Thriving Autistically: Environment and Sensory Support

This post on making an autism friendly environment is part of a series on thriving as an autistic person. We live in a world that is not always kind or accommodating for people who are different. Not only that, but autistic and other neurodiverse people can have very fragile health and specific medical needs.

Finding out what works for you is a significant endeavor. This week I’ll be focusing on environmental and sensory factors so you (or your loved one) can live your best life. The first post, which prompted this series, is here. The second post, on food and supplementation, is here. The third post was on movement (exercise and more).

As you read this series, please remember autistic people can have very different experiences. I’ll tell you what works for me, and do my best to explain other things I’ve heard of. But in the end, you are your own best resource. Try things. Find what works for you. Find doctors and specialists that will help you explore your options intelligently and safely. How good or bad you feel every day is, in some very important ways, up to you.

Environmental Impact

There’s an old saying that seeing is believing. I consider it a commentary on the metaphorical blindness of people, though I’m not sure it’s meant that way. The subjects I’ve talked about in posts prior are somewhat visible things. After all, if you’re sitting around all day instead of getting some movement, that’s somewhat noticeable. And what you put in your mouth every meal, same deal.

This week, though one of the things I’d like to focus on is your home environment. And your work environment, if you have a job or volunteer position. What exactly makes for an autism friendly environment?

Trouble in the Air

We do not, as a rule, think a whole lot about our home environments. The air, after all, is typically invisible. However, the air can carry all sorts of things that interfere with human functioning. Some of the obvious ones are:

• air pollution
• mold
• algae and pollen
• dust and dust mites
• perfume/cologne
• pet dander

At work, things like sawdust, airborne flour or other food products, printer pollution, and industrial chemicals also factor in.

Despite their near-invisibility, these airborne factors can have a huge effect on an autistic brain and body. Usually the human body is supposed to purge toxic or inflammatory substances from our blood and body. However, sometimes autistic bodies do not necessarily do this quickly (or, rarely, at all).

An Autistic Environment Example

A few weeks back, I found myself dropping into depression. My mood climate sank and darkened, and I felt dissociated and sad. As much as I could, I evaluated things. Nothing obvious had changed in my life. I was still eating incredibly healthily. Still getting good exercise 5 days a week. My social life hadn’t changed. Everything seemed the same as it had been a couple days ago.

When I thought about it, my current circumstances weren’t great. I was in a job that didn’t pay my bills, was physically taxing (not in a good way), and had little in common with my interests in life. So I figured the difficulty of my circumstances had simply started hitting home. I assumed there was nothing to be done. It was reasonable, honestly, to be depressed in my circumstances.

The thing is, a day later I happened to stick my hand into the bag of fresh cherry tomatoes on the kitchen counter, and one of them went smush. It had molded. The rest of the bag was 100% fine, it was just that one. I tossed the tomato, washed my bedding, and cleaned up the kitchen. Within a couple days, the depression and dissociation had receded.

As you can guess from this story, I am extraordinarily sensitive to mold. Different kinds of mold affect me differently, which makes detecting its influence difficult. But if I start feeling bad out of the blue, that’s the very first thing to check.

Things to Help with Airborne Issues

If you or your autistic loved one seem to have an easier or harder time with life when traveling or staying over at a relative’s house, you may want to explore why. Or even, if they seem to have different problems in one area versus another. It isn’t always the autism or the person specifically. Sometimes it might be that the trash isn’t taken out as routinely, or the new environment doesn’t have a pet.

Some ways to address these things include having personal air filters and/or upping the quality of your home furnace filter. I live next to a pond that grows toxic algae in the summer, for example. So having a good furnace filter supplemented by some smaller HEPA air filters in the bedroom and office is mandatory.

Personally, I use two of these Levoit air purifiers. They’re fairly inexpensive for what they do, and the filters refills last months and only cost $30. One is located near my home computer, where I work. The other is in the bedroom. This model is particularly nice for the bedroom because it has a “lights off” setting. My bedroom has to be kept as dark as possible for me to sleep well (more on that later), so that feature is mandatory. It also runs very quietly. The marketing says as low as 24 dB. All I can tell you is that I can hear it, but only barely, when the house is completely quiet.

