An aspie thing or am I nuts

Post Reply New Topic

Can anyone tell me if this is something that happens with Aspergers: When there is a lot going on, or I'm stressed , moving too fast, or someone is talking to me, everything I see is a chaotic blur. I've put off learning to drive a car because in traffic I feel that everything is flying at me at once, too fast for me to tell how far away something is or even what that something is. I almost have to use one sense at a time. And I can't tune out noise even though I have hearing loss. Some sounds are so distracting it almost hurts like sandpaper on my nerves. People have a hard time understanding that I seem to need to get completely away from them at times and "detox". If they try to talk to me or bother me or touch me I want to scream. They think I'm mad at them and I'm not. I just have to have time when I don't have to see, hear, touch, or smell them. I have always been like this. It neither gets better or worse. I've read posts describing sensory overload and such and am wondering if that would explain this stuff.

I have the same "issues" for lack of better terminology. I have an extreme hearing loss but that doesn't mean that certain sounds don't irritate the H*ll out of me. Information/data overload (whther it be sensory, audio, visual or a combo thereof) are a problematic issue. I've found no eeffective way to counter this when it transpires other than to simply shut down and walk away (a melt down occurs otherwise). I don't care if people think I'm mad, upset, etc., anymore when this happens. It's not my fault they do not have the blessing I do with my unique thought process and neurotypical response (they're neuroatypical, I think). Good luck.

Unlike many aspies, I don't have much of a problem with sound. I find I'm lucky in that respect because I seem to be desensitized to it. For example, I have to turn the volume all the way up on my cellphone sometimes. And it's not like I can't hear (I actually have very little hearing loss), it's that I have to concentrate to register what is being said. For example, I infrequently won't respond when someone utters my name or starts talking to me -- I don't realize anything is being said to me. However I have had some of the other sensory problems you discuss, and I've even suffered from sensory overload. I also frequently have to get away from people once I've spent too much time around them or if I've become too stressed.

I think that sounds like sensory overloads. Although as far as the visual stuff I tend to try and limit my focus because that seems to be a trigger. And it can happen inadvertently - like one time my husband was driving and we went around on the overpass of the expressway and from that vantage point it was like I could see all the cars at once and the people in them. It was so overwhelming that I made him go back home and had to lay down. So, besides too much movement the auditory stuff is more of an issue too. For a long time I tried to cover it up as some sort of weakness and to try and endure things so no one would notice but then I would go into meltdown mode. So - now whether people think I am being rude or not I just figure it is better to be more proactive and walk away if I start getting overloaded. And I have even told people in the car with me to please stop talking for a while and my family is aware of it and so they understand (sort of - lol). And it seems like the more out of hand it gets than everything is just amplified - whether it is sounds or touch or visual. So - I think your term of "detoxing" from other people is very accurate. Not just people though - but stimulus in general after a certain point.

Thank you all for the input, I was starting to doubt my sanity at times.

Hey there lae,

You are definitely not nuts! I occasionally get this sensory overload thing. I get this when more than one person is trying to talk to me and they all speak at the same time. This happened to me a couple of weeks ago at work and I don't think it will happen again cos I got upset in the office and had to leave for a few minutes. I don't know how NT's deal with this, being talked at by more than one person, each with their own set of instructions for me. I don't mind doing multiple tasks (I quite like the challenge) but appreciate being told about them one after the other not at the same time. I also hate sirens and alarm bells ringing to the point where I use my mobile phone as my alarm to wake me in the morning, and it plays my favourite song.

Oh yes, being talked to by more than one person at once is awful. What makes them do that? It also seems rude of them. Or how about when someone pesters you when you are on the phone?

Tuning out noise is very hard for Asperger's people, as said in wikipedia.org: we find it just as hard to tune out the constant ticking of a clock.

Is there any way to learn to handle it better? Is that maybe what this sensory integration therapy does? I've been struggling with it all my life and I'm not exxagerating when I say it almost makes me ill at times. Hardest is getting people without this problem to understand about it.

it is an aspie thing, however i dont have problems with anything like that.

I've found that constant, steady sound is much easier to deal with--the fan of a computer, white noise, machinery. At least it's predictable; and it can drown out less predictable sound. Of course, I've been driven crazy by the hum of an air conditioner like just about every other Aspie out there (except those lucky few who escaped sensory integration problems); so I guess it really depends on a lot of variables I'm not yet aware of.