Sensory problems

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Hi everyone - this is my first post here on wrong planet. I'm not sure where to put this topic, but I'm curious as to how people cope with their sensory issues. I was diagnosed with a sensory processing disorder at age 5, and later given the diagnosis of Aspergers in my early teens.

Personally, my life is severely impacted by my sensory issues. I am extremely sensitive to sound, and my other senses are heightened as well. When I'm overstimulated, my other autistic-related issues become worse (ability to communicate, motor coordination, eye contact, stimming, meltdowns, etc.).

I was wondering if other people on the spectrum have as severe sensory issues as I do, and if so, do you notice if your other autistic symptoms get better or worse if you address these sensory issues?

Your sensory problems seem much worse than mine, but I would have to say they do affect other symptoms sometimes. If there's too much noise, I find it hard to think or to listen to people speaking.

Thank you for responding!! I appreciate it

Yes, I'm really sensitive to sound and smell and particularly a mixture of different sounds and smells that clash and create a sensory hell, like in crowded places -I get overloaded easily in places like that. Also my other symptoms do increase-particularly the ability to socialize and my stimming. Meltdowns happen usually when some small thing that would stress me out a little bit emotionally happens (like I'm late for an exam) at the same time as sensory overload (on a crowded bus with creaming kids , for example). I was never tested for SPD but maybe I have it because my mum , who isn't autistic has really severe sensory issues too.

Yes, sensory issues are definitely among the things I suffer from that started making me aware that I might have Asperger's.

When I was a child I could be easily upset and overwhelmed by noisy, crowded places, and I would have a meltdown. As I grew older, I think I learned how to somehow overcome it to some extent, as I became so highly motivated to fit in socially and be able to be in clubs and bars, etc -- sheer desire to be able to socialize in all the usual over-stimulating locations made me "stuff down" any discomfort.

But gradually I reverted back to intolerance and over-sensitivity to sensory overload once again, and now I cannot bear the noise and the physical proximity on a subway train; I cannot stand loud traffic noise and if I'm walking along a trafficky street with a friend, I can't focus on a conversation because of the noise. I also can't talk over a radio blaring. I have a friend who often has a talk radio channel on, and she chats away to me over the sound of these other people talking too!! I feel horribly overwhelmed and can hardly form my own thoughts with that happening, let alone speak them without feeling really agitated. I'm still trying to get to grips with the fact that it's okay to say woah, can we turn the radio off? Etc.

When my TV is too loud -- like when a show or movie has been quiet then the commercials come on at a ridiculous volume, if I can't grab the remote in time I feel on the verge of panic/meltdown.

My sensory overload used to happen even in a Blockbuster store, back in the days when renting from a bricks and mortar store was the thing you did, rather than Netflix. I would go look at the shelves of new releases and feel so overwhelmed by the physical sight of ALL those cases that I didn't know where to look first. I had to consciously make myself just systematically start at the left-top and very methodically eyeball each title one after the other. It worked and I started to be able to just look along the shelves very systematically and calmly, instead of feeling helpless and like I would never be able to pick out something of interest because I was overwhelmed.

So, my visual sensory overload stuff is somewhat managed now, by just having to be very, very systematic in literally what I'm focusing on, but my noise issues seem to be actually getting worse at the moment.

I've also always had sensory issues with how my clothes feel on me. I seem to be more obsessed than most of the world with the fact that something's riding up or riding down -- in childhood it was my socks, which I was also a bit OCD about, but the OCD kind of arose out of the fact that it was the sensation of the socks that bothered me and I had to reposition them. I have the same issues today but with all other items of clothing -- if my bra is moving around or has ridden up from my having reached up to a high shelf or something, I feel crazy to distraction until I can pull it back to where it ought to be. I have to also have a private moment of space to arrange my clothes before I leave to go out in public, and everything has to be "in place" or I feel so uncomfortable that I'm getting angry, close to meltdown, have to find a private spot to fidget my clothes back into place. Oh god, I sound like I'm completely insane.........This is the FIRST time I've ever publicly told anyone this!!

