can you qualitatively describe your "heightened senses&

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This is like what I tried describing before, in another post on this topic. Wow, my third post...?

For me, the smaller the sound (or sense) the worse. That tiny electrical white noise sound that televisions and other electronics give off kills me. I'll see if I can describe it... It hurts. It feels like thousands of warm, putrid fingers are stroking and proding the base of my ears, back of my head and neck, and pressing on my eyes. I've got pretty intense synesthesia with sounds and colors creating tastes. For example: the reason I hated salad fingers wasn't because it scared me (I thought it was actually very interesting), but because his voice and the color scheme both taste like metallic vomit and old blood. Sounds or colors that produce unpleasant tastes will literally make me nauseous...
Colors and sounds that produce pleasant tastes I'm usually drawn to. (I love teal and lime green, for example).

When it comes to touch... oh god, light touches are terrible.
I hate being out and uncovered while it's snowing, because the snow flakes each feel like tiny little fingers touching me ever so lightly and it's so nasty.
Light touches (like a tag on a shirt, or a loose thread, or a finger brushing me) set off my sympathetic nervous system like crazy. I feel like I'm somehow under attack, and something dangerous is happening. Rush of adrenalin, quick inhalations, prickly hairs, all that stuff. I can't describe it as easily as I can with sounds or colors, but touch feels just plain dangerous. I honestly get very scared. It's strange.

That tiny electical high pitched hum that most people just tune out or are oblivious to, has such a nasty negative effect on me too. I'm convinced that the prevalence of it sends my central nervous system into constant overdrive. It's the reason I turn off as many electrical appliances as I can. But there's always s**t running. If there isn't the furnace, then there is air conditioning units and then the elecrical lights. I can hear the street lights outside. One of my favourite things is when there have been power outages. It's like the minute everything shuts down, suddenly this overwhelming sickening pressure in me is released and I go "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh bliss" no incessant tiny squeaking hum...heaven. I still look back on that huge power failure in the summer of '05 with fondness.

Many sounds going at once drive my insane. A bunch of people trying to talk to me at once - not good. Anything out of tune, I can't stand it. I've been in work situations in the past where people would completely ignore a radio that was not receiving a signal clearly, crackling in and out white noise between disjointed signals.. I absolutely can't stand that for a minute. Everything else would think I was overreacting. High pitched noises are painful as hell for me, like a spike in my brain and every hair on my body standing up. Sudden loud noises make me jump out of my skin.

The one sound that relaxes me the most is slow running water, like waterfalls. lapping waves or rain.


I have light sensitivity as well. I wear sunglasses all the time, even on overcast days. My eyes are extremely sensitive to light so much it hurts. Electric lights bother me and tire me. I cannot be exposed to fluorescent light without getting physically ill. I can barely keep my eyes open in fluorescent light and it makes me naueated almost immediately. Pretty much all grocery stores, malls, and office buildings make me sick after short exposure.

The positive thing about my sight sensitivity is that I can detect with a high degree of subtletly, differences in shades of colours. I worked for a paint manufacturer for a while and I could tell you the difference and colour formula for 120 different shades of white, which to most people's eyes would look the same.

I have an extremely strong sense of smell. It's stronger in identifying smells by distance as well as distinguishing facets of things. If there is a smell, on the wind or air far away I can detect it way before anyone else, and I'm right. Also, I can smell things in food, and other items that's incredibly distinct. Everyone that knows me asks me to smell food if there is any question at all whether it might be "off". I could smell a dish or sauce and tell you all of the ingredients and spices that went into it.

The negative side to my sense of smell is that I have a strong allergy to chemical fragrances and can get violently ill within 30 seconds of being exposed to nauseous perfumes.

My sense of touch is really fined tuned and reactive as well. I have to cut out the tags from all of my clothing, even if the tag is on a side seam of a skirt and I can feel it scratching my leg occassionally, it will drive me nuts. I almost all natural fibers, but sometimes can get away with wearing synthetics for short periods of time. It depends on the garment, but I'm never as comfortable and generally can't wait to get out of it. I cannot have anything the least bit scratchy against my skin.

