How sensitive are your senses?

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I have fairly sensitive senses. My strongest senses are my hearing, sight and smell, closely followed by my taste and touch. As for least sensitive, hmm...probably temperature and pain.

Smell: Recently I had a conversation with my friend, and they asked me to describe a certain smell which they were unable to smell. I tried comparing the smell to five different smells that were similar, and to my surprise they told me that none of those things had a smell to them.

I wasn't sure what else I could compare it to, so in the end I just gave up. There's this building we both go in sometimes, and on the third floor there's a Cafe' that sells food. We were once in a conversation, and I mentioned how it was good that the Cafe' wasn't selling bell peppers today (I dislike the smell). My friend looked at me, and asked "Wait, how can you tell?"

So I brought up the fact that the building didn't smell of bell peppers that day. Apparently he can only smell the peppers when he's right next to the serving counter at the Cafe'. Up until then I'd just assumed that people could smell the peppers from the lobby area on the ground floor like I can, but apparently not.

I've been accused by people of being crazy, over dramatic, or simply making up what I can sense, and at times I've wondered if they were right and that perhaps I'm merely hallucinating/ it's in my imagination or something.


Taste: Our taste and smell are somewhat connected, which is unfortunate because most of the foods I dislike have strong smells to me, and this makes restaurants difficult.

People remark "Why are you complaining? You are not the one eating that food, so why does it bother you?", well it bothers me because I might as well be eating that food, because my sense of smell can pick up on those foods two tables away, and I find it difficult to block out that smell and focus on the taste of the food I am eating, because the two blend together and it's like I'm eating their food combined with mine.

Food is often sharper, and I usually water down lemonade to reduce the edge it has.


Hearing: Sometimes people can get annoyed because I hear them telling others that they can't wait to tell me a piece of news, and when they rush to tell me I already know because I overheard them in another room lol. These days people usually ask me if I heard the news before they try and tell me about it.

People say that I have ears like radars.

At times my hearing ability has made up for my lack of direction, one time I couldn't find a play area when I was younger on a big holiday site, so I decided to follow the sound of children playing and I found the playground that way.


Sight: Bright lights don't tend to bother me too much, unless they are accompanied by loud sounds and strong smells, then the lights add to that sense of unease and panic that I sometimes experience. Otherwise they probably won't bother me. I remember complaining about the lighting situation in a restaurant once, and my sister worried that I might need glasses since it probably wasn't a good sign that my eyes were starting to feel a bit sore. However, I have had my eyes tested on numerous occasions and apparently I have excellent vision.

I know some people are bothered by going into bright light after watching a movie in the dark, but personally my eyes adapt quickly to this sudden change and I'm not bothered by it.

When I did maths revision classes, sometimes we would sit in the dark with the projector on, and suddenly the teacher would turn the main light back on and everyone would say "AH, MY EYES!" and start groaning at the sudden change because apparently it hurt.

Personally I was seemingly unaffected by this, as it didn't hurt my eyes at all and I found the change easy. For some reason bright light only seems to bother me when it's accompanied by other stimulus.


Touch: I enjoy feeling different kinds of fabric whilst out shopping, although I don't go shopping much because I don't
particularly enjoy it generally. Firm hugs make me uncomfortable.


Pain: Sometimes I under react to pain, other times I seem to over react to it. My body doesn't make sense lol.


Temperature: Apparently one time I sat in scolding hot bath when I was younger, and was none the wiser.

I turned a bit red, but was otherwise fine. These days I am more reactive to heat, but am still sometimes less bothered by it than others, although sometimes it bothers me more than others so in that regard it's a bit like how I am with pain.

How about you?

Believe it or not, my senses really are not all that sensitive on average.

I have a decent sense of taste.

My sense of smell can be pretty dull.

I'm very sensitive to heat. I just can't eat hot foods. I also tend to get cold easily---especially when I'm sick

I don't have very good hearing---never have.

My vision sucks rather badly, too.

