Do You Feel a Bit Off Center?

When Sigmund Freud, one of the most influential geniuses of the last century, was asked what he would like to have changed in his life, he replied, ironically, “I wished I had been given a better brain.”

My wish would be for a more organized nervous system. Who wouldn’t wish that! The more balanced and organized the nervous system, the steadier we are: on our feet; in our moods; in our thinking; in our life.

All behavior relies on the organization of the nervous system. As the brilliantly insightful occupational therapist Patti Oetter, my mentor put it: “Behavior is a reflection of the organization of the nervous system at that moment and under those conditions.”

Those words, spoken to me over lunch one day in Los Angeles twenty years ago, widened the lens from which I viewed human behavior, a subject that, as a psychologist I know a bit about, and changed profoundly how I understand the impact of body on mind. I learned that how we interpret and respond to sensory information underlies all human behavior. Without knowing a person’s sensory world, you can’t understand their behavior.

Our thoughts, actions, and feelings and how we express them—our behavior—begins with how the brain codes and processes sensory information. If we feel bored, we seek sensation; if we feel overwhelmed, we avoid sensation. Both states drive us and divert our attention away from what’s going on in the world. For this reason, behavior is not easily modified until sensory needs are met.

Well Organized Nervous System

If you have a well-organized nervous system, you make sense of what is seen, heard, smelled, and felt and respond appropriately and adaptively. You easily block out irrelevant stimuli, neither overly seeking nor overly avoiding sensation, control impulses and persist in tasks, navigate space with ease and move as a compact presence in the world.

As your brain appraises sensation appropriately, you are sound in body and mind, alert and adaptive, functioning well and thriving. You maintain a comfortable steady state and regular body rhythms for sleep, rising, eating, eliminating. At the same time, a steady state allows the higher, thinking brain to function optimally and you feel competent, capable, motivated and in charge of destiny.

My long-time friend Josie is an example of great sensory integration. Smart, funny, competent, outgoing, even-tempered, a good athlete with great posture (this has importance for nervous system integrity), and a good listener, she was one of the popular girls in school, admired by all. Steady and stable, independent and self-contained, to my knowledge she has never shown addictive behavior or neurotic musings. Throughout life, she has enjoyed warm and loving relationships, a satisfying career, many friends and much joy.

Off Center Nervous System

Unfortunately, few of us have a nervous system as well organized as Josie’s. Most of us are somewhat off center. We might be a bit:

clumsy and uncoordinated;

distracted and spacey;

messy and disorganized;

reactive to noise and bright lights;

a loner or a social nerd.

In an article published in 2013 in Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, one research team led by Nava Levit-Binnun found 17 studies that reported sensory and motor abnormalities in healthy individuals.

A bit off center, we get by—with a few glitches. We call these glitches stupidity, anxiety, stress, depression, laziness, and so on, and the world generally agrees with our assessment.

For some of you reading this, such incidents ring a bell.

Coping with Limitations

How have you coped with your limitations? You compensated. Said Patti Oetter: “The majority of us have escaped diagnosis but know our limitations well. We have learned strategies to capitalize on our strengths and cover or avoid those things most difficult.”

In other words, a good chunk of the “neurotypical” population has sensory processing issues!!