Unwarranted and unexpected touching from other people makes my adrenaline jump, I go rigid and on defense mode. I do not like to be touched by anyone I don't know. It feels like a violation.

My taste is more sensitive than average (probably because it's linked to smell). I discern a lot more subtetlies in foods and I seem to have a stronger reaction to extremes of taste. I also have a problem if the texture of something is disturbing to me. That's about it.

I suppose it's a bit like "clipping" in audio soundwaves.

Maybe the incoming sensory signals are oversaturated resulting in distorted perception?

Maybe some of the facial recognition and social signal inputs are at excessively high "volume" and thus are distorted?

Too much sensory input all at once at too high an amplification produce a distorted noisy "messy" sensory "waveform". I guess.

Qualia "clipping" and distortion?

Last edited by AmberEyes on 16 Apr 2010, 7:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

I was settling up a TV today and when the blue screen was on I had to block my ears. It was horrible. What wasn't horrible was that I finally had a TV set to play my Nintendo on. To hell with digital TV.

I can be easily distracted by sounds. I sometimes have a hard time listening to people at work because the area I'm in has several computers plus the air conditioner system running. I sometimes find myself having to step away from the area to carry on a conversation. Sometimes it's like I can't filter extraneous noise; it's like I hear everything and have difficulty focusing on what I need to focus on.

I can't sing in tune despite having voice lessons and working with singing coaches. I had a music teacher who theorized that my inability to sing in tune is due to my ears being too sensitive, hearing the overtones generated instead of being able to focus on the fundamental tone.

I tend to react to sudden noises, like doors opening or closing. I'll often turn my head and stretch my head up in the direction of a door I just heard opening or closing. I've seen dogs do the same thing when they hear something, except my ears stay the way they are.

I once surprised a young co-worker in her early 20s when I told her I could hear mosquito ring tones, despite the fact I'm in my 30s (FYI, mosquito ring tones are only supposed to by heard by people under 25 because of the high frequency, in case you didn't already know).

If anyone has seen a chart from a hearing test, you'll know that they generally have a zero line with negative numbers below it; this shows how much hearing loss you have. The zero line means no hearing loss. I went to an audiologist to have my hearing tested because I was having difficulty understanding people who were talking to me (see first paragraph). She knew I'd been involved in several activities for several years that could negatively impact hearing. Therefore, she was surprised that not only was my hearing in the normal range, but that my ability to hear at the upper frequency range of human hearing was well above the zero line.

However, most of the issues I've had involved light sensitivity. It hasn't been too bad the past few years, but there were times when I would get light-induced migraines and would have to shut myself in a dark, windowless closet for up to 20 minutes to make it go away. It was usually accompanied by a burning sensation in my eyes.

On the plus side my night-vision is usually pretty good. I've been able to identify the CDs by my bed using nothing more than whatever ambient light was present in the room. If I could, I'd either set the dimmer switch (if available) on low or wear sunglasses all the time.

My light sensitivity often seems to be tied to how much sleep I get. The less sleep I get, the less tolerance I have for light. I've had times where I only got an hour or so of sleep, and the first time I turn a light on my eyes feel like they're burning.

Sorry for the long post. And sorry if this rambling has little to do with the OP.

Hear hear to that Katatonic.....

And to the OP, I get exactly what you are saying. I very kind person advised me to get earplugs..... they are brilliant! Cuts my agitation in half and cuts out low and high frequency that I can't always hear, but does set my teeth on edge. I didn't know HOW on edge I was until I got earplugs.

Take care,

Mics

hmm that's very interesting. I can hear mosquitos too and I'm 48 years old.

This site ( noieseaddicts ) has a frequency hearing test on it.


I just did it and can hear up to 21Khz

According to their site, most people over 25 can only hear up to 15Khz.

There is also a link to these earplugs ( amazon ) , which make everything quieter, but without dulling the clarity of what you hear.

