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Autism & Suffer From Photophobia

Robby

Robby

Well-Known Member
Wondering if anyone else has heard or suffers from this? I've always had extreme sensitivity to sunlight, bright lights, kind of similar to my intense problem with sudden sharp loud noises, but way worse. Growing up I'd always be pulling shades or drawing curtains without really thinking about it it was like a knee-jerk thing I needed to do to get the sun out of my face to feel comfortable. And same goes for bright lights in rooms, have never been able to tolerate them well. Well the last couple years it's gotten much much worse. As it happens I also suffer from severe nearsightedness/myopia & some other eye conditions that require me to wear glasses all the time. Suddenly I realized I could wear my prescription sunglasses both to see, & to keep out the light & let me function better & not have to run away from situations where the light is too bad. It also helps my anxiety some too.

I believe I have a condition called photophobia, which is intense sensitivity to light and sunlight. Now I wear my dark glasses everywhere. Since my vision is so bad to begin with, I just had all my glasses made into prescription sunglasses and wear them all the time even indoors. I don't really care if people don't like it. If they ask me about it I'll just tell them about my vision problem & photophobia. But it's nice to have a name for it finally. My quality of life is so much better now that I wear the dark glasses all the time, I have very little anxiety any more & I don't have to leave rooms or shut down because of hating the light. Hope this helps someone else who has this problem.
 
I have always preferred dark rooms. Growing up, my sister would make fun of my room, calling it a cave. I'm 47 now and I have black felt on the inside of all my window drapes and at night I pull a long sheet of black felt across my room to bock out what still gets through. I had a lot of trouble seeing in the daylight in junior high. I complained about it but nobody took me seriously. I would have to stare at the ground to see where I was going. I love the shorter days in winter because there is less sunlight and I wish it was like that year round.
 
I had the exact experience! People would ask me about why I always wanted to be in dark rooms, I don't mind diffuse light, it's the bright room lights or direct sunlight that I can't tolerate. Winter is really really hard because the snow on the ground reflects the light so much and makes it VERY bright so it's hard. I had a very hard time until I discovered I could kill two birds with one stone, I accidentally forgot my clear pair of glasses which I need to see, & so I wore my prescription sunglasses instead ever since then I've worn the sunglasses all the time! And no more problems with the light it has really helped plus I can see clearly too. This truly is a medical condition that deserves more sensitivity by people. I have 20/400 vision & that's bad enough but add on photophobia it's made it hard. But anyone who has a visual impairment and also suffers from photophobia, just get your lenses tinted and that will really help!
 
The room in my home where I spend the most time is illuminated with blue lighting around the clock. I have been known to wear sunglasses at night and they are a must during the day. I have brighter lighting when it is too dark to see details,but prefer my cave-like rooms.
 
I once went in to an old abandoned gold mine. It was on private property and in the mountains. It was from the 1860s and nobody had been in there since but the landowners. I went to the very back of the cave, right to where there were holes left drilled in to the wall to continue the cave. I was about 500 feet in with about 1,000 feet of mountain over my head. There was no light at all. I have never seen such darkness and it was absolutely silent. I felt safe there and never wanted to leave. I realized that while I was in there, no matter what happened to the world it wouldn't affect me. I was safe for the first time in my life. Of course I had to leave but I always remember that cave. If I could I would live in a cave.

There are wineries that use old caves to store their wine because the temperature and humidity inside stays the same all year round. If I could, I would buy one of those caves and live there. A few lamps and the things I like and I would only come out when I want. Silence from the world. I would like that very much.
 
Ambient lighting can really help and is much less harsh. I can't stand bright industrial lighting in most buildings. Literally drives me nuts even with my glasses on. I don't have tinted windows yet in my car so I have to set the visors to block as much as possible. It's so bad that I think I may have to try and find a nighttime job because of my intolerance of light. But wearing my glasses does help a lot.
 
I have quite a few blacklights in my house...It makes things look electric :D
 
Yes Robby, I have found the sunglasses to be a necessity. I never wore them when I was younger, and spend a lot of time outside but I have always preferred shaded areas, direct sun makes me feel dizzy and sick. I think I never wore the glasses as a kid because I hated the way they pinched my head and kept sliding down on my nose. Finally I have developed migraines so I broke down and bought prescription sunglasses, and I do wear them indoors too, even in the lab. Colleagues make fun of me because I often turn off the overhead lights and work in the dark with just a desk lamp if I am not wearing my sunglasses. I can't say I prefer the dark because I do get seasonal affective disorder, but indirect or diffuse light is definitely better for me.
 
I love sitting by candlelight, less harsh and helps me relax. I have photochromic sunglasses that stay at tint 1 indoors to cut down harshness of fluorescent lighting. When I go outside they darken. They are very handy as I just have one pair to go from indoors to outdoors. Light can be harsh and they help take the edge off for me. They are a pinkish-brown tight which warms colours and I find that more pleasant. Too much blue light makes me feel drained.
 
I don't have photophobia - apart from one or two issues, I think my visual perception is more or less normal and I don't have very strong sensitivities, or at least they don't interfere too much with my daily functioning. Here's what I wrote on the other thread:

I don't have huge issues with light sensitivities, and I'm not sure that they are really that much different to those experienced by NTs. For me the main sensory issue is sensitivity to sound.

If I'm out in the sun for too long, I get a headache and I sometimes feel sleepy. I always thought my headaches to be due to dehydration, but after reading threads about light sensitivity, I realise that they could be due to exposure to sunlight. I squint a lot, and need to shade myself from the sun. Cloudy days are not a problem.

