HOW ANCOR WORKS

The Problem ANCOR Addresses

Many autistic and neurodivergent people experience what I call "internal meltdowns" - they feel different from external sensory overload:

What it feels like:

• Rising pressure inside your body (chest, head, limbs)

• Skin feeling like it's burning or "electrical" 

• Too many body sensations happening at once

• Feeling disconnected from your body

• Emotional flooding that seems to come from nowhere

• Eventually: shutdown, inability to function, or complete overwhelm

The key difference:

• These aren't caused by external things you can easily remove (like loud noises or bright lights). They're coming from *inside* - from your nervous system getting dysregulated.

Why Current Solutions Often Don't Work

Most sensory strategies focus on:

• Reducing external input (noise-canceling headphones, dimmer lights)

• Avoiding triggers

• Taking breaks

These help with external overload but often don't stop internal escalation once it starts.

ANCOR works differently - it targets the internal cascade directly.

The Core Principle

Your nervous system calms down when it receives strong, predictable, trusted signals.

Think of it like this: 

When your brain is getting 100 confusing signals at once (internal pressure, skin sensations, emotional overwhelm, disconnection), it doesn't know what to pay attention to. Everything feels like an emergency.

ANCOR creates a few VERY STRONG, CLEAR signals that your brain can trust:

1. **"The body is breathing slowly"

(strong parasympathetic signal)

2. "The muscles are working hard"

(clear proprioceptive signal)

3. "The whole body is warm"

(unified interoceptive signal)

When these strong signals arrive, the brain essentially says:

"Okay, these signals are clear and make sense. I can organize around these. The other confusing noise can quiet down."

How Each Component Works

A — AUTONOMIC BREATHING

What you do:

• Slow breathing with long exhales

What it does:

• Your vagus nerve (the main "calming" nerve) responds to slow breathing, especially long exhales

• Heart rate variability increases (sign of better regulation)

• Activates the parasympathetic ("rest and digest") system

• Reduces the sympathetic ("fight or flight") overdrive

Why it matters:

• This is like telling your nervous system "we're safe, we can slow down" in a language it understands

Evidence base:

• Well-established in research on anxiety, panic, and autonomic regulation

N — NORMALIZE SENSORY ENVIRONMENT

What you do:  

• Reduce light,sound, and sensory contrast

What it does:

•  Stops adding MORE input to an already overloaded system

•  Reduces the work your brain has to do processing stimuli

• Prevents sensory "stacking" (where inputs pile up faster than you can process them)

Why it matters:

• You can't calm down if new overwhelming input keeps arriving

Evidence base:

• Standard practice in occupational therapy sensory approaches

C — CALIBRATE BODY MAP

What you do:

• Slow weight shifting, grounding touches, pressure awareness

What it does:

• Reconnects you with your body's position and boundaries

• Activates mechanoreceptors (pressure sensors) in predictable ways

• Reduces dissociation and "spacey" feelings

• Gives your brain clear information about where your body is in space

Why it matters:

• Many people describe internal meltdowns as feeling "disconnected" or "not in my body" - this reconnects those signals

Evidence base:

• Proprioceptive and vestibular strategies are core to sensory integration therapy

O — OVERLOAD WITH PROPRIOCEPTION

What you do:

• Heavy resistance work - lifting, carrying, pushing, or squeezing

What it does:

• Your muscles, joints, and tendons have thousands of sensors (mechanoreceptors)

• Heavy work activates them STRONGLY and CLEARLY

• These signals are high-priority - your brain evolved to pay attention to them (survival-critical)

• They can "override" or "compete with" the confusing internal signals causing distress

• Creates therapeutic muscle soreness (DOMS) 24-48 hours later that provides ongoing grounding

Think of it like:

• If you have 10 radio stations playing at once creating static, turning ONE clear station up very loud helps your brain focus and filter out the noise

The therapeutic soreness effect:

• Many people find that the muscle soreness appearing 1-2 days after exercise provides clear, predictable body sensations that help reduce or replace the confusing internal burning and pressure. This "earned" soreness gives your brain an interpretable signal to focus on.