Light, Sound, and Electricity

There’s actually way more to an autism friendly environment than these familiar airborne concerns. These will be briefer, so bear with me. Let’s start with light.

The first thing to mention is that some types of lighting flicker. And while most people don’t notice, some autistic people do. Headaches, annoyance, and focus issues aren’t uncommon as a result. Incandescent lightbulbs are usually your best choice for autism-friendly lighting.

I mentioned above that my bedroom needs to be kept quite dark. That’s because my internal clock (circadian rhythm) is easily disrupted. If my body registers too much light late in the evening, I don’t sleep very well. This is not uncommon with autistic people.

Sunlight

In order to get the best quality sleep, I try to get sunshine in the morning to wake myself up properly. Where I live, though, there often isn’t any during the winter. The days are typically overcast and grey. In lieu of sunlight, they make lamps to simulate sunlight. Verilux is the brand I’d trust for this.

I have one of these lamps, which I use in the morning on occasion. You don’t need a really big or fancy one. At least for me, a few minutes of this light is more than enough to make a difference. You can literally just point it at yourself while you’re brushing your teeth in the morning and that can be enough.

For darkening the bedroom, I found out that blackout cloth is quite inexpensive. Making proper blackout curtains may be difficult, but stapling blackout fabric to the wall or over windows isn’t very hard at all. Weatherproofing stuff can be good for lightproofing door frames. And in lieu of all that, there’s always sleep masks. I like ones with molding over the eyes, so I can blink without feeling like my eyelids are being held down.

Screens

Another complicating factor in an autism friendly environment is blue light. Most phones, TVs, and computer screens generate a lot of blue light in addition to the other colors they display. This light tells your body to wake up. Which is fine in the morning and afternoon. And definitely not great in the evening, when you should be winding down.

For computers and jailbroken phones, the best app hands down is f.lux. It changes the quality of the light your devices emit, warming the colors so your internal clock isn’t fooled into thinking you’re outside in the sunshine. My doctor also strongly recommends simply putting away your phone or getting off the computer or TV an hour before bed. I personally struggle with that, so f.lux is my go-to.

Again, your mileage may vary here. But it’s worth testing using apps, sleep masks, or putting your devices away before bed, to see if it affects you.

Sounds and noise isolation

There’s a few things to keep in mind here. Autistic people are prone to sensory over- and under-sensitivity. So we might as easily seek out playing drums (or pots and pans) loudly as hide from them. A home can be a surprisingly loud place, with cooking in the kitchen, siblings playing or listening to music while they do homework, appliances running, and even perhaps a TV playing.

A soundscape doesn’t need to be loud to be overwhelming. A few years back I reviewed a pair of noise-canceling headphones in conjunction with a complex gym environment. The fact was, the headphones were excellent, but they didn’t entirely spare me from the exhaustion of being in that environment. Having a quiet place to go was essential, even with the volume of the place turned down.

Any autistic person could benefit from a safe, predictable space where everything is the way it should be, mind you. Soundproofing it is a touch that can be added to help isolate the person from the house’s noise, or the person’s noise from the rest of the house.

I personally fall in the over-sensitivity category, which means it’s best for me to have a quiet place to retreat to. Thankfully, most of my house falls into that category. But it can just as easily be a single room in the house, or even a big cardboard box. An autism friendly environment can be any number of things.

Motor sounds

Another sound issue I’ve only recently become aware of is machinery-based. Very low frequency sounds can affect a person’s wellbeing. Some industrial motors generate sounds in this frequency range, and it can affect people even if they can barely hear it.

In my condo association, we installed a motor for some equipment to kill off the toxic algae that grows here. The motor was installed in the back yard behind a few units, fairly near where I live. I don’t particularly notice a difference, but one resident who lives closer to the motor did. They reported not being able to focus or sleep. A fairly major problem I would say!