Last edited by BirdInFlight on 15 Jun 2013, 8:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

Sensory issues, especially noise, make me frustrated and angry, which tends to make stims worse which makes speaking to people difficult. I feel that when I am more triggered by sensory issues that I become 'more aspie'. Like the symptoms in general get worse. And I get all teary-eyed and upset which isn't great.

I've had a lot of problems like this - the feeling of my bony elbows touching my desk, paper or laundry on my fingers if they're a bit dry, tags on clothing, anything tight (around my ankles in particular), and shoes that are too loose on the sides; being too warm, dry lips, and worst of all: if my hands are sticky and I don't know when I'll be able to wash them (it's not a germophobe thing but I hate the feeling of stickiness on my fingers).

There's this pitch the television makes when the stereo goes to sleep and isn't sending it a signal anymore that just grates on me, I can hear it from anywhere in the house.

I don't know if I really am insane about this next one but LED lights look like they're blinking or flashing, especially if they're moving a bit (or I am). There were LED Christmas lights put up at my office around my desk and they'd jostle or I'd move my head and it was disorienting for me. I've mentioned it to a few people and they honestly don't see it.

Other blinking things distract me too, so I've disabled anything that blinks in my desktop environment (html tags, instant messenger notifications, etc), but if I switch to a different machine (something I need to do a lot) it's very frustrating when something's blinking. I'm ashamed to say I've pulled the plug on a computer in frustration more than once if there's some blinking thing I can't disable or hide, simply because I find it so irritating that I can't spend the time looking at it to shut the computer down properly. Some smells, perfume especially, give me headaches. I'm not sure if that's an allergy thing or a sensory thing.

I usually remember to bring or keep headphones, earplugs, Vick's rub (for smell-blocking), hand lotion, moist towelettes, and lip balm everywhere I go. I found low-pressure or cuffless socks that don't bother my legs (they seem to be making these more lately, in the past I've slashed the elastic around the top a bit to make it looser). I have a soft hoody at my desk to keep the elbows cushioned, but I was thinking of attaching padding to the insides of the elbows, but that might be going too far.

I should say that I don't have any diagnosis. I haven't looked for one so far. I am getting by mostly fine with the sensory things now, after learning some ways to deal with them, but before I understood I didn't deal with these things well at all. It was pretty confusing that other people I knew could be a bit annoyed but still deal with, say, getting cotton candy on their hands, or being around a blinking fluorescent light, but the same things would invariably drive me to fits of shrieking and crying even at the age of 17. I'm was really ashamed about that for a long time and still am, I feel like I should have been able to act my age but didn't. And I still occasionally forget that certain things will bother me.

Last summer I was at an outside restaurant and got hot, the live band's instruments were making a high-pitched sound, and my hands were sticky from some food, and there were flies all around, and I couldn't deal with it well and shut down. I'm not sure how much I'm at fault for this. On one hand, I feel like I should be able to get along the same as everyone else, but on the other hand, I've been trying to do that so far and only when I've acknowledged that some things are going to bug me have I had any success at not melting down.

Sorry for rambling. TL;DR: It's nice to know other people are working on the same problems.

PS. Is it worth getting a diagnosis? I have a job that I like, and I don't want benefits in terms of money. In the past I've had a bad experience with a psychiatrist. Are there any advantages I'm overlooking? I feel like it would be a relief to know one way or another, but just knowing for the sake of it doesn't seem like enough to risk another bad experience, or even to just take up someone's time, somehow.

yetifemme, I'm the same!

I think you're the first person I've ever run into who is like this too about hand sensation! And for me too, it's not a germ phobia, I wash my hands because I don't like the sensation of sticky or oily things staying on my fingers. I also can't tolerate it on objects. I can't stand when someone is eating an oily or sticky finger food and then just grabs the remote control, or a doorknob, and I can't do those things myself. I have a thing about oily more than sticky.