Why it matters:

• This is often the most powerful part of ANCOR for stopping escalation, with effects continuing for days afterward

Evidence base:

• "Heavy work" and proprioceptive loading are well-documented in OT literature; resistance exercise affects neurotransmitter systems and stress response

R — REINTEGRATION

What you do:

• Quiet rest, continued slow breathing, low stimulation

What it does:

• Allows your nervous system to "lock in" the new calm state

• Prevents immediate re-escalation

• Gives you time to notice "oh, I actually feel calmer now"

Why it matters:

• If you immediately jump back into demands, the regulation doesn't stick

Evidence base:

• Recovery periods are essential in all nervous system regulation approaches

Optional: Heat/Thermal Modulation

What you do:

• Hot shower, sauna, warm bath, hot tub, warm water on skin

What it does:

• Creates ONE dominant interoceptive signal ("my whole body is warm")

• Activates temperature sensors across large areas of skin

• This unified signal can reduce fragmented, painful skin sensations

• Triggers vasodilation and parasympathetic responses

Why it matters:

• Many people report the "skin burning" sensation reduces dramatically with heat

Evidence base:

• Thermal therapy effects on autonomic function and pain modulation are documented; heat is used therapeutically for muscle tension and stress

Optional: Supplement Support

Important: The method works WITHOUT supplements. These may enhance effects for some people.

Some people find these helpful:

• Glycine 

• - May support inhibitory neurotransmission and calming

• L-Theanine

•  - May increase alpha brain waves associated with calm focus

• Magnesium

• - Involved in muscle relaxation and nervous system function

• Myo-Inositol

• - May support mood regulation pathways

• N-Acetylcysteine (NAC)

• - May help with glutamate balance

These are optional tools, not requirements. Always consult a healthcare provider before starting supplements.

Why the SEQUENCE Matters

ANCOR isn't just "do these things sometime" - the ORDER is important:

1. Breathing first

• prepares your system to receive regulation

2. Reducing input

• stops the overload from getting worse

3. Body calibration

• reconnects you with physical grounding

4. Heavy proprioception

• provides the strongest override signal

5. Reintegration

• locks it in

Think of it like: you can't hear someone's calming voice (proprioception) if there's a fire alarm going off (continued sensory input) and you're in fight-or-flight mode (no breathing regulation).

What Makes ANCOR Different

Traditional sensory diet:

• "Do some calming activities throughout the day"

ANCOR: 

• "Here's a specific sequence designed to interrupt internal escalation"

**Traditional approach:** 

• Often focuses on avoiding triggers

ANCOR:

• Gives you a tool to actively regulate when you're already escalating

Traditional OT:

• Uses proprioception as one of many tools

ANCOR:

• Puts proprioception at the CENTER of the intervention, timed strategically

Is This Scientifically Proven?

Honest answer:

• Each individual component has research support. The specific combination and sequence is based on my lived experience and logical integration of known principles.

What we know from research:

• ✓ Slow breathing affects vagal tone and autonomic regulation

• ✓ Proprioceptive input is used therapeutically for sensory regulation

• ✓ Heavy work/resistance exercise affects neurotransmitter systems

• ✓ Thermal therapy has autonomic and pain-modulating effects

• ✓ These supplements have documented neurochemical effects

What we don't know yet:

• Whether this specific sequence is more effective than other combinations

• Exactly which populations benefit most

• Optimal timing, duration, and intensity parameters

• Long-term effects on meltdown frequency

Bottom line:

• This is an evidence-informed intervention based on established principles, refined through personal experience. It's not a clinically validated treatment protocol (yet).

Who Developed This?

I'm Seth A. Horn, an autistic individual who experienced severe internal meltdowns and developed this method through careful observation of what actually worked for me.

This isn't a professional clinical treatment - it's a structured approach I'm sharing with the community in hopes it might help others.

Please consult healthcare providers

• before starting any new intervention, especially if you have medical conditions or take medications.

The ANCOR Method - Created by Seth A. Horn (2025)

Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - Free to use with attribution