Do sensory issues have to hurt?

Post Reply New Topic

Some of my sensory issues actually cause me pain (especially sounds), but others are just annoying such that they cannot be ignored with time (most of my tactile problems). Most of the tactile issues are perceived as 'itching' but not pain. Smells give me a headache but in and of themselves do not hurt, but I find some to be intolerable.

I am hypo-sensitive on the other side to physical pain. I broke my pinky finger playing flag football for a powder puff game (girls playing American football-not soccer- and the boys are cheerleaders). My finger was broken in three places and one of the breaks was an emulsion fracture across the joint. I thought it was just dislocated because while it hurt it was a very bearable pain (and I kept playing on it for another hour), but it hurt beyond imagining when I had my roommate try to 'reset' the 'dislocation' (because it was broken not dislocated).

I don't nessecarily feel pain. Sometimes clothes can feel like they are pricking me, almost like a small bite. I got these tank tops I have to wear inside out because something pokes me but I could not find why the part of the shirt felt like that when I inspected it. I felt like I wasted my money then decided to turn them inside and I feel no pain that way.
Sometimes clothes cause this but not always. I do get bad feelings with clothes as well. It's like it does not fit in a way that I think it should even though they do technically fit. It drives me crazy and I have this urge to get out of them and it feels like relief when I do. it's especially bad when I am out and want them off. So, like to wear same few clothes often.

Double post.

Sometimes it's hard to tell if a sound actually hurts or is just very uncomfortable, so I'd say if it didn't "hurt" (physical pain) it's still probably a sensory issue. If you can't bear to sit there and others are not bothered, then it's an issue.

I'm guessing you're hyposensitive. My ear pain is the worse. Build up of ear wax, hormonal pain (yea I don't get it either), tinnitus and sound, though it does not always physically hurt it can make me feel like I'm losing control over my emotions. And like someone said it's impossible to process anything. It's kind of like vertigo I guess but accompanied with intense negative emotions.

I normally feel weird in clothing, like it isn't a part of who I am but the tactile sensitivity drives me mad and can sting. It feels like bugs on my skin or even sharp pain. Most of the time it's from dry skin so I'm always moisturising little spots throughout the day.

Sound to be can start off as slightly annoying, build up to agitating and then be unbearable and overwhemling. I even get so stressed out I can start hallucinating. Mostly I yell and cover my ears. I have had moments where I felt a painful pressure in my ears. I haven't exposed myself to loud noise in a long time so I can't be 100% certain.

On the other hand, I burn myself so many times very seriously but the pain only lasts for a few moments.

I'm quite prone to migraines too. So light sensitivity hurts the worst.

sensory issues aren't always painful per se. Sometimes if there is too much going on at once, I just faze out, and can't move or speak for a minute or so. Certain types of music or tones can give me goosebumps so intense that it almost hurts. Sometimes my senses overlap or trigger eachother, like a sound can have a smell or a color has a flavor. I enjoy tactile stimulation as long as I am in control of the stimulation. I love different textures of fabrics, love petting cats, and tend to touch everything I examine. Also love aromas. I can spend an hour smelling shampoos and body washes, candles, and anything else that's scented. Light is often painful, especially sunlight and florescent light. The flickering of florescents can cause me to faze out and even once I can move again, it's sometimes hard to speak for a while.

Although I consider my sensory issues mild, there are a bunch of things that would make me stressed or frustrated, and in rare cases hurt physically (e.g. sudden loud barking or harsh sunlight). My only synesthetic experience when I step out from a dark place to harsh sunlight and I have to sneeze. I realized recently that commuting in the city on bike is not for me, as cars can cause significant sensory problems and as a result I get stressed, easily loosing my mind when a car happens to honk at me (or near me).

I also have that weird pricky feeling with certain clothes / materials, but I guess I had more issues with it as a child / kid.

Touch doesn't hurt me, though (I only dislike it, but unfortunately can't tolerate a romantic kiss). Do you find touch hurts sometimes?

Loud and sharp noises startle me. sometimes I feel pins and needles run through my entire body and sometimes I see black with it.

When I'm in a room where a lot of people are having different conversations, I feel overwhelmed and in stead of focusing on one of the conversations, I can't focus on any of them, or just focus on anything at all. It's very confusing. Sometimes I just shut down and zone out, sometimes I physically leave the place.

Some clothing textures give me a suffocating feeling. If I can feel the label on my clothing, it gives me an extreme itching feeling. some things in clothing that others wouldn't feel, I itch from.

Some textures in foods make me gag or my mouth itch when it gets into my mouth. I can not eat chicken, fish, bananas, raisins and many other food products because of that.

Physical touches can vary for me. If I don't trust the person that is touching/hugging me, then I feel like I'd suffocate, that I'm trapped, and various other feelings. When somebody I trust, like my foster father, touches me or hugs me, it usually comforts me.

I have a very high pain tolerance. When I broke my knuckle, I didn't go to the hospital or anything. The reason why I know I broke it is because the knuckles look out of place on my right hand. Also, when I fractured my jaw, I repeatedly tried to pop it back because I thought it was just dislocated. When it didn't work, I decided that there must have been something else wrong and went to see a doctor. I never feel pain when I get ear-infections. I just know what's wrong when I loose hearing in one of my ears. It can be very annoying because the hearing loss takes up to a week to go away after I get antibiotics. With most pains, I can just focus on not feeling it. But it takes a lot of focus and if somebody or something distracts me, the pain comes flooding back right away. I do, on the other hand, feel a lot of pain when I get burns, migraines, and small cuts. Big cuts don't hurt that much.

I agree with what somebody says. The high tolerance can really be dangerous because doctors often think I should be in more pain if this and that was wrong.

I feel left out here because of hyposensitivity to sound. I actually find I can't write tests in the classroom because it is so quiet and I need a bit of noise to concrete. I like to work with music on. I don't find people being noisy in the hallway distracting, and most people do (not just here, NTs too, but not to as much of an extent). I only find conversations where I can here exactly that the people are saying distracting and when a couple people are talking really quietly but I can't hear them. No one else here has this but me.

Oh yes, I need music a lot. I can't even sleep without music, and if the music stops then I wake up. I even have trouble focusing on driving if I don't have music on, otherwise there's a lot of risk of me zoning out or something. I focus best in environments with some surround noise. It's when the noise is loud, like it tends to get in a large group of people and busy places that I get confused and all that sh**. Oh, and I also can't stand low vibration noises that most people don't even hear. It really distracts me because I can't stop wondering what it comes from, but sometimes the low vibrations are uncomfortable in the same way the uncomfortable noise that sometimes comes from chalk being used on a black-board bothers some people.

I sleep with green day on. Or metal, depending on the mood.