I too have not yet pursued a formal diagnosis, but even acknowledging to myself that I have sensory issues "other" people don't have is helping me to cope with them better because I'm not fighting down/denying the issue.

I too don't need any help or money (if a diagnosis provides those, I don't even know), and I'm wary of some things I've read can be negative consequences to getting formally diagnosed, things to do with insurance, etc. So for now it's good enough for me just to understand more about myself from finding I'm on the spectrum

For me it's mainly sounds. Any sort of loud noise puts me on edge and makes everything especially my coordination go downhill right now. For example I recently started a new job and during part of the orientation everyone else started clapping and I had to really fight the urge to cover my ears or run out of the room. I made it though but ended up a bit teary eyed and couldn't talk without tripping over every other word for a while afterwards though. It's nice to hear I'm not the only one bothered to the point of distraction by things like that odd noise the tv makes when it's not getting a signal or how commercials are so much louder than the actual show.

Oh and I also can't stand wet clothes. I used to avoid people like the plague when there was a water hose around thanks to my families habit of spraying anyone within reach. Water rides at amusement parks as well. I'm not as bad as I used to be when I was younger my parents forced me onto a ride I knew I would get wet on and well lets just say saying you want off over and over again while huddled up in a rain poncho will get you some very strange looks from the other people on the boat. I don't know what it is but wet clothes are just itchy, clingy, heavy, smelly, colder in just that one spot, and it's like you can feel every ridge and stitch in the fabric. I'm not as bad as I used to be though. Now I can handle when my shoes or socks get wet, but it's still super uncomfortable for me and I'll be pulling them off as soon as possible. The rest of me though. That's still a work in progress.

Other than that I'm okay with most other things. With the exception of garlic and any sort of tobacco smoke. If one of those is around I won't be plain and simple.

oops, I was supposed to say how I cope with them. I'm lazy when posting on here sometimes. I have noise cancelling headphones, really expensive ones which help mute the noise when I'm outside and it's too much. I avoid crowded places (I usually refuse to go to things like shopping malls) and wait for several buses to go by before getting on one if they're crowded. I sleep on my side with one hand over the exposed ear or with my arms crossed on mys side with one hand over each ear to cover up the little background noises outside and upstairs and the machinery noises in my house if there are any but still sometimes can't sleep because of the noise. Before last night I had two night of sleeping only from 4;30-7 AM even though I lay in bed from about 1-30 AM to 11 AM because of the noise. I play loud brown noise like this: LINK or music while going on the computer and reading in my room to block out the background noise and focus and often read aloud to myself as well (I read entire books aloud to myself).

Background noise often helps me, too. The best is having a couple of fans going at a low speed + rainymood [dot] com + some soft music like Eric Satie or Bohren und der Club of Gore. I found it easy to fall asleep with this youtube clip of looping Star Trek engine noise playing (really glad my husband is easygoing). I think my mom might have been the same way, because when she was stressed out she'd run the vacuum cleaner for hours even after the floor was clean.

Sounds like you're in the right place. I may come back to this another time as it's late, but I have a LOT of the 'sensory problems' you've described and a lot of other things as well. That is a big issue for me and I'm working on it.
I personally thought a good place to start would be the medical community (generally and specifically). For me, that was 7 years ago, and they still have NO IDEA what's going on/what to do with me. So I'm still waiting for answers and looking for them myself.

In the meantime, the one thing that really helps me (but I find it VERY hard sometimes) - looking at the funny side of things. Being able to laugh at anything by just looking at the face value and finding it funny. Heard a loud noise? HAHA what was that? Fallen over? OOPS! HAHA. Dog ate my dinner? HAHA stupid dog.
Stayed up all night over-thinking things too much?

