Fidgets and Sensory Items as an Adult
Meeting Your Sensory Needs in a Subtle Way
By now, most people are aware of what fidgets are. There was a whole fidget spinner phase, pop-its were popular a couple years ago, kinetic sand has been a common delight, and generally a lot of places with toys for kids have a fidget toy section. This has been a fantastic development in normalizing using tools to help kids focus and regulate themselves, but what about adults?
For adults, there still carries a lot of shame around needing something to help you stay on task or a tool to support self-regulation. Most adults today were punished as children for undiagnosed ADHD symptoms, and Autistic symptoms, especially around sensory needs, weren’t recognized as easily. This leads to most people currently in positions of power to still have a significant sense of internalized ableism.
That internalized ableism may cause them to resent seeing others get to utilize fidgets for support, because they had to get through it without help, without being understood. They have gotten used to denying their own body’s needs, to where they don’t even notice their own dysregulation until they blow-up at someone, become devastatingly anxious, or completely burnout.
In coming years, I don’t anticipate the shame around fidget tools to be quite as strong, because younger generations are growing up encouraged to use them. However, what do you do right now as an adult who is recognizing that you might need support, but are in an environment that may not be judgement free?
Your fidgets are going to be more subtle. Spinning rings have really grown in popularity because it just looks like jewelry, but there is a middle section that moves; the ones pictured below are from the Henna Shoppe at the Chandler Fashion Center Mall off of Chandler Boulevard and the 101 freeway. Spinning rings and similar jewelry allows for fidgeting in a way that isn’t easily noticed by others, and it can come with you wherever you go. There are pens that double as fidget tools, often with spinning or magnetic parts, so you can bring it to a meeting to use to write things down, but it does even more for you.
This subtle approach can also be applied to making your workspace environment meet your needs better. Some people find a weighted blanket to be comforting to have on their lap. Having something soft, or with an interesting texture can be inviting for you to pay attention to your senses. Soft warm lighting is soothing for many. There are also earplugs with holes in the middle of them to help dampen noises in the office, while allowing you to not be completely cut off from everyone. Aromatherapy essential oil rolling applicators are another common way tool to use as an adult.
Gum, chewy candies, hard candies, and drinks you use a straw for are all useful for comforting without causing anyone else to bat an eye. Sour, minty, cold, and crunchy consumables will wake you up, while chewy, warm, and sweet ones help calm you down. So, choosing what to eat and what you might snack on throughout the day can aid you in attending to your needs.
For those of you reading that might be tempted to forget about these strategies thinking, “I am fine, I don’t need those”, I urge you to notice how using these help to prevent a lot of the feelings that land someone in therapy in the first place.
When you keep pushing yourself past your comfort, with no end in sight, you are begging for anxiety, anger, depression, or burnout to invite itself into your life and to stay for a long while. There is no shame in making yourself comfortable. The better you get at practicing listening to what your body needs, and actually respecting it, the better you get at managing life’s most stressful moments.
