Being aware of everything

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It takes longer with a skunk than with less pungent smells, but the smell simply fades from my nose after about 10 minutes. The fading happens more quickly with other smells.

There have been ocasions when this was a problem. Once I woke up to the smell of smoke (my smoke alarm did not go off, either). I could smell it strongly in my room. I left my room and tried to find the source of the fire but after going through a couple rooms the smell had faded. I know that my nose just fades out smells soon after smelling them so I knew the danger hadn't passed. I'd just lost my ability to track it down. I went to the bathroom and smelled a strongly scented shampoo. That re-set my nose so that when I went back out I could smell smoke again. I carried the bottle of shampoo with me and used it to re-set my nose until I'd found the source of the smoke, which ultimately turned out to be a neighbor's woodburning stove (the smell was actually coming from outside and from his house.)

This fading presents a problem for NTs in other situations too. It is a known problem that nurses sometimes miss warning beeps on hospital monitors because their ears no longer hear "beep" after a certain threshold of alarm beeps has been reached. Some alarm companies try to get around the inevitable fade by altering the pitch or volume of certain alarms so they won't get tuned out. You have probably also heard the annoying car alarm that segues from honking to whooping to beeping. It's designed that way to circumvent NT sensory fade and re-set peoples' ears to the alarm sound.

So we have two situations; sensory fade for NTs and sensory continuence for AS people. They both have their advantages and drawbacks. Sensory fade protects NTs from sensory overwhelm but also means that important information can be missed because it is just like previous information and thus tuned out. AS people pick up more data but are also at risk of overwhelm. It's a shame there isn't a conscious dial so we could all choose situations where we want data to keep coming in and situations where we want it to tune out.

I'm not hypersensitive, so most of what was said in this thread does not apply to me, but this really struck me. A few days ago, I was working with someone with really strong cigarette breath, something that I cannot stand. I worked with him for five minutes, and I could not stop smelling his breath. For the next hour or two, I smelled his breath constantly. It was not a physical smell. It was a memory of a smell, but it was as vivid and disgusting as the real thing.

It is not hypersensitivity. My sense of smell is quite poor, but there are a few things that I can smell. Unfortunately, most of them are unpleasant. For some reason or other, these unpleasant smells just linger in my mind, long after the source is long gone.

Another thing that gets to me is uncomfortable clothes. Do most people really ignore this after a short time? I find it impossible to ignore. I thought it was normal.

I can't look at a pebbly beach for very long without having to look up and away from it, so staring at it is out of the question.
It's just too confusing and physically uncomfortable to keep looking at it because I just see more, and more, and even more patterns and symmetry. They flicker into shape quicker than I can handle.
I've wondered, after the event, if the flickering or twitching vision I mentioned earlier is actually my eyes darting about on auto-pilot, frantically trying to check out each pattern. I can't really tell through the confusion and rush of detail (ie. it doesn't occur to poke my fingers in my eyes to find out ), but there is a strange flickering - almost a strobe lighting effect, that flashes and pulses over the whole pebbled area.

The 'staring into space' thing is when I do manage to disconnect, and this usually allows other input to recede somewhat. I hear things, but not in every minute detail, and it's just pleasantly relaxing.
Deliberately forced and maintained shift of focus, I guess - although it's not very practical as a day-to-day method.

I'm not aware of hyperventilating, just of mounting visual confusion and a "puffy head" (the only way I can think of describing it at the moment!).
I suspect that if I deliberately stared at the pebbles I'd throw up or pass out; that's what it feels like is mounting within me.

Me too. Before I came here and read about the sensory stuff, I just assumed that everyone noticed everything around them. I wonder what the alternative feels like? I'd rather notice everything than...live in a bubble of unaware??? I dunno, maybe the bubble has some benefits, like being able to hear what people are saying in social settings.

I had a meltdown once and my mum told me to 'breathe' so maybe being sensory overloaded does cause me to hyperventilate. I've not really been aware of it before. Although sometimes I need to remember to breathe out. This happened once when I was looking at the clouds.

I can be bombarded by every smell, sound, image but then I can be so into something that I can shut it out. When feeling sensory overloaded or nearing it I usually seek texture stimulation. It puts more focus on the texture and not the world around me.

I think that I'm close to an NT in this area, though not quite normal. I don't think that it is quite as bad as you seem to think it is. It's not like being unaware of the world, it just means that you can ignore the parts that don't change. If you leave and area, and reenter it, your senses are reset, and you see everything.

Sorry, I was just being a jerk. I notice you post in a lot of threads and so do I. I was wondering myself if I have been spending too much time on WP. It's been several hours per day.

The amount of hours you spend doesn't really matter. Rather, are you not doing things you should & would normally do, spending the time on WP instead?

yes, I probably should be getting the laundry done, go shopping, clean my place up but...
the threads on WP are so fascinating--I'm here instead.