Vestibular hyposensitivity

Dear readers, after a long time, there’s finally a new article concerning sensory processing disorder, a condition which we explained in one of our old articles. Today we’re going to speak about a specific type of SPD which we haven’t discussed yet, vestibular hyposensitivity. First of all we must be sure what the term vestibular actually means. Simply put, we have more than just 5 senses and one of these additional senses is vestibular system. It’s located in our inner ear and it’s responsible of perceiving movement of our body, a position or our head, equilibrium and our posture in the gravity field. Check up our previous article called Senses for more information. If everything works just right we don’t have any problems with procession vestibular stimuli. However, in some of us the brain doesn’t evaluate the information from our vestibular sense properly. In that case, we may develop vestibular hypersensitivity, which we spoke about in the last article, or so called vestibular hyposensitivity which we’re going to discuss now.

Let’s introduce basic signs of this disorder to understand it better.

If we are hyposensitive to vestibular inputs, than we simply aren’t sensitive enough towards movement, equilibrium and position in the gravity field. In other words, we constantly suffer from feeling that we don’t have enough movement and that we just have to move more. Therefore we incessantly walk, jump or run. We’re basically unable to sit still or stay motionless. We experience a strong urge to spin, rock, flap our hands or shake our legs just to feel movement in sundry parts of our body. Movement almost can’t make us sick. We can spin for hours and never become dizzy. We also love fast drive on uneven surfaces, water slides or plenty of fairground amusements such us merry-go-rounds, swings and roller-coasters, especially in our children years. We usually love sudden unexpected movements. We also don’t have the sense for equilibrium, that’s why we are often very clumsy and we fall frequently. It can take us long to learn how to walk. On the other hand, it doesn’t cause us any problems to be in upside down position.

These are some of the main characteristics of vestibular hyposensitivity. If you recognize yourself in many of them, you may experience this condition. Let’s introduce some tips on what you can do to decrease your troubles in that case you’re living with this disorder. First of all, don’t hesitate to move us much as you need. Rocking, hand flapping or legs shaking, everything is OK. Even though some people perceive these movements us something socially unacceptable, I don’t see anything wrong with them. Your comfort is always much more important that social norms and conventions. Dynamic exercising can help you us well. It allows you to feel pleasant movements in many different parts of your body and it supports your health in addition.

I myself don’t have any personal experiences with this condition. Anyway, always use your own set of coping strategies to make yourself feel better in this world.

Do you suspect you might be affected by vestibular hyposensitivity? Do you know somebody who exhibit signs of this disorder? Would you like to ask a question or share your story? Write us in the comment section bellow. Don’t forget, we’re here for you!