High functioning Autism and sensory issues

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I have Asperger's and there are certain sounds and noises that essentially break me. Sounds that give me goosebumps, hurts my eyes, stress me out, and makes me cringe. I also am very sensitive to light and end up with headaches that last hours if it's too bright for me, which includes overcast days that don't seem too bright, and a host of other sensory issues.

Well, its not one-to-one that people with AS don't have severe sensory symptoms. The whole functioning label thing is useless, but the diagnosis of AS, and speaking on time are things you can talk about, and when it comes to sensory issues, they can be severe in those people.

Personally, I have severe sensory issues. I know what I mean when I'm saying "severe". I've worked with multiple different professionals when it comes to my sensory issues. They were too severe for the first occupational therapist I worked with to be able to work with me. They're the reason that vocational rehab agencies won't work with me because I'm unemployable. I struggle every day with my senses more than anything else by far.

That doesn't change that I'm verbal. It doesn't change that I actually spoke early even. It doesn't change that the diagnosis I was given was Asperger's, and they did it for a reason; I might want to get rid of the Asperger's diagnosis as fast as possible because the stereotypes are horrible for me, even beyond the inter-autistic issues, but that doesn't change that the diagnosis I was given was Asperger's. (I identify with "Autism Spectrum Disorder" whenever its allowed)


The sensory issues, and the other autistic symptoms don't match. I am visibly autistic, but I don't look like I have the sensory issues I have. I don't look like I struggle to keep myself safe in my environment. I don't look like I get migraines from little bits of sensory input. I don't look like I don't know what is going on, or that I am overwhelmed, or that I'm about to try to chew my hands off because air hurts too much. I don't look like I put large amounts of control into everything about what I'm doing constantly, because I know how to do it.

I've had multiple people learn about me and say that if they just heard about the sensory issues they'd think I'd be non-verbal. The sensory issues match someone of who's nonverbal. Instead, my therapist is helping me learn how to explain them, learn how to explain how to deal with them, and is seeing if I can teach at least a few people about how to help with sensory issues, because I have both such severe sensory issues, and the ability to be extremely articulate.

It's about what someone looks like often. Not what they deal with, that gets the diagnosis.

I don't look extremely disabled. I just have to constantly deal with enough that my therapist says that based off of what I explain to her, she doesn't think she'd be able to leave her house ever. And that's the easy part. Because that's what you do when you have these sorts of things.

I am very high functioning and I was a very high functioning child and I have always had sensory issues.

The following seems a better than average discussion of autism spectrum, in that it has some discussion of sensory issues:
 

As Willard pointed out, autism's been found to involve an abnormal number of brain cells and connections between them, all leading to sensory input that's overwhelming the brain.

When someone's higher functioning, likely the brain difference between them and the average NT is less severe.

That doesn't mean the differences aren't there, however, or the person wouldn't be on the spectrum at all.

If I'm actually on the spectrum, my sensitivity has never led to me screaming and having a meltdown due to loud noises or bright lights, for example, but it does seem the more sights and sounds I'm exposed to (including the activity of lots of people around me, obviously all random and unpredictable) does drain me.

The "being overwhelmed" is still there, just to a lesser degree.

I believe there are people who ARE diagnosed as being on the spectrum who will support this.

My therapist picked up on autism as likely in my case because my descriptions of how being out and about makes me feel sounded to him just like things his diagnosed autistic patients say.

Yeah, I'm another one who's high functioning and has sensory issues, pretty severe ones, especially with sound.

I'm aware that sensory symptoms are prevalent in ASDs, but I'm just saying that traditional Asperger's was rarely associated with it.

For example (from the founder of "our" Asperger's):

Exactly.


I don't have sensory issues like some people talk about here.
Lights? No problem at all. (How come so many seem to have problems with fluorescent tubes? I have no problems with that, I can look right at them without any ill effects.)
Sounds? The same. Noise only bothers me when I need to focus (read, write) and that's a concentration issue. (I have enormous concentration issues. And no matter how quiet it is, I still have problems focusing and not getting lost in procrastination.) The same sounds have no impact on me otherwise. If I put away whatever I was trying to read/write, not a problem. The noise doesn't bother me.
Smell? No problem.
Food is difficult because there are tastes and consistencies I don't like. That's a sensory issue but it doesn't overwhelm me in any way, and if I'm anywhere but at home I force things down no matter how foul tasting they are (like liver) and I'm fine. Not overwhelmed, not exhausted. Happy that the foul tasting stuff is eaten, and over it.

So no matter what some people think, some of us don't have sensory issues we're "so used to dealing with". And it's not a matter of not understanding our own condition I know very well what it means to be overwhelmed; I get that when I get an overload of actual information (like directions, or in math/science) or when dealing with a negative situation (some fights for instance, or someone being very sick). That overwhelms me and stresses me out.
Sounds, noise, smells, lights don't overwhelm or stress me.

