A while ago I started using the Squease
pressure vest. To read about what it is and what my first experiences were,
click here: Squease Pressure Vest
By now I've had a lot of chances to try the
vest and to give an update about what my experiences are. I've had some bad and
some good experiences, but in general I'm very positive. I can recommend the
vest if you're experiencing sensory difficulties. I do have to say that my
experiences are my experiences alone. I've seen other people respond
differently to the pressure vest. If you want to be sure if it works for you
personally, then I'd recommend requesting a try-out period. You'll have to pay
a bit for hiring the vest, but it's not that much and if you want to keep the
pressure vest, they deduct that money from the overall costs.
Be sure to try the vest while you're
experiencing sensory difficulties in that time. I have personally not felt much
difference when I was already relaxed, and some other people have reported the
same. So don't judge it yet while you're already in a relaxed state.
First I want to begin with the difficulties
that I experienced and then I'll head to the positive things, so that we can
end this blogpost positively.
Like I said, the vest does work for me and
helps me calm down. The only problem is, when I use the vest within a group of
people, I find it hard not to calm down so much that I shut myself down from
the group. I find it hard to find a balance.
I have asthma, which sometimes causes me to
hyperventilate. Especially when I'm stressed. When I hyperventilate, I breathe
from the chest (think about how you breathe after you've ran a lot. It's a
little bit like that). When I have sensory issues, I tend to get stressed too.
So when I'm stressed out from sensory issues, I'd like to use the vest to
reduce the stress. But when my asthma is also acting up, the vest just makes it
harder to breathe. Of course I have asthma medications, but those won't help
while I'm still dealing with the sensory issues (= stress). So in these cases
it's hard, and sometimes impossible, to use the vest. I'll have to find another
way to deal with the sensory issues then.
Someone I know, who also has asthma and
sensory difficulties, tried the vest and told me she experienced the same
problems.
Sometimes I don't expect sensory
difficulties somewhere. For example, when I'm going to my therapist. In those
cases I usually don't bring the Squease vest. But sometimes there are
unexpected sensory difficulties, like road workers on the way to the therapist
or things like that. But because of my asthma, I'd rather not wear the vest all
the time, even when deflated. It's hard to decide when to bring it and when not
to.
POSITIVES:
I have taken the vest to several places
where I expected sensory difficulties now. In these places, the vest has helped
me tremendously. It was like being wrapped by a plushie calming me down the
whole time. This helped me concentrate during, for example, talking with
someone in a big group of people. It raised my tolerance for certain sensory
issues.
Of course, the vest can't drown out big
sensory issues like a disco and things like that, but when it did help me, was
when something like that happened, I got myself to a sensory issue free place,
and I was still in overload. If I then put on the vest, it helped me get passed
the overload a lot faster. It was a similar effect to when my mother holds me
when I'm crying or something like that. It was very soothing.
Another positive thing is the fact that the
pressure vest is very easy to cover up. The vest is made in such a way that
it's easy to wear it under a normal vest or a sweater. "But what about
when it's warm?" Well, yes, then it's very hard to cover it up. I have to
say though that the pressure vest is very light and thin, so it won't be too
warm. Also, even when people saw me wearing it, most people just thought it
looked pretty cool.
Okay, so maybe the vest doesn't work in
every situation. Is there really something that does help with everything in
this world? That would be amazing, but no, it doesn't exist. But in a lot of
situations it does work and it can make life a lot easier and I think that's
worth it. When I need it, the vest is there. It makes me a lot more
self-reliant and capable of coping with a lot more situations. If you're having
a lot of sensory difficulties, I can recommend the Squease pressure vest.
