Coaching for the beautifully different mind
Many people assume that sensory sensitivity is something you either “grow out of” or learn to manage better with time. And for some, that is true.
But for many others, the opposite happens.
Sounds become sharper. Crowded spaces feel heavier. Light, touch, movement, or social stimulation start to drain energy more quickly than they once did. What used to be tolerable now feels overwhelming.
Many people with sensory sensitivity have heard this advice countless times:
“You’ll get used to it”
“Just expose yourself more”
“Your tolerance will increase if you push through”
This idea is often offered with good intentions. It comes from a belief that the nervous system works like a muscle: stress it, repeat the exposure, and eventually it adapts. And in some cases, for some nervous systems, that can be true. But for many sensitive or neurodivergent brains, repeated forced exposure doesn’t lead to adaptation. It leads to overload.
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Children do not learn safety from explanations.
They learn it from consistency.
When caregiving is warm, predictable, and emotionally attuned, a child’s nervous system develops around the assumption that the world is largely safe and that distress will be met with repair.
But when a parent is emotionally unavailable, controlling, or narcissistic, the nervous system adapts in very different ways.
This post explores how narcissistic parenting shapes the developing brain and nervous system – not to assign blame, but to bring understanding to patterns that many adults carry quietly for decades.
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Many people live with heightened sensitivity to sound, touch, light, movement, or emotional tone – and quietly wonder why.
Why does a crowded room feel unbearable?
Why does a sudden noise make the body jolt?
Why can a simple touch, a tone of voice, or an unexpected interruption trigger discomfort, panic, or exhaustion?
“You’re too sensitive”
“You have a low tolerance”
“You should get used to it”
These phrases are often said casually, even lovingly – but they carry a misunderstanding that can quietly shape how a person sees their own nervous system.
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Many neurodivergent people learn early (explicitly or implicitly) that parts of who they are must be hidden to be accepted. The stimming must stop. The discomfort must be suppressed. The confusion must be concealed. The overwhelm must be disguised behind practiced smiles and perfectly modulated tone.
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Some people can push through long days, loud environments, dense information, shifting plans, and endless social expectations with minimal impact. Others – especially neurodivergent individuals or those with sensitive, reorganizing, or chronically stressed nervous systems – find that the same demands lead to profound exhaustion, emotional flooding, or shutdown.
This isn’t weakness.
This isn’t a personality flaw.
This is physiology.
When we think about brain health, we often imagine big concepts: neuroplasticity, stress, memory, recovery, mood. But beneath every thought, every emotion, every sensation, there is chemistry. And behind that chemistry there are tiny molecules – micronutrients – without which the nervous system cannot function.
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When the brain goes through a significant event – whether a concussion, stroke, neurosurgery, inflammation, or the slow and confusing shifts of a chronic neurological condition – the body moves into a state of repair. The healing brain is not simply “recovering”. It is rewiring, rebuilding, and redistributing its resources. And this process is metabolically demanding.
Many people imagine brain healing as a passive process, something the body does quietly in the background. But neuroscience shows a very different picture: a recovering brain is one of the most energy-hungry states the nervous system can enter. Understanding its nutritional needs is not only empowering – it can meaningfully support cognitive resilience, emotional stability, and functional recovery.
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The brain is only about 2% of the body’s weight, yet it consumes around 20% of the body’s total energy every single day. That alone tells us something profound:
Thinking is metabolically expensive.
Feeling is metabolically expensive.
Self-regulation, decision-making, attention, planning, language, movement, and sensory processing are all metabolically expensive.
Mindly Different 