What are your sensory issues?

[Minuet]

Smell is a sense that we haven't much discussed; although, I do notice that I am sensitive to smells - at least, more so than others.
Does anyone else have weird smells or textures that are benign to others, but which you simply cannot stand?

 

[Ste11aeres]

Smell is a sense that we haven't much discussed; although, I do notice that I am sensitive to smells - at least, more so than others.
Does anyone else have weird smells or textures that are benign to others, but which you simply cannot stand?

I have a minor compulsion to smell smells that I don't like. That's a compulsion I'd like to be rid of.

 

[GoldenRatio]

My big thing is textures. I will not eat mushrooms and other foods of similar texture because I will start gagging. Anything that feels like rubbing sandpaper together or nails on a chalkboard will send me close to the deep end.

 

[GoldenRatio]

I have a minor compulsion to smell smells that I don't like. That's a compulsion I'd like to be rid of.

Would you mind elaborating more on this as to better my understanding? I think I might do the same thing. Even though I know something is not going to smell pleasant, I have to smell it.

 

[Neat Hedgehog]

Smell is a sense that we haven't much discussed; although, I do notice that I am sensitive to smells - at least, more so than others.
Does anyone else have weird smells or textures that are benign to others, but which you simply cannot stand?

Textures... not so much except for food. I can't stand fibrous yet mushy things (spaghetti squash), or gummy-gritty things (jelly beans, or those weird fake fruit thingies).

Smells, though... whew... I cannot understand how people seem to be so oblivious to smells. There is one scent in particular that I dislike: Van With Children. Seriously, it's this weird, gross smell like a box of overly sweetened, thousand-year-stale graham crackers. I can smell it in every car that is used to carry children on a regular basis. It is so strong that I could smell my mother's friends van when they drove up from inside the house, and I would know they were there even if I didn't hear the engine or anything.

On a more general note, I have always been very sensitive to noises, any noise, any volume; if I don't expect it, I will turn and look. Even the sound of my own footsteps bothers me, so I have learned to walk in complete silence on virtually any surface since I was about four years old. I am extremely twitchy about anyone or anything touching me. The lightest touch from a person I don't know well burn like hell and be extremely itchy. I either have to steel myself up for it, like if it's a hug from a relative or something, or know the person very very well before it won't just be revoltingly painful.

 

[Ylva]

I don't have a sense of smell. I register really strong smells, if they are so strong they make me want to vomit, but nothing ever smells anything unless it's that.

Might possibly be psychosomatic. I think I had a sense of smell when I was about six. (That counts as a sensory issue, doesn't it?)

 

[Rob]

I cannot stand chewing apple skins and grape skins - they feel like I am chewing paper or cardboard. Once my dad cooked prosciutto in a fry pan. I almost threw up at the smell of the stuff frying. He did not think anything bad of it!

 

[Arashi222]

I tend to have food issues, especailly with texture but it can be smell too, such as I can't stand the smell of wild rice soup it makes me want to vomit. I cannot handle certain fabrics because it makes me want to rip my skin off. I am overly sensetive to touch. It feels like daggers or hot fire pokers being shoved into my skin if someone touches me. Sounds are another thing. Ticking clocks and such or loud loud noises.

 

[Sparticus]

Loud sudden noises, bright lights & some strong smells. I'm famous for turning off lights. My female friend, at her place, at night when we are watching tv, she sometimes wants to keep on a strong light in the other room. I keep asking her "do you want to keep on that "cop" light!" It reminds me of an interrogation room with a bright bulb.

Sometimes when I go outside, I get overwhelmed by all the sounds, light/s & certain smells.

What are you sensitive to? I'm sensitive to sudden loud noise. I'm very jumpy if I hear something unexpectedly. I also dislike strong light. When I was younger I used to always switch off the lights when watching TV or playing on the games console. Now though, it's more strong sunlight that bothers me than simply a lit room.

 

[Sev]

I'm highly sensitive to noise in general. Whenever there is more than one source of sound I usually get really strange and can't think properly.

 

[Rob]

Though my ears are sensitive, if there is too much noise from the machines at my job location, I have to come right close to the customer and listen carefully what the customer wants. And if there are too many people using the gas pumps and inserting their debit/credit cards the wrong way, I will hear a lot of beeping and have to clear off the pump icon from red to normal. When the customer does the same thing over and over again despite me telling them over the intercom that they have to keep the stripe to the top and to the left, the cash machine gives me more error messages.

Either the customer is too hard-headed to do the right thing or their card is being rejected at the pumps. With so much noise from the coolers, customers and the cash machine, it can get pretty stressful. With customers changing their minds in the middle of their orders, it can be especially irritating!

My sensitivity to excessive heat is also a problem. Finally a heat wave came to an end today - it was 32, 34 and 32 degrees each of the past few days. I drank lots of Gatorade to keep me hydrated and my electrolytes in balance.

 

[melame]

I'm sensitive to loud or persistent noises, bright lights, food smells, and the cold. I cannot stand for a person to talk constantly. I occasionally have to tell me daughter to just stop talking. It makes me feel violent. I have to leave places often because too many people are talking at once. I have a huge problem with migraines, so many of my sensitivities can cause a migraine. Bright lights are the worst. I don't understand why people need so many lights on. I prefer any room that I'm in to be dim. I have no problem reading in dim light.

 

[Hadassah]

Loud noises! Sounds in general.

 

[Sev]

I struggle with seeing in sunlight, and I can't concentrate when there is un-ordered noise around me. (Music is fine though).

