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What are your sensory issues?

Reading the replies to the post, I feel glad for not having any problem with being touched.
I think my biggest sensory problem is my sensitivity to hot weathers. That's a major issue since I live in an extremely hot city. I actually have a higher than average body temperature.
I also hate high pitched sounds. Specifically, the folding of a paper or plastic bag is sufficient to make me want to kill a relative. Crowded rooms are tiresome too.
Finally, fluorescent white lights are important for electric saving purposes, but they are tiring as hell.
 
My main issues are with certain types of food and certain sounds (depending on my mood), otherwise all the sensory problems I dealt with as a younger child are becoming less of an issue now.

I do have a few problems with being in an area full of random folks, but that may have more to do with social anxiety rather than sensory problems. That too is less of an issue now compared to, say, 10 years ago.
 
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Spinning Compass said:
My biggest one is noise sensitivity. When I was very small I used to be terrified of public restrooms. The sound of a toilet flushing sent me right up the wall. My parents did not understand it and thought I was being willful since I obviously had no problems at home. Then I read in one of Dr. Grandin's books that noises are amplified in public bathrooms because of the way they were designed. I called my parents up and started reading the chapter to them . . . I was NOT crazy after all!
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I have the same problem with some of those public toilets! The ones where I used to work weren't very loud but one of the ones at the bathroom at the new place I work at is so loud when it flushes, it drives me crazy. I actually have to prepare myself mentally for when it makes that noise. I probably make a cringing look on my face too. I hate public restrooms enough already, but that makes it even worse.
 
Another one of mine is being touched unexpectedly, especially on my back or my hair. It makes me jump, which can be a little awkward at times. Although, if I know someone is going to touch me in advance, that's fine.
 
I have visual and auditory issues, when there are lights hanging on the ceiling, it really disturbs me in the classroom and in movie theaters. i have a mild auditory issue that involves me being annoyed when a beeping or repetitive small sound can really annoy me and it can disturb me in the classroom like one time in my school the firealarm started by accident and we went outside and we went inside again and it was still going, and i was so annoyed and i lost all attention is school for 2 hours!
 
Bright lights: sometimes it feels like they're flowing straight through me, but not always in a bad way. Bright sunlight can be hard to handle at times, also.
Loud noises: they don't usually bother me if i'm expecting them, if not, then they do and it will put me extremely on edge and i'll get angry because i'm so wound up. I have to keep my music quite quiet as I listen to a lot of metal and it hurts my ears.
Smells: I'm under-sensitive to odours. I can sleep with two cat litter-trays in my bedroom and I rarely even notice them. I put an excessive amount of deoderant on because I can't smell it myself and people often complain that it can be overpowering.
Texture: There are some things I just can't eat because of the texture of them, like peas and cooked tomatoes and cooked carrots. I can't eat food if two different textures are put together, like beans on toast, and this is the reason I don't drink things with bits in them, or smoothies.
Touch: I strongly dislike being touched, even if i'm expecting it it feels like everything inside me is on fire, the same as it does when I try and make eye-contact, it feels like all of my instincts are screaming for me to move away.
 
I find it very hard to touch cardboard, kiwi's and peach's, I hate furry things. They are very painful and I tend to avoid them because a lot of pain, means a lot of anger and me not being very nice.

As I've noticed on another thread, I find sight to be a pointless sense. But when I am forced to use it, I tend to find things always to be too bright. I hate night-driving. I've adjusted my lights to point more down than usual, and I usually have them on the lowest setting as well. I don't know why everyone needs their lights on so brightly, can't they see? They blind me.
 
loud noises (I wear earplugs to vacuum or blow dry my hair)
super-bright lights
too dim lights (oh the contradictions!)
flashy lights
smells
-I can't stand most perfume (though I tend to like men's cologne) and most scented lotions, the fragrances give me a headache quickly
textures
-rough clothes
-tight clothes (I wear my pants loose and HATE belts)
-gritty foods (I hate Doritos)
 
Sudden noises, being touched, hugged, almost anything (if buy an adult, makes my shin crawl.) Kids however can do what they please with me. Modern music. Bright light, I wear dark tint safety glasses with dark reflective sunglasses inside them when outside.
 
My sensory issues are mainly auditory, but also visual & touch-oriented. Unexpected noises of any kind send me into panic mode, especially loud noises like motorcycles. Also, doors slamming, people yelling or talking way too loudly.
Visually, fluorescent lights give me horrible migraines & even make my sinuses & eyes hurt. The sun is hell for me. I hate being in it & the fact that I can't wear sunglasses since I wear real glasses & can't find or afford, clip on sunglasses to fit over my glasses, just makes Spring & Summer even worse for me when I have to leave home. Also lights in the house. I have black garbage bags over some of the windows in the house & black blinds in my room to keep the sun out. I keep lights off in the house almost all the time because light makes me anxious if exposed to it too long.
As for touch, I can't stand the feeling of certain materials, like anything rough or heavy. I also can't wear crew-neck shirts, or T-shirts, in general, because they make me feel like I'm choking. I can't deal with the feeling of tags in shirts & I can't wear button down shirts unless I can keep it unbuttoned because I feel like I'm in a straight jacket. There are more, but those are the basics, for the most part.
 
lyricalillusions, Hi. Maybe check out some dark tint safety glasses like I use, they are made to fit over eyeglasses and should be available from hardware stores. They are also sheilded on the sides. Hope that helps.
 