I have a hard time adjusting to light changes, a decent sense of smell, a normal sense of taste, and an acute sense of hearing. Actually I think I often subconsciously hear things as sometimes I just know something out of nowhere.

I don't know that any of my senses are heightened, as much as I simply have trouble dealing with the normal amount that my body sends to my brain. My vestibular sense is the most sensitive, I think. One of the reasons why I can't stand still and have to constantly stim is because I can feel the minute fluctuations of my weight, and it feels like I'm falling over. That's probably closely followed by my vision. I'm admittedly short-sighted, but visual input has to be kept to a minimum for me; I almost passed out under the glare of Walmart lights once. My hearing is pretty sharp, but not unusual or oversensitive. Touch has been a real problem, though, ever since I was really young, especially the texture of food. My sense of smell is normal. There's another sense I read about: proprioceptive, I think it was called. It describes your body's ability to regulate internal functions, like heart-rate and blood sugar. Apparently, that can also be messed up by SPD. If that's the case, I certainly have that hypersensitivity, too.

It's quite strange to talk about this stuff because I have always been hyper aware to some senses but I have only recently even worked out I am very likely autistic (getting an assessment soon) and it's all kinda fitting into place.

Sight: My biggest sense I notice is sensitivity to light, I am incredibly sensitive to light, I've had migraines all my life and I normally like lighting so dim everyone else wants to turn lights on. I never had issues reading by dim light, I just thought everyone else was like blind ahahah. A lot of people I know complain about eye strain in dim light, but I get headaches in bright light very quickly. I hate fluorescent light and I have discovered that the main reason I walk looking at the floor is because I find looking up overwhelming and just too bright, esp i well lit buildings or sunny days. I can spot the instant a fluorescent light starts flashing, even when other people cant tell. In these cases I will either leave immediately or get someone else to guide me through that bit so I can keep my eyes closed. It makes me feel sick and disorientated it really is horrible. Also too many things in my vision at once confuse/stresses the hell out of me, I often like to take my glasses off in these situations so it all becomes a bit blurry and easier to ignore. I like to think of it as an impressionist painting ahahah easier to keep track of blobs than fast moving detail.

Hearing: I would say my hearing is quite sensitive, however if I am in full concentration mode I don't notice any senses around me, including hearing. I also really struggle at following conversations. I always hear things other people don't like the ticking of clocks, the buzz of electronics and the boiler etc. Cars moving outside, neighbours can drive me insane and sometimes I have to put my headphones on. I often put my headphones on if I am out with noone else because without someone to help distract my attention it all turns into a massive blur and I feel totally overwhelmed. Funny enough though I also like really loud music so loud I can feel it, that makes me relax almost instantly and feel like I can breath again.

Touch: This one can switch a little. I can nearly permanently feel my clothes on me, waistbands drive me nuts all day even though I wear them all the time. One of the first things I do when I get home is take my trousers and bra off because they irritate me all day. I also don't like when I feel my skin fold anywhere and it sends me into meltdowns. Funny enough although I have had eating issue I don't think it is anything to do with that but more to do with how it feels, it makes me feel sick. I love the feeling of warm things, I used to heat my room to insane temperatures, and I despise cold. I don't mind damp feet, damp hands however are awful. Sometimes when someone touches me it feels like it burns, other times I find it relaxing. As I said before I love vibrations and the physical feeling of bass makes me feel like I can breath again it's so relaxing, literally feels euphoric.

Smell: I can be quite sensitive to smell (there's a theme here lol) the smell of some cooking food makes me feel sick, I hate it when I wash my hands because I don't like them not smelling of me, stupid hygiene . Strong perfumes I find really intrusive, and anything that smells sweet I dislike strongly. I used to locate the bread section in any shop by following my nose xD hehe the smell of warm bread is delicious :3. Also my sister is bulimic and I can always tell when she has thrown up, its this distinctly sticky sweet smell it smells warm and horrible. Often regret borrowing her clothes because they frequently smell like that and I find it gross. Didn't realise until recently its only me that can smell that kinda stuff, it's so potent I thought everyone noticed it.