Because I’m a curious sort, I went and stood by the motor for a while one day. It felt bad. It was like the sound was shaking my internal organs and making them malfunction. I now avoid the area entirely. Usually the equipment that would make this kind of noise is kept away from homes, but workplaces are another story. If you work around boiler rooms or near equipment that makes a low droning sound, and tend to feel worse when you’re there, it might be worth investigating whether this is an issue for you.

EMF

The last thing I want to mention is electromagnetic fields, which are generated by objects that use electricity, such as computers, TVs, and cell phones. A certain amount of this is normal in life. For example, the Earth itself has a magnetic field. It’s really low-grade, but it exists.

The thing is, we’ve filled our modern lives with EMFs. In suburbs and cities, you’ll pretty much always be in range of a wifi network. Even if you can’t connect to it, it’s still permeating the air and vibrating your cells. Same with cell phone towers. If EMFs were audible, it’d be like a dozen orchestras blasting at all times. As our technology improves (3G -> 5G -> whatever we have next), the intensity of these signals amps up. This really doesn’t make for an autism friendly environment.

Most people seem relatively unaffected by the silent cacophony, but because of our sensitive bodies, autistic people can sometimes be severely affected by it. It can affect our sleep, digestion, mood, and mental health. I personally sleep on a grounding mat, put my phone in airplane mode, and turn off my wifi at night. All of these things, though seemingly strange, do actually help me sleep better.

I’m still exploring this subject, to be honest. It’s clear to me that it matters, but my exact tolerance isn’t clear. It remains to be seen what measures help the most. Regardless, here’s a supplier that makes meters and shielding items to help live with less EMF. I’m thinking I might try the hoodie this year, but I want to be sure I can safely wash it before I buy.

Sensory Supports

An autism friendly environment doesn’t need to be all about taking factors away. While it’s good to reduce noise, EMF, and light for someone like me, it can also be important to add things.

I’ve heard this sort of thing called a sensory diet. Basically, a person can be comforted and supported by sensory experiences. A hot cup of tea or coffee is a more mainstream sensory experience. So is familiar music, or comfort foods.

But autistic people can derive comfort and joy from a much broader range of things. Consider chewable or fidget toy jewelry, fabric swatches, essential oils or other scents. All of these things can add to a person’s experience or provide a moment’s respite from the demands of life.

I carry around a small tin of solid perfume, personally. The smell, which is mostly floral with some spice, calms my mind when I smell it. I typically take it out when I’m panicking about a social interaction I can no longer do anything about. Putting my nose into it for a bit helps me mentally move on from the situation by bringing me elsewhere. The tin fits easily in my pocket, but a purse or backpack would serve just as well.

TL;DR: Autism and Environment

There are tons of environmental factors that can affect autistic people’s wellbeing. Airborne factors include allergens like mold, pollen, and dust, but also air pollution and perfume. HEPA air purifiers can help, and so can face masks like the KN-95 types.

Lighting is another factor in an autism friendly environment. Having interior lighting that doesn’t flicker is important, but some peoples’ internal clocks are so sensitive that it’s best to lightproof the bedroom or wear a sleep mask. Finally, computer and phone screens put out blue light, which can trick your internal clock and really wreck your ability to sleep well.

Sound can play a big role in things too. Too much or too little sound can make an autistic person’s life harder. There’s also certain very low frequency sounds that can affect a person’s sleep and focus. Having a safe, sound-dampened space to be can be a very important accommodation.

Finally, EMF is a possible factor. Phones, wifi networks, cell towers, TVs, and computers all put out these fields. While most people aren’t strongly affected by them, some people, including me, are. My sleep is much better without the silent cacophony of my wifi networks, phone, and computer going all night. It’s worth investigating if this is an issue for you, as there are some fairly simple fixes to help.

Don’t forget that building an autism friendly environment isn’t all about taking things away. Having stim toys, comforting scents, fabric swatches, lava lamps, and whatever else makes you happy is also important.

I hope this post has given you some things to explore. Your environment can have a major impact on how good you feel every day. Moreso than I think most people realize. Find what works for you and what makes you happy, and include it in your life as much as possible.