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🎙️ Episode 17: Understanding AuDHD in the Real World - Sensory Processing and Overwhelm in ADHD, Autism & AuDHD

Episode Summary

In this episode of The AuDHD Psych Podcast, Aaron Howearth explores how sensory profiles shape daily life for autistic, ADHD, and AuDHD individuals. Why does a flickering light, a chatty colleague, or a tag in your shirt seem to "set you off" — when really, you've been quietly carrying that load all day?

Drawing from clinical psychology and lived experience, Aaron explains how neurodivergent nervous systems often process sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, balance, and body position differently from the average person. He unpacks why these differences are not defects, but a mismatch between our sensory profile and environments built for typical sensory experience.

Aaron introduces the build-up model of overwhelm — how small sensory costs accumulate across the day until what looks like an overreaction is actually a proportionate response to hours of unseen strain. He links sensory load to attention, masking, emotional regulation, and burnout, and explains how sensory gating, hidden coping, and reduced tolerance can spiral into a vicious cycle.

This episode offers validation, language, and practical strategies for identifying high-cost sensory channels, designing neuroaffirming environments, and treating sensory fit as a legitimate accessibility issue rather than special treatment.

Key Themes & Takeaways

• Sensory Profiles Explained – How autism, ADHD, and AuDHD involve over- and under-sensitivity across multiple sensory dimensions.
  
  
• The Build-Up Model of Overwhelm – Why the "last straw" reaction reflects cumulative load, not fragility.
  
  
• Sensory Gating & Attention – How difficulty filtering input amplifies inattention, frustration, and cognitive fatigue.
  
  
• Masking the Sensory Cost – How suppressing sensory reactions drains energy and feeds burnout.
  
  
• Mental Health Impact – Why visual, auditory, and tactile sensitivities strongly link to anxiety, mood, and overwhelm.
  
  
• Environmental Design – Practical adjustments: lighting, headphones, quiet zones, predictability, exits, and breaks.
  
  
• Tracking What Works – Why outcomes matter more than assumed-helpful strategies.
  
  
• Reframing Overreaction – Moving from "too sensitive" to recognising a nervous system doing extra work in a world not built for it.
  
  

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Keywords: AuDHD podcast, autism and ADHD, neurodivergent psychologist, neurodiversity affirming, Howearth Psychology, queer psychologist, autism diagnosis, ADHD awareness, lived experience, neurodivergent mental health, clinical psychology podcast