Taste: I hate salt. Like hate salt. Salt in food is gross ahahah. The taste is so strong and overwhelming. Love sour things they make my mouth cringe but they are awesome ahah. I am pretty fussy when it comes to food, and though I am often willing to try new things I often dislike them ahah. Often if I like a food I like a very specific brand if it is processed in any way; I hate heinz baked beans and will only have tesco/sainsburys ones for example. That being said getting older I am now getting slightly better. I am a vegetarian (hate the taste of meat and smell) who is lactose intolerant and can't have chocolate even dark chocolate lol. I used to not eat any nuts but my boyfriends dad found a way to make them taste good! And I can't abide 'savory' food being sweet or the other way around.

Balance: Well I get dizzy all the time ahah. I am bad for walking into things, and used to fall over all the time. That being said I can ride a bike etc. so I am not too bad.

My hearing is good. It's better than our dogs. We have a front porch that we keep locked. At night I hear him unlock the porch door, come in, close and lock it then open the front door. The dogs don't hear him till he shuts the front door. They are bloody useless for security

Also, when I was in Hospital, my room was about 30 meters or so down the hall from the Nurses station and I could hear everything they were talking about. That's how I knew they were planning on crushing my meds and putting them in food so I wouldn't know what I was being given. When I stopped eating, I was asked why so I told them I had heard them discussing their plan and thought it was pure evil. I was a voluntary patient so they had absolutely no right. They said I was hallucinating/paranoid. They also said it would be impossible for me to have heard a discussion in the nurses station from my room. It was too far away. After I got out, I made an FOI request for my file which means I have the Dr's order to 'crush meds and add to food' written in the bastards own hand. I knew I wasn't imagining it.

Touch is probably my most refined sense. My nose is very nearly useless except for about one day a month, at random.

Not much about 'sensitive' and causing pain or discomfort.
More like 'less filters' and bad priority-like info input that also screws with working and short term memory -- consequently multitasking and executive functioning. And somewhat related to something more complex than that.


My sight is nearsighted and it's my fault. No issues with light, dark, and other visual stimuli except reaction time related stuff.

Sense of smell is mainly useless for most of my life because of chronic sinusitis. It screwed tasting too.

Touch is more or less zigzagged -- sensitive with high pain tolerance/threshold, I'm fine with heat and really bad with cold. It's probably my most sensitive out of 5 basic senses.

Hearing was once my main offender with noise. Still as sensitive in comparison, but no more issues with noise. Now, it's just issues with auditory processing that makes it unreliable.

And tasting is still a work-in-progress. Still a picky eater, but not as bad as before. Still learning how to acquire taste. Overall, it's the least tolerant of all for various reasons.


So far beyond 5 basic senses:

My body sense is rather sensitive. Yet it helped me more than it bothered me at all.

Sense of balance is also good. Also sensitive. While huge, faster, and sudden movements would take more to make me dizzy, subtile ones however it does.

Sense of space is also good too. It's probably just as helpful as my body sense. And sensitive enough that I could actually feel things and movement, blindfolded.

I couldn't define others yet, and my temperature sense is somewhat already defined with the sense of touch.

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In general, not especially.

sight: nothing unusual either way other than sneezing when entering brightly lit environments from dark ones

hearing: can probably hear a bit better than most, have abseloute pitch. Used to be rather sensitive to explosions and airhorns, but that's not the case anymore.

smell: can't smell very well, wish I could sometimes as it would help identify chemicals in some cases (is that water or is it ethyl acetate??)

taste: nothing unusual

temperature/pain/touch: rather undersensitive to pain, I don't sweat so living in a hot country or visiting one is out of the question, touch I don't know

proprioception: wish I was better at this, as lacking spatial awareness/depth perception is rather annoying

interoception: nothing unusual

vestibular: maybe a tad undersensitive, nothing exceptional though

olfactory - I've had people tell me I have a nose like a dog. I tend to smell things far more often and far more strongly than anyone else I know. It makes going out in public rather unpleasant,

taste - I have an extremely strong sense of taste. I can identify individual ingredients in foods.

