Deep Pressure Needed!

So, it’s around midnight here, and for the last half hour I’ve had both my weighted lap pillow and my laptop on my lap. My legs feel like they’re going to jump out of my skin – not sure what the best comparison is, maybe like little jolts of electricity running down the nerves in my legs, only constant rather than intermittent? – because I desperately need deep pressure.

(I’m debating showing up at my parents’ house tomorrow with my lap pillow and grabbing Mew – who is the biggest and heaviest of the cats we have between us – and forcing him to stay on my lap for more than twenty minutes at a time.)

I can always tell when I start to need deep pressure (as opposed to just wanting it), because parts of my body (or sometimes all of my body) starts feeling like my legs do right now. And let me tell you – this is Not Fun. Not the feeling, nor the desperate need to have that weight on me. (Draping my weighted pillow over my legs when I go to bed helps a bit, but I regularly change what side I’m lying on, and when I do that, I have to replace the pillow.)

Unfortunately, I can’t get deep pressure hugs from my parents, for a variety of reasons on their parts, including physical. (Arthritis is nasty when it comes to letting people give deep pressure hugs. *scowls*)

I have a reasonably heavy polar fleece throw (it’s two thick pieces put together), and that helps sometimes… but it makes me hot at night to use it most of the time. See a whole bunch of previous posts for details about my sensitivity to heat.

The weighted lap pillow does help. Unfortunately, the help it can provide is limited. A heavily weighted blanket made of light material would work better, I think – especially since it would get pretty much my whole body, rather than just a small part of it – but weighted blankets are expensive. Hell, my weighted lap pillow was expensive, in part because I’m an adult and had to have it specially made, but also because they are expensive.

Wrapping myself up tightly in blankets also can help, but only somewhat, because the tightness is good but what I really need is the weight.

Part of the issue is that there are a number of things out there for kids, and even more are being regularly added – for example, the Nesel Pack. But for adults? There’s very little out there, and most of what is has to be custom-made. Or improvised. (My psychologist has suggested getting an outdoors/fishing vest and attaching weights to it as a possibility.)

Gah. Usually the need will die down somewhat after a while, at least enough to let me deal with it a bit better. But my legs are still jumping out of my skin. So I’m going to cut this post off before it becomes a whine-fest.

Before I do, however… do any of my readers have any ideas that might help that can be done with a very minimal budget and things that might already be on hand? (And won’t necessarily trigger my heat sensitivity?) I would really welcome any suggestions you might have!

‘Later, all!

😐 tagÂûght

Morning Update (Mar. 26/16 @ 11:56): So, after a night of having my weighted lap pillow flung over my legs all night, the feeling has reduced itself slightly. Fingernails over the chalkboard rather than claws over the chalkboard slightly. Oh, and my brother suggested using a scuba diver’s weighted belt – something to look into!

One thought on “Deep Pressure Needed!

  1. tagAught

    Well, tensing up my leg muscles and keeping them tense for several minutes helped a bit. The “electricity”/jumping out of my skin isn’t as strong now as it was, but it’s still there.

    Reply

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