Sometimes when toasts jump from my toaster I also jump. I should expect the sound and jumping, but still it makes me jump too Other expected but unexpected sounds cause the same.

Well, those first tones were excruciating! With a really nasty sour taste to them. I could hear tones up until 17Khz. That's probably because I listen to music with headphones a lot. I am going to check out those earplugs.

Both my aspie boyfriend and I can hear up to about 20Khz. But boy, are sounds that high painful

similar to OP, i don't know if certain sounds are louder to me, they just do something weird to my nervous system, or something.

loud music, especially something i'm familiar with, fine. i like it. it helps me focus, probably because it's consistent and drowns out any intermittent stuff. anything loud that's a consistent noise can be fine. i woke up this morning to some kind of mower outside, and though it was loud, the volume was consistent and i found it relaxing.

any of these things can derail me and / or make me a bit enraged:
barking dogs
car alarms
honking
sirens
motorcycles
circular saws
babies crying
people screaming or whistling at a sports event or concert

basically if it comes out of nowhere or is startling, shrill or intermittent, it's a problem for me.

i have a similar issue with flickering things, even almost unnoticeable and in my peripheral vision: ceiling fans, any kind of blinking lights, television, flourescent lighting. while it doesn't consciously bother me, exactly, i will find myself unable to make sense of what i'm reading or saying.

but the flip side is i definitely see nuances of beauty where others don't.

oh, also the clothing tag thing someone mentioned .. actually i have read this over & over on WP. very common. they absolutely drive me crazy and i often tear my shirts while i'm wearing them to get the tags out. doesn't work to cut them out, either. the bit that's left behind is even worse. they have to be removed by ripping the stitching that's holding them in.

Wow. I made it all the way up to 22 kHz. I'm 37. I must be hearing a ton more high frequency noise than everyone else around me. No wonder I'm so jumpy.

on edit: I tested this on another box and I heard only up to 19-20 kHz. Still very good for 37, but there is clearly some hardware dependence here. Don't trust the result overmuch.

It varies . . . for me, lights are mostly dominant in my issues. All the lights i see, especially when driving at night, resemble a multi-pointed star shape whose "arms," or rays, tend to obscure my vision. Oddly, i dont get this effect when watching a movie that has a similar scene. Sound comes in next because I cannot really distinguish what sound is coming from where, and its worse if people are involved. If i can differentiate 2 or more conversations, i start to mentally lock up and have to move in order to avoid a panic attack. Next, touch, well . . . I cant stand my back being touched unexpectedly (especially around my neck . . . i'll freeze up like a cat thats been picked up by the neck). Smell and taste arent as bad given that I have a sinus issue that needs to be taken care of (surgically that is) . . . however, i cannot enter any place that is overly "fumey" (like scented candle stores, etc).

Now, where it gets interesting is when you take in more than one at a time. Car lights hurt my eyes, but if there are many moving in a near rhythm, its hypnotic and can make me sleepy. Or, if im talking to my brother, and this scenario i just recently found out, and he's filling a cup at a drink dispenser, i get this tingling in my brain because its hard to focus on both at the same time (so he staggers his talking and filling and it drives me nuts . . . was so uncomfortable, it was funny).

I get this, too. It was worse when I wore contact lenses, and it was pretty bad for a short time after having lasik surgery, but it seems to have "softened" somewhat, if that makes sense. The worst for me is the light from oncoming cars when driving at night, particularly trucks and SUVs because their headlights are usually about at my eye level. I often have difficulty telling if the other driver has their high-beams on or not because of this. However, it doesn't really impair my driving too much. I usually just focus more to the right so I can stay in my lane. The most impact it's had on my driving is having to slow myself down a bit on a few different occassions. I've never had the hypnotic effect, though.

i'm 37 and did this with mono headphones. i can hear 16 kHz with one ear and 17 kHz with the other. not nearly as sensitive as a lot of you. i worked in nightclubs for years and have seen thousands of concerts, though, and would have expected hearing loss.