I don't like artificial light, and like natural sunlight to come into the house. I don't like sitting in the house with the curtains drawn because I can't see out and the house is way too dark to read. Many people in this country close all the curtains and then sit in the house during the day with artificial lighting. That never made any sense to me. Dull winter days make me feel depressed.

I need pitch black darkness to be able to sleep. Even the landing light needs to be switched off because it shines through the crack in the door frame, and I can't tolerate stanby nd pilot lights on electrical devices. These need sto be covered up or switch up. I need to use shutters and blackout curtains.

I don't like flickering or flashing lights and can't bear to watch a movie or the TV with the lights off. Also, entering a supermarket with at night is a problem. The brightness all hits me at once and it feels really strange, as if not in reality, it's hard to describe.

I can't stand bright unshaded flourescent lights, especially the white ones. We had a flourescent strip light installed in the kitchen and I never ever used it, I hate it. For me they hum, but they don't flicker, though I remember flickering lights when I was at school, perhaps I'm less sensitive now. Old TVs flicker, and that drives me mad.
 
I'm definitely photophobic. I always have my tinted glasses on whenever I leave the house, day or night. I keep them on indoors because many places have fluorescent lighting, which I find intolerable. I don't wear them at home, since our lights aren't as harsh and we keep things fairly dim. I never turn on the light in my office at work, because I prefer the ambient sunlight coming in from the windows. I tend to get ice pick headaches, and being exposed to bright lights tends to make them happen more often.

Like Progster, I sometimes get headaches (the regular kind) and feel worn out if I'm out in the sun too long. I tend to stay out of the sun anyway.
 
I'm not but I've found we're all sensitive to something one way or another on the autism spectrum, the bandwagon sense is usually hearing. Either way it's perfectly normal to feel how you do..
 
My home is kept 'shaded' as I really dislike bright light, during the day when I'm working, my glasses are tinted out. My company replaced the usual flasing beacons for coloured and white strobes, at night it takes me 5 mins to get my eyes back to normal.
 
Robby said:
Wondering if anyone else has heard or suffers from this? I've always had extreme sensitivity to sunlight, bright lights, kind of similar to my intense problem with sudden sharp loud noises, but way worse. Growing up I'd always be pulling shades or drawing curtains without really thinking about it it was like a knee-jerk thing I needed to do to get the sun out of my face to feel comfortable. And same goes for bright lights in rooms, have never been able to tolerate them well. Well the last couple years it's gotten much much worse. As it happens I also suffer from severe nearsightedness/myopia & some other eye conditions that require me to wear glasses all the time. Suddenly I realized I could wear my prescription sunglasses both to see, & to keep out the light & let me function better & not have to run away from situations where the light is too bad. It also helps my anxiety some too.

I believe I have a condition called photophobia, which is intense sensitivity to light and sunlight. Now I wear my dark glasses everywhere. Since my vision is so bad to begin with, I just had all my glasses made into prescription sunglasses and wear them all the time even indoors. I don't really care if people don't like it. If they ask me about it I'll just tell them about my vision problem & photophobia. But it's nice to have a name for it finally. My quality of life is so much better now that I wear the dark glasses all the time, I have very little anxiety any more & I don't have to leave rooms or shut down because of hating the light. Hope this helps someone else who has this problem.
Click to expand...

I have this and am very sensitive to bright light. I detest sunlight and am starting to feel depressed that Spring/Summer are coming; My favorite seasons are Fall/Winter: Dreary, rainy days, fog, snow, cold, darkness.

I block all of my windows in my main room where I usually am with my computer with a large, gray sheet, keeping 90% of the light out.

I have noticed over the last 15 years since I have started getting treated for Depression that most of the times I ended up in the psych ward were during the Spring/Summer.

The thought of the light and heat are enough to cause a meltdown in me and it has not even started yet.
 
I'm not sure if I qualify as photophobic. Bright lights definitely hurt, I'm not supposed to be driving at night. Not by doctor's orders, but a very mutual agreement between me and my husband. Some nights I even try to figure out how to wear sunglasses. I hear there are special night time sunglasses you can wear that help cut out the glare, I'm wanting to go looking for them some time. Some mornings when my senses are really going haywire, it takes two hours for my eyes to adjust to how bright and sunny it is outside enough for me to even draw back the curtains. Right now at work, I only turn on the overhead lights if it's a particularly rainy and overcast day. Drives some people nuts when they come into my office because they can't see as well as I can in the dim light.
 
There are places where you can get a tint that isn't too dark, but still cuts down on harsh glare. My specs are a 40% greenish grey, which I also wear at night. It works for me, but a different tint might work better for others. You'd need to experiment.
 
I guess I'm fortunate in that I am basically blind without glasses, so I killed two birds with one stone when I have my glasses made I get a dark tint on my raybans & wear them all the time. My vision is about 20/300 in both eyes plus I'm highly sensitive and intolerant to bright light especially direct sunlight & industrial flourescent lights. I've had this ever since I can remember, it's my worst symptom other than anxiety of my condition. For me pink and dark tint work best, I have several pairs of glasses due to my bad vision & each one is tinted. That has helped me so much. If anyone asks me about it I just tell them I have very bad eyesight & don't mind talking about photophobia. Many may not even know about it. Until a year or so ago I didn't even know what my condition was called. I've not been diagnosed but it's pretty obvious I am because I can't tolerate any bright or harsh lights.
 
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