Sensory Differences

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Hello,

My name is Lizzie and I am doing some research on Autism/Aspergers and how this effects an individuals senses for my Masters degree.

I was wondering if you could tell me any sensory differences/issues you have, be it touch/taste/smell/hearing/sight. Also any stories you have about how these effect you?

What do you like to touch/taste/smell/hearing/sight?
What do you hate to touch/taste/smell/hearing/sight?

Thank you
Look forward to hearing your stories.

* The stories may be used in my research they will remain anonymous.
Feel free to message me for more information.

Something like a smoke detector with a low battery which 'chirps' every couple of minutes bothers me a lot. It's like how can I get into reading or another concentrated activity and really let myself go and get into it, if at any moment I can be abruptly yanked out of this experience.

Welcome, I see you just joined. Interesting first post, and I look forward to reading more.

As a kid I used to like to put the seat belt buckle in my mouth because I liked the taste of metal. I was reading about "appropriate childhood development" and apparently that sort of thing (putting foreign objects in your mouth) dies down at about 9-12 months. Not for this guy it didn't.

Nowadays, the humming of my fridge drives me insane. Any sudden noises, particularly high pitched, are extremely distracting.
The heating ducts rattling around. Peoples' voices. Light touch.

I'm sure folks will provide a lot of info in this thread, but dig a little more in this section and you will find several threads on this topic.

I am diagnosed AS by many doctors. Here are some of my experiences ...

I can see fluorescent lights cycle between on/off refesh. I know fluorescent lights have different frequency cycle rates (HZ). I don't know at what cycle rate frequency (HZ) I can see the refresh. The standard ones in the schools cycled slow enough for me to see the blinking.

I can see the "flicker" on a CRT monitor below 75HZ. They don't use CRT monitors anymore thankfully. My employer would have me use a CRT monitor at say 60HZ, and I would see the image flickering. I would point out the image is flickering i.e., "blinking" as it refreshes the image, and no one else could see the flicker.

Something to think about, when the CRT monitor refresh rate is high enough, then my brain does NOT see the flicker, so it appears that the visual sensory intake condition has something to do with the frequency. Perhaps if the cycle rate on the fluorescent lights were high enough, than I would not be bothered by them either. I seem to have a slightly broader range than NT people. I can see "flicker" on a CRT monitor from 1 to 74 HZ and perhaps, speculating here, that an NT person can see it from 1 to 30 HZ ?

Noise from objects or people is not pleasant. Though, it is hard to quantify the disturbance level of noise.

Please, if you become a doctor, don't let them torture anymore ASD kids.

I have great difficulty with repetitive sounds. Especially high-pitched ones. My son does an excellent R2-D2 impression, and it makes me want to stab my ear drums. This is a considerable problem as I am a paramedic. Most of the time I can drown out the sirens but if I am stressed or on a short fuse they absolutely kill me. One of the best partners I ever worked with did some research when he found out I have Aspergers and started changing the siren pattern (the siren boxes make 3 different sounds) and cycling through them randomly every ten seconds or so to keep it from being a constantly repeating noise for me.

I see a layer of colored moving dots over everything, I like it in the dark when beautiful moving images are formed. I hate it coming back to reality after zoning out when I can only see the colors

What a decent guy. I wish more people were this way.

Interesting. Sometimes the flickering from from fluorescent lights can be irritating, but when they're new and functioning properly, I can ignore it. I do hate the quality of light from those new ice cream cone bulbs, though. It makes everything look pale, washed out and sickly.

OTOH, the SOUNDS from both those electronic devices can get under my skin. I was in a Hallmark store in the mall once and there was a fluorescent fixture on the other side of the store that was buzzing and crackling like an arc lamp and flickering like lightning and I mentioned it to my then wife who had no idea what I was talking about. When I pointed it out, she acknowledged a "slight flickering," but no sound. I couldn't believe she couldn't hear it, it seemed quite loud to me. I even walked her over and stood underneath it so she could hear what I was talking about and she still couldn't hear it. There were several other shoppers standing nearby and none of them seemed to notice it, either.