SimplyDifferent said:
Bright lights: sometimes it feels like they're flowing straight through me, but not always in a bad way. Bright sunlight can be hard to handle at times, also.
Loud noises: they don't usually bother me if i'm expecting them, if not, then they do and it will put me extremely on edge and i'll get angry because i'm so wound up. I have to keep my music quite quiet as I listen to a lot of metal and it hurts my ears.
Smells: I'm under-sensitive to odours. I can sleep with two cat litter-trays in my bedroom and I rarely even notice them. I put an excessive amount of deoderant on because I can't smell it myself and people often complain that it can be overpowering.
Texture: There are some things I just can't eat because of the texture of them, like peas and cooked tomatoes and cooked carrots. I can't eat food if two different textures are put together, like beans on toast, and this is the reason I don't drink things with bits in them, or smoothies.
Touch: I strongly dislike being touched, even if i'm expecting it it feels like everything inside me is on fire, the same as it does when I try and make eye-contact, it feels like all of my instincts are screaming for me to move away.
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Quite a bit of these descriptions apply to me as well. I'm quite a picky eater and I think the reason why I am is probably because I don't like mixtures of textures either. I really hate most food that is a mixture of different things, even if I like the items individually. I never really experiment with foods, I just eat what I like and that's it. The noise part is quite applicable as well, as I believe I mentioned earlier in the thread. I have noticed too though that it's not as bad for me if it's a noise that's more constant and something I expect, but if it's intermittent noise it just drives me crazy and makes me anxious sometimes.
 
If people talk to me in a high-pitched "sing-songy" way, that really bugs me (not sure if that's a sensory thing or just my general aversion to people behaving in an artificially cheerful way). Strong smells in general tend to bother me, I don't like being touched or poked unexpectedly; that generally gets a "What the hell is wrong with you?" response from me. Noise in general bothers me, I absolutely detest blow dryers and I have to put in ear plugs to use a vacuum cleaner (I do like to crank up my music in the car occasionally, and I usually like to have the volume up loud if I'm watching a good action movie or something like that, but typically just if I'm watching it at home and have control over the volume). I'm kind of picky about the clothes I wear, tags in clothing bug me occasionally (sometimes I don't really care, it might depend somewhat on the material the tag is made out of), I tend to not like wearing long-sleeved shirts, and I tend to wear the same few favorite shirts over and over (the one I'm currently wearing is one I've had for about 10 years, and the stitching on the front pocket on the shirt has unraveled on the bottom, rendering the pocket rather useless). Yes, I do wash them, in case you were going to ask!

I think that some of my sensory issues have become a little less severe with time. They made me miserable during my Junior High and High School years (I wish I had at least had the vocabulary to describe what I was going through to someone and not just sound crazy!), but by the time I was about 18 or so, I think they became a little less severe (maybe it was just that those sensory issues became less of a problem in college since it was a more "open" environment, or maybe it was a little of both).

No idea if this is an AS-related thing or not, but I also seem to be startled fairly easily.

I have to ask people to repeat things they say to me frequently, and I have no hearing problems that I'm aware of. Could that be due to a AS sensory overload problem? I was identifed as having ADD at about age 12 or so (the AS diagnosis didn't come until I was nearly 31), might it be possible that some of the things that look like ADD actually have more to do with sensory problems?

UPDATE:

I'm sure more than one of us would like to have this on a t-shirt (or whatever kind of upper-body covering you prefer):

View attachment 754
 
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I hate loud noises especially sudden noises. I used to be so scared of tractors and motorbikes I used to scream like mad, I'm not so bad now though.
I dont like being touched, the only person I dont mind being touched by is my fiancee, i hate when my relatives want a hug or a kiss.
I dont like light or bright flashing, also because I've got photosensetive epilepsy aswell..
 
  • Sudden loud noises
  • Some background noises (low frequency, loud and intermittent, high pitched conversations, multiple background conversations, a mix of background noises, any kind of music with lyrics- ok if I'm listening to it though)
  • Fluorescent lights
  • Any bright light shining in my eyes or reflecting in my eyes
  • Flashing lights
  • Lights with a green hue make me anxious dizzy, nauseous and confused
  • Some color combination (red and yellow actually used to make me feel angry and nauseous)
  • Light touch (a hair anywhere on my body will drive me insane until I get it off), sudden and unexpected pain. Accidental touching another person (skin) is like getting an electric shock.
But I do have a high pain threshold and actually crave some kinds of 'pain' which I prefer to think of as extreme sensation.
  • Can't handle anything sticky or gritty on my fingers



  • Some chemical based smells give me a metallic taste for a long time and a headache
  • I really really like some smells and will go out of my way to 'get me some'
  • Can't take stuffy warm rooms, hot wind, dry heat fan forced heaters, dry heat, sudden temperature changes. Usually I like humidity.
I guess that's it......not too bad really ;)
 
Soft human sounds: nose breathing, gum chewing, fruit chewing, plates banging, slirping, adjusting braces, finger-tapping, unexpected sounds (telephone, motorcycles, ambulance/police, coughing, etc.)

I also have visual and olfactory stuff that bother me but the auditory and touch stuff (mentioned above-light touch, etc.) seems to bother me the most. It either scares/startles me much more than others or irritates me very much so it makes me angry or feels painful.
 
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