13 year old with tactile defensiveness

by Emma
(Toronto,Canada)

Okay so I'm 13 and I've had tactile defensiveness basically all my life. When I was a little kid I refused to wear anything with buttons(or I had to have my mom cut the buttons off),I hated wearing pants,and I hated wearing tennis shoes.

Now I'm 13 and my mom recently figured out why I've always been like this and she said it's something where certain people just don't like how certain things feel to them. So I decided to look it up and see and I've realized I have almost all the symptoms and there's a 99% chance that I have it. But I feel like it's starting to take over my life.

There are a ton of things that I miss out on or don't do because I don't like wearing certain things. Like for example,I HATE wearing tennis shoes or sneakers. The only ones I wear are converse,and I hate wearing my converse with socks(which ends up with me getting blisters on my feet). Also on certain days I can't wear pants(jeans,leggings,ect),and up until a few years ago I refused to wear any type of jeans. And even things like wearing a certain hairstyle in my hair annoys me(like if my ponytail is too tight or too loose I have to redo it).

How can I get better with this because there are things I miss out on because of this and I want to try out for soccer,but I have to wear soccer cleats,which will more than likely annoy me.