticed

• Delayed hunger or thirst cues

• Touch-seeking: Craving firm contact or heavy textures

• Monotone speech or “flat” emotional expression due to reduced feedback from internal states

Hyposensitivity isn’t “less sensitive” it’s differently attuned. Often, these individuals engage in sensory-seeking behaviours not to “stim,” but to feel real—to anchor themselves in their bodies and the moment.

Sensory Profiles Are Complex—Not Fixed

Most neurodivergent individuals don’t fit neatly into one category. You can be hypersensitive to sound but hyposensitive to proprioception. You might avoid touch from others yet seek deep pressure stimulation like weighted blankets.

These profiles also change over time and with context:

• Stress increases sensitivity

• Fatigue lowers sensory tolerance

• Masking may suppress visible reactions, but not internal distress

This is why sensory processing differences are often misunderstood. What looks like moodiness, defiance, or pickiness is often an unmet sensory need, misinterpreted through a neurotypical lens.

The Neuroscience of Sensory Dysregulation

• The Thalamus and Sensory Filtering

  • The thalamus acts as a relay station for sensory input. In many neurodivergent brains, it fails to filter effectively, allowing in too much or not enough information.

• The Autonomic Nervous System and Threat Detection

  • Hypersensitive systems often live in sympathetic overdrive primed for danger. This is why sensory overload feels like panic, even when there’s “nothing wrong.”

• Interoception and Emotional Access

  • Difficulty sensing internal states can disrupt emotion recognition. This is part of why alexithymia, difficulty identifying emotions is more common in autistic individuals.

• Neuroplasticity and Regulation

  • The good news? Sensory systems can be supported. Through co-regulation, sensory diets, and nervous system scaffolding, it’s possible to create more ease without pathologising difference.

It's Not Just Preference—It's Access

When a neurodivergent person avoids a space or activity, it’s rarely about attitude. It’s about access.

• Open-plan offices, crowded buses, or echoey gyms aren’t just uncomfortable, they’re uninhabitable.

• Fluorescent lights or artificial fragrances aren’t just annoying, they’re painful.

• Missing interoceptive cues isn’t carelessness, it’s a neurological mismatch between signal and awareness.

Honouring these needs isn’t “coddling.” It’s inclusion.

The Psychological Impact of Sensory Invalidation

Too many neurodivergent adults were raised hearing:

• “You’re too sensitive.”

• “You’re making a fuss.”

• “Just deal with it.”

Over time, they internalise shame. They suppress their needs. They mask the discomfort, often at the expense of regulation.

This leads to:

• Shutdowns or meltdowns after prolonged overload

• Social withdrawal to avoid overstimulation

• Chronic dissociation as a coping mechanism

• Misdiagnosis or mistreatment in medical and mental health settings

When the sensory system is distressed, everything else follows emotion, cognition, behaviour.

What Support Actually Looks Like

Support isn’t about fixing. It’s about listening, adapting, and co-creating comfort.

• Respect sensory needs without minimising them

  • “Too sensitive” isn’t feedback, it’s dismissal. Instead, ask: What’s making this hard?

• Create low-demand environments

  • Flexible lighting, quiet spaces, soft clothing, no forced eye contact, these are not luxuries. They’re access tools.

• Use sensory diets strategically

  • Regular input (deep pressure, movement, quiet time) can regulate arousal levels. Predictability helps nervous systems stay steady.

• Shift from control to curiosity

  • Instead of: “You have to eat this” → Try: “How does this texture feel to you?”

• Educate without pathologising

  • Talk about sensory processing the way we talk about learning styles or personality types with respect, understanding, and flexibility.

Final Word

Sensory differences are not deficits. They’re part of a broader, brilliant neurodivergent system one that processes the world in stereo, not monotone.

But without understanding, these differences get buried under shame, mislabelled as overreaction, or erased in the name of conformity.

So instead of asking, “Why is that so hard for you?”, ask: "How can I help this feel easier?”

That’s where support begins.