Same thing with CRTs - When I was a child, all television was still Black and White and TVs used vacuum tubes instead of transistors and they made a sound that came from inside the television set that I could hear even when the volume was turned all the way down. It was a tiny, sharp high pitched squeal that I could feel inside my eardrum even from my room, down the hall with the door shut. For years, I just assumed everybody could hear that. When I was in my 20s, I mentioned it in a roomful of people and all but one stared at me like I'd started suddenly speaking Chinese. A friend who was an electronics buff told me that sound was made by the exciter at the back of the Cathode tube and it's supposedly above the range of normal human hearing.



The biggest problem with the sensory issues IMO is that the autistic brain is less efficient at filtering the incoming stream of sensory information and sorting out the important signals from the irrelevant ones. Making eye contact is often uncomfortable, for instance, because the brain becomes so hyperfocused on the other person's facial features that it fails to completely process what that person is saying. The brain's inability to juggle all the sensory data at once becomes a physical discomfort.

Stress, emotional or psychological pressure causing anxiety make these problems exponentially worse. When others become argumentative or verbally abusive with me, ambient sounds like the air rushing through the AC vents can suddenly seem so loud that they interfere with my ability to focus on the conversation.

Certain sensations can seem so intense as to be quite literally physically painful. For me, doorbells and car horns are like being tasered. The sound shoots through my nervous system like an electrical shock.



Hate: most perfumes, especially those with piercing ammonia smells; unbathed people; scratchy fabrics as well as synthetics; loud inconsiderate neighbors; buzzy electronics (ungrounded speakers, etc)

Like: extremely spicy food; music; cotton clothing; Earth tone colors; immersion in water; nature sounds (except crickets indoors)

Mine mostly shows up as the inability to process chaotic noise (like, for instance, a party or group of people together in a single space) or certain tones (the sound of alarm sirens used to make me hide because the tone sent a painful, electric jolt down my spine. Now I just wince).

My brain shuts down, everything gets pale, I get nauseous, and I start moving jerkily, like a robot. Something about noise in the pitch of alarms or chaotic noise unhooks the interface between my brain and my body and it takes a damn hour of quiet to come back online.

My son's school just had a Thanksgiving event, and I spent most of it curled up in a corner, trying not to dry heave (screaming kids, loud adults, chaotic noise, food smells, cheesy holiday music and people trying to have serious discussions with me about my son's academic progress.) Isn't it weird that people can see you sitting in the corner, pale with pain and sweating with nausea, and still think it's a great time to have a detailed discussion of your child's academic progress--because this is definitely going to be the best time for my attention...

I have the same problem in big box stores like WalMart, especially around Christmas. I find those stores incredibly disorienting, because they combine chaotic noise, florescent lighting (and its buzzing and flickering, as well as the green cast it gives everything), the occasional alarm noise and too many people who are also disoriented and likely to enter my personal space (Christmas zombies, we call them.) My personal space, I really, REALLY need it maintained. I will sometimes panic if people get too close to me.

If there's too many people, I don't know how to react to them--it's like being stuck at the menu screen for some game, but the menu keeps changing before you can finish reading the current choices. I get disoriented because I have no one consistent to 'check' and see if my behavior is normal. Plus, I'm easily distracted by the advertisements and bright colors. If I take someone to concentrate on, I can negotiate stores much more easily. Otherwise, you're likely to find me standing in an aisle trying not to cry out of frustration because I can no longer remember why I'm there (my memory is usually EXCELLENT.)

As far as touch goes, I can't STAND nubby textures. They cling to my fingers and I can't concentrate afterward for a few minutes until I 'rub' the sensation off my fingers with friction.) I also can't stand plastic-y synthetics (spandex is okay, but the material they make windbreakers out of makes my skin creep) or anything that makes a squeaking sound when it rubs against anything else. Or, for that matter, the sound of chalk squealing on a chalkboard. High pitched noise is awful, as are movie theaters (because they're so loud I need to cover my ears or, a few times, someone sits very close and does something that either invades my personal space and I freeze because I don't know what to do.)

I also can't stand driving, for all of the above reasons--too noisy, chaotic color and sound, texture of the steering wheel, bright lights and/or colors that change quickly and no one to look at to calm me down and/or refocus me. I can make myself do it, but I'm usually shaking with tension even after a short drive.

I do not like to be touched without warning. Scares the heck out of me. I despise being touched anywhere between my shoulders and neck. It is almost like an electrical shock where I feel like jumping up to the ceiling.

I am different from most others on the spectrum in these ways I can listen to loud music but I can not stand the sound of dogs barking. Drives my crazy when a dog jumps on me or try to lick me. Most on the spectrum adore animals. I have little problems with young children that do those things.