 

[LikeyouToMe]

I struggle with seeing in sunlight, and I can't concentrate when there is un-ordered noise around me. (Music is fine though).

I'm exactly the same... Unless I'm finding the music really jarring / annoying or irritating then it's just as bad.

 

[Axeman52]

I have a few sensory issues. I'm very aware of the ones that are especially problematic for me as a performing musician and and have ways of dealing with them.

My hearing is very, very sensitive, and this causes the following problems when performing:

- Big, loud impact sounds, particularly snare drums, cause dizziness and nausea, and the more i'm exposed to it the worse it gets. I love it when a drummer uses electric drums - that seems to eliminate the snare drum problem at least.
- Very high frequencies are horrible. Things like the high frequency 'beams' from a guitar amp (the very harsh sounds that you only hear when your ear is in the direct 'firing line' of the speaker's sound projection), they not only feel like something is scratching my inner ear with an emery board, i kind of 'hear' the scratch as a sound that isn't really there, like a kind of distortion in my hearing perception.

I can mostly eliminate these problems by wearing earplugs, but even then, i still have problems if the overall volume on stage is too loud. The positive side of this is, if i have it my own way, lots of people always seem to comment that the overall sound is very nice and clear.

I'm also very sensitive to light - i have problems with stage lighting, especially if the lights are pointed directly at my eyes. It's like looking into the sun, for me. Even worse is when they are constantly changing colour or there's a strobe effect - a strobe effect and rapid colour changing does a similar thing as a snare drum - it makes me feel like the ground is moving beneath my feet. It also interferes with my hearing. I noticed recently at a show where the lights were pointed directly at me, and were doing rapid colour changing strobe effects (so all 3 problems), Not only did it feel like the stage was going up and down and tilting from side to side, each time it changed colour my perception of what i was hearing would start to get distorted, because i was just completely overloaded. Luckily it was only a short set. During a break between a song where i had to pick up my acoustic guitar and do an acoustic number, people noticed how much i was shaking, and how nervous i had looked the whole time, and that my eyes were closed through most of the performance, and pointed it out to me afterwards - i wasn't nervous, i was trying desperately hard not to freak out because of the damn lights.

I usually ask for the lights to not be pointed directly into my eyes and for the strobe/colour changing effects to be kept at a minimum. If my needs are not met, i wear sunglasses

Other issues include oversensitivity to certain types of smells and tastes, problems with food with certain textures (especially bits of gristle in meat), i can't stand touching greasy or slimey/sticky surfaces, and i hate being touched on the knees, feet and the side of my lower abdomen for some reason... but also i'm under-sensitive to certain types of pain (like getting punched - i feel the pain but it doesn't actually affect me in any way), coldness (similar kind of thing to pain. excessive heat REALLY bothers me though). There might even be a few other things that i nobody has pointed out to me as being 'abnormal', as well.

 

[MoCoffee]

I have quite a few sensory issues, and some of them really cause me a lot of trouble.

- I jump out of my skin at loud or sudden noises
- I am very sensitive to bright light
- I am really badly affected by very hot or very cold temperatures
- My body is hypersensitive so I have to cut any tags out of my clothing, I can't wear coarse fabrics and I have CRPS which has to be treated with Fentanyl.
- Changes in the weather often trigger migraines
- I am really sensitive to strong smells

 

[Laughingowl1975]

I hate crowds within a closed environment such as a room, all those voices and my ears straining to take them all in just causes me to become irritable and unable to speak, I go to a drop-in group for aspergers and it was so many people talking loudly I fled to the landing and started crying. Small sounds like sniffing or gum-popping drive me mad, I also don't like sudden loud noise like a car backfiring it makes me feel anxious. I dislike being touched too, my mother said hugging me as a child was like hugging a small sack of potatoes, lumpy and unresponsive.

 

[Perkinsj88]

Sudden unexpected noise sends me up the wall swingin'. Flourescent lighting such as the kind every store uses drives me nuts, i have worn a hat nearly every day of my life since roughly 10 years old, it helps block the side glare, which is the worst. I cant drive at night because i literally cannot see for a good 20 seconds or more after passing a car with 'good' headlights...and if its dark and raining..i may as well aim for the trees; yet I still have an immaculent driving record, yay for my observance lettin' me spot the hidden patrol cars lol. Smell can become bothersome at times but not as frequently as the previous two mentioned. i have issues with temperature too, my hands are practically lifeless in cold weather, feels like a hammer is smashing my fingers from simply zipping a jacket up or tapping my finger tip with a car key (I'm talking like anything 58 degrees or less) I once microwaved my gloves so i could warm my hands LOL. My touch issues are troubling too, I hate hugs, seriously, dont make me head but you. I go ABSOLUTELY nuts if something is in my shoe or if my sock gets 'bunched' up. Plus anything with a sticky/wet texture turns me into a cat with tape on its foot. I look like I'm insane when i get a piece of plastic stuck on my foot. Everything is tagless now THANK YOU clothing companies!!!! So I'm sensiive to pretty much everything I guess. I also freak the freak out if i hold my face under the shower, sure hope no one ever water boards me....please take the fingers instead! Oh..and my pain tolerance/threshhold is higher than normal, the dental issues I have would drive a normal person to overdose on pain meds, I have yet to have my wisdow teeth removed, dentists are the DEVIL!!

 

[Judge]

Ticking clocks that I can hear. Oh my.

One thing that drives me nuts about buying if I don't know for sure how it may sound. The idea being for it not to make any sound at all.