Positive Pressure

by maximusaurus

When I was a kid, I used to love squeezing into the tight space between the spare mattress under my bed and the bed itself. When I needed peace and quiet, I’d wriggle in there an octopus and just enjoy the sensation. At the time I never knew why; it just felt right.

It wasn’t until much later, as an adult, that I discovered this was far from rare among autistics. Many others I’ve met over the years have also found physical pressure to be like a hot bath of liquid dopamine.

This can take a wide variety of forms, from very strong hugs, to weighted blankets and clothes, to compression socks, to intense massage, to even having one’s partner lie on top of them.

There’s a lot of focus on the sensory stimuli that autistics find unpleasant, (mushy food for instance makes my soul try to eject itself from my body like a scarecrow fleeing the Hindenburg) and while these stressors are important to be aware of, we should also remember that autistic sensory sensitivity goes both ways; there are also stimuli that can be immensely soothing, and this seems to be a very common one.

Beyond just being enjoyable, the sensation can even be actively therapeutic. I’ve had people describe having intense anxiety or even meltdowns defused by the healing power of a tight squeeze, or struggles with sleep fixed instantly by a weighted blanket and a harder mattress.

This is not to say that every autistic will like being squeezed; everybody is different after all. And of course, never do so without permission. But if you or someone in your life is autistic, positive pressure might be worth looking into as an addition to one’s toolbox of life hacks.

Because as with many things in autism, and in life, the way we process sensory input has a positive side as well.