How bad are the sensory issues to you?

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Having ensory complications is one of the things that makes me think twice about having AS or not. I don't have many of the same problems, I at best can describe some of my senses as differient.

I don't have problems with fluorescent light.
Extermly bright lights will give me a headache sometimes.
I do notice odd smells, but I can't say that they upset me or annoy me. I generally don't like smells. But I can tollerate it.
Sunlight is a bit of a problem. In the summer, whenever I go outside I'll squint a lot. Or hold my head down.
If its unexpected I have problems with touch. And in general I don't like to be touched. But I can get used to it fairly quickly. I try not to touch others too.
I don't like loud sounds, but I can slowly build up a tolerance and eventually can listen to something loud.
I like spicy foods though, wounder if that is related to any sensory things.

Mostly I just dislike change, any sudden change I have problems with. When I step outside and don't see others squinting. Others will make a comment about my squinting asking why I am doing it, which leads me to think I may be differient.

Whenever I am doing something with my hands I like to close my eyes, if I limit my sensory input of my eyes I can concentate on what I feel more.

But overall I don't think I am senseing things in a differient way... I just have problems using more then one sense at the time.

Last edited by Pugly on 24 Jan 2005, 3:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

I think so, strong tastes (for either bland, savoury, sweet or spicy food) do tend to indicate hypo- or hypersensitivity of the gustatory sense.

I'm a spicy Aspie myself

Hmm.... Interesting.

Another thing I am a bit sensitive to is clothing. Here is a few of my clothing quirks.

Hate long sleeve shirts. Rarely wear them unless I have to. Even in the winter.
I can never wear clothes that are tight fiting, everything needs to be loose. Never wear undershirts.
Rough fabric is fairly annoying. Sweaters are particularly distracting.
Socks, never liked em. Now since I need to wear shoes I will wear them most of the day, but if my shoes come off my socks usually come off.
Generally like light clothing, stopped wearing denim and now wear khaki-type pants all most exclusively.

I prefer to wear hawaiian shirts most of the time. If it was exceptable I would wear them all year long, to work, to church and formal events...

I have found that I don't like salt so much lately.

I like things like banana peppers, mesquite barbeque, worchestershire sauce, but I don't like anything too heavy or too spicy as it covers up the taste of the food and if the food by itself tasted so bad I needed to cover it up completely, I would probably not eat it.

Sound and light are my biggest sensory issues.

Bright lights annoy me and often give me a headache, whether they're fluorescent, incandescent, or even sunlight. I much prefer reading in subdued lighting, such as a bedside lamp.

I can handle fairly loud *music* to a certain point, but a bunch of conversations going on at once, even if fairly quiet, gets extremely overloading. It's just so...cacophonous, so ugly-sounding and chaotic.

Sudden noises also scare me to no end. I especially detest those infernal banner ads that make random unexpected sounds... whose idea was that, to convince us to buy a product by scaring us out of our wits?

As for touch... I'm not bad at all when I'm expecting it, but if someone suddenly touches me without warning, I may go into a brief meltdown.

Edited to add: Oh, yeah. My sense of smell is normally rather sub-par, but some smells just set me off; I have rather bad allergies. Perfumes and certain scented detergents just give me a headache.

Many of my allergies, I believe, were taken care of by allergy shots. I remember being allergic to a number of things though, I think somewhere between 35 and 90 allergies before the shots.

Oh, I've already gone through allergy shots! My allergies used to be much, much worse... where I am now is actually an improvement, in other words. >_<

I hate those too- just one of the reasons why I normally keep my PC muted.

I'll give a third to the taste issue. I like to load up my food with salt or condiments.

I've been known for putting tablespoons at a time of cyanne pepper into chili.

Ugh... I hate salty and spicy foods. Also, sour stuff.

I'm like that, too. It's awful. And my husband talks in his sleep all the time, so we are very mis-matched in that regard. The more noise I hear, the more agitated I become and finally I'm wide awake at 4:00 AM.

I also am very itchy all the time--fabric, clothing tags, etc. And I hate it when my hair gets in my face, which tickles and blinds me.

I hate hugging or shaking hands. I feel trapped and full of panic. I hate clinking glasses during a toast.

I don't mind some aromas, but I've worked in some very dirty printing plants--full of ink and solvents and I could always smell a dead rat in the wall 2 days before anyone else. Everyone else could just smell the ink.

SkyBar

Lately tags are not as bad as they used to be. Most seem to be made of a soft fabric. When it used to be made of paper, it was really bad.

I can also remember I used to hate it if even one hair was out of alignment, since I could feel it and agonized over it until I wet it and combed or brushed it back. Modification: now I generally keep it shorter, use water, comb or brush after shower and/or in the morning, or salon grade hair gels.

Sounds: As long as I can controll the volume, I don't have a problem at all. The worst problem I have with volume is my downstairs neighbor...he loves nothing more than to sit outside on his porch and play his stereo---VERY LOUD, although he has slightly learned to try to keep it down if he knows I am home. I've tried to explain my sensitivity to sound til I'm blue in the face, but he does not have the ability or concern to understand; and he is drunk half the time he is home. I have gotten to the point where I can bear his noise for a couple of hours if it is not very loud. But if it is very loud and during the day, I run to my bedroom, shut the door, turn on MY stereo, and paint pictures all day long. Thank God he is at work a lot, or it would be murder. The neighbor across the hall used to get loud too until I wrote him a letter explaining why I couldn't tolerate it and he seemed to understand that he had to be respectful towards everybody, not just me. I only know the guy's name, and I told him I didn't want to fight him as I used to have really bad fights with the guy downstairs. Another thing I do when I think the downstairs guy is getting too loud is slam my balcony door (it's right over his porch), to let him know I'm home.
I also go dancing at a ballroom in my town once a month and since I like jazz music, I don't have any problem with the noise, unless if I get really tired. Once I got overstimulated and I didn't feel very good.
Screaming also really bothers me, too.

Clothes: Unlike a lot of Aspies, I have no problem at all with clothes--I actually like them quite a lot. I don't like to sleep with clothes on, however. It might sound disgusting but I have been sleeping nude since I was 11. I sleep in pajamas only if I have to sleep in the same room with other people.

Food: I don't like rice very much, it tastes funny and has a weird texture.
I used to be very picky until I went to Culinary School for a year and learned how to eat--and even enjoy--many foods I had previously shunned. I don't like Oriental food much. I'm a pretty visual person, so if I see food that looks really disgusting, I have trouble eating it.

Smells: No problem unless if it's very strong, like I was in a candle store once and had to get out because it drove me crazy.

Being touched: I don't mind it at all as long as I know the person. I also don't have a problem with kissing. In fact, I sometimes prefer kissing people on the cheek to giving hugs. It really all depends on the situation. I don't like being tickled too much. When I was in college, a guy I knew once tickled me all over his house and I kicked him in the face to get him to PLEASE STOP.

Light: I love light... I always prefer to have light on in the house, unless if I'm asleep...then it has to be totally dark in my room.