Pica and smells

Haha, oh no! That does sound off-putting. It was worth a try, I suppose 

Hi duck bread. I tried the perfume but people kept sniffing me! Actually close in sniffing me asking what I was wearing. It's very offputting lol

I've just remembered I'd suck and eat sponges as a child! I cant believe that I forgot that. And books! Especially old books

Thanks for your interesting comments, Graham. It's good to see your work, and realise that we share quite a few experiences.

I often read magazine articles about woodsmanship, which usually take the form of a very introspective inner dialogue while hard at work.

I note some recent research has indicated that there are usually very tangible results achieved through getting people involved in outdoor environmental projects; often making them more cost effective than more direct and traditional employment interventions. People enlisted on such projects frequently turn them into productive and constructive careers/lives.

You have obviously decided to continue with outdoor work. I'm looking to return to more outdoor work life myself, but it isn't always that easy when you are an expat in a country with a fairly extreme climate There also isn't much history here of people returning to more traditional skills as a form of constructive meditation.

Ooh, interesting question! I managed to get myself addicted to chewing gum a while ago, because chewing calms me when I'm feeling anxious. I found that it actually wasn't very good for my stomach/digestive system, so I stopped. Here's what I do for sensory seeking instead:

• Wearing soft clothing (so I can enjoy the texture of the fabric).
• Having a hot drink (I really like the warming sensation and find it calming).
• Using a Tangle (a type of fidget toy).
• Wearing a perfume that I really like the smell of (much safer than furniture polish!).
• Sitting under my weighted blanket (deep pressure is very calming for me).
• Hugging a hot water bottle (I have a hot water bottle that's Hedwig from Harry Potter, so it has a soft texture as well as being warm).
• Rolling play dough, blue tac or putty in my hands (you can also make it into fun shapes - bonus).

Hope this helps - take care of yourself.

Ah. Yea I do sniff them at my parents house when I go round for Sunday Tea. I don't buy any newspapers or anything so thats the only place I get them. 

The magazines that come with the Sunday papers. I wondered why they come encased in a plastic bag - presumably to keep them fresh for magazine sniffers like yourself.

Sunday Supplements? 

You're probably the only person who enjoys the Sunday supplements. 

Chewing the eraser and its metal container is a bit hardcore - and probably not a good look.

Maybe the producers of sensory items for autistic people could be persuaded to manufacture wooden look-alike pencils. Or wood flavoured hard crisps.

When i was a kid I used to eat pencils. It would start with the eraser, then I would chew the metal and then finally I would take big bites out of the pencil itself until there was an inch left at the end. I liked the mouthfeel of the metal and wood. Thankfully they were graphite not lead. i get the same thing from extremely sour candy now (as pencil eating is frowned upon by adults, let's face it).

It’s not quite the same maybe, but I used to love sucking water out of sponges..... the water tasted better to me and I enjoyed the texture of the sponge mixed with it. I still sometimes get sudden urges to....suck a sponge of water! LOL! 

I’ve just recently gotten a new desk and I spend so much of my time at the moment sniffing the wood. 

I sniff magazines and books all the time. Any magazine around (as long as the magazine looks new and clean) aren’t safe from my nose. Lol. 

This photo shows two types of weaves. On the left a 6’ by 6’ hurdle, the rest is a continuous weave buylt in situ. The gaps are so children and adults can peek through the weave at a bird feeding area on a local wildlife site. I may be doing some hedge laying this season.

I spent 30 years in the woodland, mostly working alone. I didn’t know I was autistic at this time. Now I know my preferring to be alone in the woodland had a neurological reason. Eventually, I had a breakdown and ended up in a mental health hospital where I was diagnosed. I suspect, if I had been working in more sociable surroundings, my breakdown would have occurred much earlier.

Learning at a very young age to keep my mouth shut about seeing music, voices and sounds, unfortunately trained me to keep quiet about other sensory issues and social cognition concerns. This is probably true for many born in the fifties.

Having already looked into relaxation tapes and the various coloured noises, it looks like I will now have to try binaural beats. :-)

I worked in forestry and saw mills for a bit; and sold softwoods and hardwoods. I love that oak smell too. Also, apple wood from old orchards! And gorse!!!

