Sharon Heller

Heller, who is sensory defensive herself, brings both personal and professional perspective to bear. Sensory defensiveness, she points out, can mimic, result in, or exaggerate many psychiatric conditions, including anxiety, panic disorder, depression, obsessive-compulsive behavior, or anorexia. Sufferers often go through years of psychotherapy, antidepressants, and anti-anxiety medication with little or no relief from the constant tension as sensations from their environment hinder and overwhelm them in their daily lives, often dramatically. Now, with Too Loud, Too Bright, Too Fast, Too Tight, sufferers and those who love them can better understand this easily misdiagnosed condition and learn what they can do to enhance quality of life. Your world may be Too Loud, Too Bright, Too Fast, Too Tight, but through a holistic treatment approach that includes sensorimotor strategies from occupational therapy, along with interventions from many other disciplines, it is possible to make a difficult condition far easier to endure. Selected Reading Questionnaire.… (más)

I was happy to see this publication, and hoped it would offer a little bit in the way of realistic suggestion for alleviating sensory defensiveness.
While the case study descriptions are for the most part good, there is a lot of confusion throughout regarding the difference between experiencing sensory input differently from other people and having neurologic reaction to sensory input that is unusual. In other words, there are some people who experience sunlight as brighter than normal, to a disturbing degree so that they are pained. There are others who experience the sunlight as just the same as everyone else, but their neurologic wiring is such that sunlight is inherently painful or unpleasant. These are two separate situations which need to be treated differently, but they are confused back and forth throughout the book.
Sadly, while the book promises cures and solutions, these rely entirely on disproven alternative therapies, with no clinical evidence of any efficacy. No one needs to spend money on nonsense cures when they're already in pain from sensory dysfunction. It's true obviously that relaxation techniques might calm someone down when they are experiencing stress, but the only "evidence" listed in the notes for the section which recommends Qi Gong, Rolfing, Neurocranial Restructuring, and so on are other popular self-help books, not clinical studies of efficacy. Anecdotal claims are not proven cures, to be blunt and simple.
I guess this book might be useful to validate or evaluate your own situation if you are not sure if you have sensory dysfunction or are newly interested in the condition. Don't waste your money though if you are expecting a real cure or solution.… (más)

Aside from texts on introversion--Susan Cain's recent book QUIET and the work of Marti Laney--I know of few other works that address sensory overload, so I approached Sharon Heller's book with some enthusiasm. Parts of TOO LOUD TOO FAST were interesting, but I wish the book had been significantly more scientifically based and much better edited. I found myself distrusting the author considerably by about the half-way point, when she launched into discussions of feng shui, color therapy, and various forms of body work. A number of these modalities have not been submitted to scientific study, and some strike me as little more than ways to waste one's money.

Did we really need entire sections dedicated to the colors to paint our walls, which essential oils to dab on the soles of our feet or toss into our bathtubs, and the best foods to provide an anxiety-reducing crunch? (I don't know about you, but I don't have a hard time figuring out that carrots, apples, and celery are crunchy!) The step by step instructions about how to carry out the yoga practice of alternate nostril breathing or how to meditate were also more than was needed in a book of this kind. I am not disputing that some of these practices might be quite useful. However, I do think the author would have been wiser to simply leave her readers with a recommended/further reading list. In attempting to cover too much, the author diminished the power of her book and message. As with sensory stimulation, sometimes less really is more. A wise editor should have encouraged leaner writing--particularly subtraction of unnecessary adjectives and the cleaning up of numerous awkward (dangling and distracting modifiers). If you must read this, I discourage purchase and suggest borrowing it from the library.… (más)