Are these sensory issues?

[FreeStone]

One common trait of Aspergers and autism spectrum conditions in general that has not been so self-evident and obvious to me (compared to say my issues with social skills, eccentric personality, lack of traditional empathy, obsessive behaviors, high intelligence because of my passion for special interests etc etc) has been sensory problems.
Aspergers is not a cookie-cutter condition, this may reflect my place on the spectrum and what it means for me, but I think I may experience sensory issues that have been attributed to my hearing problems or otherwise overlooked as something else.
Obviously a trained professional can give me a final word but I would like to discuss these things with other aspies so that I may have better understanding of myself when I finally go in for evaluation.
Here is what I have noticed.

1. I cannot sit still.
I'm infamous for my pacing because if I stay still for too long I become very uncomfortable.
My family has gotten upset with me in the past because my pacing around at night and the early morning hours kept them up.

2. What I thought has been complications for my hearing problems ( I wear hearing aids) seems to be more along the lines of problems with auditory processing.
I now realize that times when I thought I misheard or didn't hear somebody I actually heard them just fine.
The meaning of the words didn't process until seconds later.

3. Oddities when it comes to clothes.
My father has criticized me in the past for trying to overwash my clothes.
I often toss things in the dirty laundry basket when it was washed relatively recently but the feeling or smell of it makes me feel like it is dirty.
Earlier this week one of my sweatshirts smelled weird to me so I brought it up to my mom to smell. She said it smelled just fine to her.

4. When I was a young child I had a high level of tolerance to physical discomfort and annoyance.
One of my teachers questioned how I went about the day so casually with glasses that were very smudged and me giving no effort to clean them.
I remembered staying out in the freezing cold waiting for my bus when I was clearly out too early and could have come out later on to minimize being so frozen (this likely went on for a long time).

5. Whenever I walking into large department stores and malls I feel a sense of discomfort being in there.
I thought it was just my cynical views on our socioeconomic system but I think it could be physical in light of discovering my aspergers.
I felt a sense of being overwhelmed physically and emotionally after I left kroger today.

Are these sensory issues? other consequences of autism?
Thank you so much for reading!

 

[Southern Discomfort]

2. What I thought has been complications for my hearing problems ( I wear hearing aids) seems to be more along the lines of problems with auditory processing.
I now realize that times when I thought I misheard or didn't hear somebody I actually heard them just fine.
The meaning of the words didn't process until seconds later.

I have similar problems to that. I can relate to my sister's problems with being half deaf in one ear. I can struggle to listen to someone behind a counter for instance, trying to tune out the background noise. It's like the levers on the mixing station in a music studio, one knob controls the vocals, another control the bass, etc. Allistic people are able to tune out irrelevant sounds, we on the other hand struggle to do this. It's as if we hear everything on the same level. There's usually a few umms and errs from me when it comes to responding to a person too.

5. Whenever I walking into large department stores and malls I feel a sense of discomfort being in there.
I thought it was just my cynical views on our socioeconomic system but I think it could be physical in light of discovering my aspergers.
I felt a sense of being overwhelmed physically and emotionally after I left kroger today.

I also get like this at times. I have a hard time relaxing in a place like that. I'm not too sure if it's an anxiety based or a sensory based problem or both. I think it's to do with the amount of people around me.

 

[FreeStone]

I have similar problems to that. I can relate to my sister's problems with being half deaf in one ear. I can struggle to listen to someone behind a counter for instance, trying to tune out the background noise. It's like the levers on the mixing station in a music studio, one knob controls the vocals, another control the bass, etc. Allistic people are able to tune out irrelevant sounds, we on the other hand struggle to do this. It's as if we hear everything on the same level. There's usually a few umms and errs from me when it comes to responding to a person too.

Sounds like it a very feasible possibility that aspergers has exacerbated my hearing issues and my hearing issues has exacerbated my aspergers.

I also get like this at times. I have a hard time relaxing in a place like that. I'm not too sure if it's an anxiety based or a sensory based problem or both. I think it's to do with the amount of people around me.

With all that in mind I have thrived, operated, established myself in large crowds of people without the feelings I would get at these particular establishments so sensory is probably the most assured case.

 

[Suzanne]

1. I cannot sit still.

I cannot sit still either, even now, at my computer, my leg is bobbing up and down.

2. I now realize that times when I thought I misheard or didn't hear somebody I actually heard them just fine.
The meaning of the words didn't process until seconds later.

Same, process very slowly.

3. Oddities when it comes to clothes.
My father has criticized me in the past for trying to overwash my clothes.
I often toss things in the dirty laundry basket when it was washed relatively recently but the feeling or smell of it makes me feel like it is dirty.
Earlier this week one of my sweatshirts smelled weird to me so I brought it up to my mom to smell. She said it smelled just fine to her.

I guess I wash a bit too much, since there is only two of us. One would think I had a huge family, with how quick the laundry basket is filled. I get really paranoid if I detect a strange smell.

4. When I was a young child I had a high level of tolerance to physical discomfort and annoyance.
One of my teachers questioned how I went about the day so casually with glasses that were very smudged and me giving no effort to clean them.
I remembered staying out in the freezing cold waiting for my bus when I was clearly out too early and could have come out later on to minimize being so frozen (this likely went on for a long time).

Wow, this absolutely shocks me, because I am just like this. But it goes with everything I do. For example: I changed my bedding every friday, and so have a shower ( more than once lol), because it seems not right to have a dirty body in a clean bed, but it posed a problem, because I time my shower days and it conflicted with my changing of the bed and it was only recently, after YEARS that I realised there is nothing stopping me from changing the bed on a different day!

I know that example is silly, but the point is that I felt somehow that I could not rearrange things, until I thought about it.

5. Whenever I walking into large department stores and malls I feel a sense of discomfort being in there.

All the time, I have this. Any crowded place, makes me want to turn around and escape, so I can breath.


I also cannot cope with flashing lights.

 

[FreeStone]

Update: A friend sent me this when I posted about all this on Facebook (She is a non-autistic person with SPD and has a child on the spectrum).
I experience so much of what is listed here that it felt like the list was personally talking about me.
There is no denying I experience sensory issues.

http://spdsupport.org/resources/adult-spd-symptoms.shtml