I'm interested in your hurdle-making, because I also worked in agriculture. We used to have some rattan in the garden here. I experimented in making some crude fence panels with it, partly because I remembered doing a bit of hedgelaying in the past.  I reckon I would also enjoy using bamboo as a construction material. Some conservation-minded folks here make woven bamboo panels and then render over the top to create partition walls.I beieve you can also do the same with mud walls. That also reminds me that when I lived in a half-timbered farmhouse, the owner demonstrated to me the modern technique for repairing the wattle and daub panels between the timbers, with wood cement slabs cut to fit the spaces, and then rendered over.

All very therapeutic. But it strikes me really that what would help me the most is to go back to working in a more rural environment. City life here doesn't suit me at all. Way too noisy!

I used to chew wood as a child. Bedsteads, window sills anything to hand. I ended up being a wattle hurdle maker, working in hazel coppice. Now I tend to seek out the smell of wood. I particularly like the smell of oak. If there is a fallen oak in the wood I’m working, I will cut into it with my chain saw so I can smell the fragrance this produces.

Olfaction is interesting neurologically. Some smells travel directly to the hypothalamus, amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex areas of the brain. These areas are known to be involved with emotions and fight or flight responses. Of all the senses olfaction is unique in having this direct connection.

It is thought that the emotionally charged nature of olfaction helps to maintain physiological equilibrium in a similar way to the homeostatic emotions of thirst and hunger. So your actively seeking certain smells can be explained in terms of anxiety management. If you google “homeostasis and allostasis” you’ll find out more about this. Autopoiesis is also interesting.

As Senior Moment suggests it would be good idea to find a way to alleviate anxiety that works for you. I used to think that binaural beats was just new agey nonsense. Recent research shows that it can help with anxiety relief. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/think-act-be/201911/how-improve-anxiety-sleep-and-more-binaural-beats

A relative used to chew torch bulbs and earthworms, but thankfully lost that habit very early on.

I have spent almost my entire life engaging in some serious nail-biting. I have recently taken to self-hypnosis as a means to try and stop. It appears to be working so well, that I'm also having to work on skin-picking, now that I have long nails for probably the first time in 6 decades. There are quite a lot of books and online resources available to help with changing long-term habits, but so many that it is best for you to google it yourself and take your own pick. Giving up has probably also had an impact on my digestive system, but again I'm getting over it. I have also had some upswing of anxiety, but it appears to be manageable, with a whole host of different constructive displacement activities. I don't have any access here to hypnotherapists/therapists, and probably can't afford their services anyway, but sometimes you only  need two or three appointments to make a real difference. But I also reckon meditation, work concentration (hobbies) and mindfulness self-training would all help. The latter I haven't tried, but others find it effective.

i would think the polish craving is almost certainly a form of sensory seeking. I note that I rather enjoy such strong smells myself. And it is hazardous. I sort of reckon that my way of dealing with that (from decades back) was to get interested in other less strong, but more subtle smells, tastes, textures and sounds; probably in combination with the various ways to concentration listed above. I spent years working with various woods, and still actively seek out such smells. Most pleasant, and also motivational. If you have an interest in crafts and DIY. Go looking for a timber merchant where you can revel in such smells and do something constructive/creative at the same time. (But avoid anything to do with antique restoration or heavy wood treatments ;-) At home, develop an interest in aromatic teas and coffees. The same with fresh market produce. (I personally find some aromatherapy over the top but perhaps that is because I have the Mr Bean style aversion to strong perfumes. ;-) And an interest in rambling, seaside. woodlands, heaths and conservation might also have some added social benefits.

I have also completely done away with adding sugar to food, and always have drinks with no milk added. Natural tastes and smells are the best, but actually I also do not fancy living with diabetes. These things definitely enhance your sensory experience. I started doing many of these things when i was really quite young, so i suppose you might say that they are  long-term coping strategies. But frankly, i reckon the appreciation of such sensory stimuli is what has always stopped me from inescapable depression. These are things to savour that in some way replace some of the life 'givens' that I seem to find unattainable. On the other hand, they probably prevented others from realising that I could really could do with a bit of support.