auditory - My sense of hearing is pretty good for someone that listens to music so loudly. That being said, it's probably about average. I am extra sensitive to high pitched and very loud sudden noises, though. High pitch is impossible for me to tolerate. Even if someone thinks it's rude, I end up scrunching up my face and covering my ears. It's automatic. The sound causes panic and I feel as though unwanted contact is being made. Sudden loud noises causes pins and needles all over my body and I often react with anger out of the fear it triggers. That or I either run or speedily walk away trying very hard not to be noticed so I don't embarrass myself.

sight - I don't know if I have trouble adjusting to bright light. I never wait long enough to find out. I have sunglasses with me every time I leave the house, and I put them on before leaving. If something is too bright, I put them on. I'm very sensitive to bright lights, it hurts my eyes to the point of hurting my entire head and my whole body becomes physically uncomfortable almost like I'm being squeezed. I have the most trouble with dusk. I go mostly blind during dusk hours, regardless of whether or not I wear sunglasses or specially tinted glasses. I'm not sure why.

somatic - Being cold is extremely unpleasant. It borders on traumatic for me. I can't really explain it any other way. edit: I forgot about pressure. I don't like firm pressure, I don't like being hugged, I don't like being touched in general but I can tolerate it from people I've known most of my life and am close to. I prefer light touch. Being squeezed often triggers a CPTSD response.

I like that GIFlegolas added some of the other senses we tend to forget we have.

proprioceptive - a little above average in some areas, dismal in others. I bang into objects so much that my Mother has called me "Grace" as an ironic nickname since I was very young. I can estimate distances well; I'm an ace at spacial relationships when it's everything but my own body. I frequently punch tables and door handles, knock over bottles and other objects I'm reaching for. It's great

interoceptive - I think it depends? I had an ovarian cyst the size of an extra large orange, who had 2 other cyst buddies hanging out with it, and although I felt pain and a weird almost crawling sensation it didn't strike me as too significant. (I had to have emergency surgery to remove it) I've also had severe ulcers, and a few other really dramatic health concerns that I was able to dismiss until they threatened to kill me or a part of my body off. So I suppose it has to be something significant, otherwise I don't really notice.

vestibular - My balance is not the greatest, but I have enough muscle mass and significant enough muscle control that I can compensate for it.

I'm not sure which category it falls under, but I have a fairly good sense of how much pressure or force I'm exerting during a given task.

Bad but not too bad

Sound: im quite sensitive to sounds, thinks like noisey crowds and sudden noises can really set me off. I HATE things like cars on the road and a jumple of different sounds


Sight: my sight is extremely particilar and if a room isnt lit JUST right it can be painful and set me off. Not too bright, not too dim!

Smell: my sense of smell is compromised, but i dont like most smells unless its food related. But it takes a long time for me to smell anything

Taste: under developed i can eat practically anything and most things i eat are either covered in ketchup or sugar related. Other things taste not so geat to me. Like eggs. EGh!

Touch: touch isnt too bad. Its quite undersensitive. Im almost always covered in bruises and scratches just because i dont feel anything.i like firm pressure on my body

I haven't been given a hearing test in probably 15 years or so, but I suspect I have hearing damage from a combination of hearing many gunshots without hearing protection, and several years of playing live music in bars without any hearing protection. There was one show where I was really close to a monitor (fancy word for a speaker used so the musicians can hear themselves), and ever since that show I feel like my right ear has been hearing worse than my left ear, and that show was like 5 years ago.

Be nice to your ears... lol.

I have a pretty strong startle reaction (it's like an overreaction big time lol), and all of my senses seem pretty sharp, aside from having difficulty hearing quiet noises. I'm really good with my nose and can often identify multiple components of scents, such as when smelling candles at stores that sell scented candles. I'll usually smell one, then try to guess what's inside it, then I'll look at the ingredients and see if I was right. Usually I'm pretty spot on.