I have several sensory issues:

I'm sensitive to loud noises and high pitched noises. I'm sensitive to soft noises that instill rage and frustration if I can't make them stop (noises like chewing, sniffing, having a hair caught in my fan, hearing a soda can over an air vent, that sort of thing).

I am sensitive to light to varying degrees. My bedroom is dimly lit but right now it is almost too bright for me. There are times I wear sunglasses to deal with it. On bright sunny days, everything outside looks a bit washed out, sort of like if you turn your brightness too high on your monitor or some such thing. Going without sunglasses during the day regardless of brightness is likely to result in headaches or migraines. Fluorescent lights cause similar issues, and sometimes make me feel dizzy and disoriented.

Heat has the same effect on me as soft noises. Sweating also makes me feel like I just want to tear my skin off.

Some smells are overwhelming - perfumes, cigarette smoke, cleaning supplies, etc - are very difficult for me to cope with.

I have trouble with proprioception. I have trouble sensing where my body is, which makes crowds even more stressful than they might otherwise be. I can use pressure to sense my body more accurately, but otherwise it's quite difficult.

I have other issues too - I don't understand everything I hear, and some of the effects of certain kinds of noises effectively shut off my brain, making me forget everything until the noise stops. This has been caused by screeching metal, department store PA systems, and voice instructions from GPS devices. Sometimes under overload, I stop processing one or more senses entirely and I can't interpret what I see and/or hear. This also happens under other circumstances (I remember this caused me to miss a bus once and I nearly had a public meltdown over it - it only wasn't public because I was alone in the bus shelter).

I'm most sensitive to sound, then smell, touch, and vision. I can't stand loud places or certain sounds, especially when stressed. Some smells are heavenly, but others I cannot stand to be around. Touch is mostly limited to clothing, but as others have said, being wet/sticky is very uncomfortable. Vision doesn't usually bother me, but sometimes patterns or entering/leaving bright places can be painful or colors appear too vivid.

Day to day the impact is relatively little since I work in a Library and can generally control sounds that I am around, but smell can be a big issue. Mostly shopping becomes problematic, especially when stressed. Just yesterday I went to go to McDonald's for lunch because I forgot to pack a sandwich, I was stressed from work and budgeting for a vacation as well as people behaving terrible on the roads, so the sounds of children screaming in the play area, the two women talking behind me, the shake machines grinding, Fox news on the big screen tv, and the songs playing on the radio put me in sound overload and I had my wife order food while I attempted to find a seat away from everything. I found a booth in the back, but the sound wasn't much better, and I noticed all of the patterns on the walls, various 60's/70's style wall art, wave designs, and gold flecks on strings, I tried to avoid looking around and focused on looking down to find patterned tiles and chair fabric with connected ring designs. I waited till my wife came by with the food and told her I had to get out of there and opted to eat in the car.

I usually don't have meltdowns or go beyond my limits because I can recognize them, but sometimes it does happen in less controlled environments. I remember English class in 4th grade when I had a meltdown and started screaming at everyone to shut up because I was trying to read our assigned book (Island of the Blue Dolphins), but it went past my limit and I started crying and was moved to the library and eventually my parents were called and they picked me up.

I am extremely sensitive to smells! I can't even go downstairs right now because my sister used shampoo with a strong scent 7 hours ago.

People are sensitive and sensory issues including mental processing plus also health can be affected by stress---if a person already has some kind of genetic sensitivity and/or personality disorder around this, it can go up and down. Also if a person becomes more integrated as he develops, a lot of these issues can to some degree resolves, and a lot of people on WP have written that it was this way with them, but these issues can also become more exaggerated as a person grows older, depending upon what is going on with him---if there is a lot of trauma, and/or if a particular style of encapsulating (insulating and protecting oneself psychologically by forming a kind of sensory envelope and retreating 'inside') becomes more and more pronounced. Be aware that nothing you are experiencing is set in stone, and as a person grows and changes, many miracles can happen, so keep the faith...and keep inquiring......littlebee