I see posts here talking about being exhausted or overwhelmed from going on public transport, going grocery shopping, going downtown etc, and I have no idea what they even mean. I do those things and they're no problem. I never exhaust myself from that, how could I? There is nothing about it that's hard for me.

Sensory stuff was never part of Asperger's criteria and for good reasons.

My AS problems are all about lack of social understanding in a variety of situations, and having problems focusing on other things than obsessions when I have them, as well as problems getting into things I'm not interested in. I also have the typical aspie clumsiness, which some claims is down to dyspraxia, not AS.

I actually thought I had sensory issues regarding noise till I found out it was from hyperacusis from gunfire; I never had said issues as a child, so..., there's an answer for that. I thought that because everyone said that's a common symptom of AS.... Uh, no it's not.

Sunlight reflections? Yeah, but that's because I have gray eyes and get migraines.

Hyposensitive to external pain? Just tough, bro.

I think the sensory symptoms of AS are far too overplayed around here (I'm not saying that people don't suffer from them whom have an ASD, just that the connection between sensory symptoms and AS isn't very strong in comparison to the other symptoms; whereas the connection between such and LFA is strong).

Thank you to each one of you for your replies. This conversation has really helped me a lot.
Any other links or replies I am welcome to learning about my Sons sitution.
Has anyone exsperienced that the symptoms get worse as the child gets older?

Puberty? Symptoms getting worse around puberty is a really well known association.

It's interesting that stimming is also talked about a lot around here (by people who have or think they might have AS or HFA) and yet the recent literature says that the RRBs common in high functioning ASD or people with ASD with IQs in the normal range are special interests and routines/rituals/need for sameness whereas stimming and preoccupation with parts of objects are more common in ASD people with lower IQs or are transitory for ASD people with higher IQs meaning they go away by adulthood.

My IQ is in the high average range (though unreliable because VIQ is more than 1 standard deviation over PIQ and processing speed) and I have sensory issues and a weird sensory need (need to stim). I spend hours dangling something long, thin and tapered like a string or the end of a piece of paper molded in a certain way in front of my eyes and I crave that sensation. I've tried to stop doing it over the years and have learned to only do it in private now (as a kid I did it constantly in school and everywhere else) but it's like an addiction and I always start doing it again. Also my mum has ASD traits but not the full disorder and is very functional and successful and yet she has sensory issues. Tags drive her crazy, she cuts the collars off of shirts she only wears at home and wears her shirts inside out (only at home though) so the seams don't bother her. Maybe my mum and I (and some of the other posters here) have co-morbid sensory processing disorders.

Really? I have a very high IQ, I'm high functioning, but I have sensory issues and I often stim, though I can control it and it's not all the time.
I also have special interests and various rituals/routines.

*shrug*

Takes all kinds, I guess.

Terry21, you may want to look at PANDAS. This is a long shot, but it's relatively serious and relatively easy to treat, just with antibiotics. Basically, you'd ask your doctor to do a blood test for strep antibodies. It's a possibility even if you don't remember your son getting a strep throat because kids get it all the time and there can be subclinical infections.

Just like rheumatic fever being caused by strep antibodies inappropriately attacking the heart valves, it's hypothesized that PANDAS is caused by strep antibodies attacking the brain's basal ganglia. I say hypothesized, because some doctors are skeptical about the whole thing.

The gold test would be if you could show a rise in strep antibodies about the same time as a rise in symptoms. But that may be tricky to show and require a number of tests. If the first blood test shows merely an elevated level, the doctor may agree to a course of antibiotics. And see if that helps.

In his "Autism Reality" video, Alex Plank says something like 'if my NT friends only knew what it takes out of me to interact with them and be "normal"...they have NO idea'.

Why do you think he finds their companionship draining? SENSORY issues, apparently. The activity, the sights and sounds, the movement...

Apparently there ARE sensory issues associated with Asperger's, but it's less obvious because Aspie's aren't classic full blown autistics who'll scream if someone touches them.

I mean, you've heard about even high functioning people not being able to deal with tags on their clothing, right? SENSORY ISSUE.

Someone not going to pieces when they get overwhelmed doesn't mean they're not being affected. It's just masked better.

I'm high functioning and have a very high IQ, but have some fairly serious sensory issues, including extreme light sensitivity, a very sensitive stomach/digestive system, sensitivity to touch but insensitivity to pain, and a fairly strong response to certain kinds of noise (sirens, for instance.)

When I was a kid, I used to hide under things if there was a siren anywhere near me and howl or whimper.

Sensory weirdness happens. You don't have to be low functioning for it to happen.

I also stim, but not obviously (because I got mercilessly mocked for it.)

My sensory stuff didn't get worse exactly when I got older, it's just that I had less and less energy to devote to compensating for it (the academics, interpersonal relations and work of various kinds were essentially taking up too much energy.)