I suspect there are other ways that I am different sensory wise from most people but am unware because it seems “normal” to me.

I met this older man in the Sierra Club who told me that as a younger man he could hear electronic sounds a human wasn't supposed to be able to hear. His boss turned this piece of electronic equipment on and off, and the man could hear it. The boss was a little mystified but also found the ability kind of neat.

I can feel every sound physically in my body. Imagine how (i'm assuming) most people feel standing in the middle of a drumline how the beat goes through your whole body. When someone talks i feel the sounds go from top to bottom through my body and it feels like being shocked. It hurts sometimes and I sleep with earplugs in and still am woken up by people getting in fights outside my window (Portland is ghetto apparently). The shock effect makes me tense up my back which is what hurts the most. Also sudden noises, even repeated noises like drum beats, force me to blink/flinch. On the bright side music is ecstatic for me. good music is orgasmic because all the notes and the rhythms can be felt in the body and not just heard.

Secondly, I hate people touching me because I can feel their individual energies and it overwhelms me and f***s up my vibe. It also shocks me and makes me tense up in the area I was touched. I only let my boyfriend touch me and everyone else knows if they ever touch me they will get yelled at. If i walk by someone and my hand accidentally brushes against them they will apologize to me instantly even though its my fault because they know how serious I am about not being touched. And if my boyfriend sneaks up behind me to give me a hug he gets yelled at too. As you can imagine tickling is the worst form of torture.

Thanks for being open to listening to a bunch of aspies ramble about their sensory troubles. Good luck with your studies.

I have a very hard time with smells; I can smell a person's natural scent if they cross within about two feet of my path, and if they're wearing perfume or are sweaty, it's even worse, and such smells can make me gag (particularly the latter) and even trigger my asthma. Breathing in strong perfume not only stinks and irritates me, but the particles have the same effect as breathing in dust or cold air and can make me cough and choke. It's rather unfortunate that one of my school professors this semester has a very distinctive smell about him (don't know if it's some weird lotion or if it's just him) but it smells grim, the same way that sweat does, rather than strong and chemically, so every time he passes by me it makes me feel a little sick. I have a lot of problems with people on the bus as we're in such close quarters, and there have been times when I'd have given anything for a nasal numbing agent because even breathing through my mouth doesn't help; I can still taste the smell.

My sense of touch, like others here, is both hyper and hyposensitive depending on the stimulus. I love squeezing, hugs and high pressure over large areas of my body, but light touch, pinpoint contact such as being poked or tapped on the shoulder, and most clothing fabrics drive me crazy. I live in cotton and soft denim, and my pants, socks, underwear and shirt necklines all have to be high or I go nuts. I look stupid wearing capris because often my socks are pulled up so high that they completely cover whatever would have been showing of my leg, so I look like those guys from the eighteenth century who wore tights and high pants together. I also hate mismatched layers; t-shirts and sweaters are okay, but tank tops or shirts that cut off at the elbow under sweaters are definitely not, I hate them and they feel all wrong. I also hate the feeling of long underwear under trousers; the feeling of the top layer rubbing through the bottom layer is unbearable.

Textures are the worst though; I can't do anything of the wrong temperature or it makes me gag, as do chewy, stringy textures or smooth and solid textures mixed like fruit yoghurt and tapioca pudding. It's such that I can't tolerate most fruits or vegetables due to a combination of the texture, taste and (in the case of vegetables) smell.

My worst sense of all though is definitely my hearing; I can't handle anything at or above 70 decibels, which is the sound of a vacuum cleaner or hair dryer; I have to cover my ears at such sounds, and prolonged exposure requires ear plugs. Most people have a noise comfort level between 86 and 98 decibles; anything from busy city traffic to a circular saw, and don't feel pain until they reach upwards of 120-130 decibels, the sound of a train whistle at five metres. It really makes doing ordinary things hard.

I never really used to have issues with light, however, recently I've noticed a gradually building discomfort with bright fluorescent lights. They can make me feel queasy if I'm surrounded by them for too long or am dealing with other sensory issues at the same time. Oddly enough though, some types of bright light, such as that emitted by things like lava lamps and other attractively-coloured phenomena such as well-lit images of rainbows, sunsets and the like, make me intensely happy, so much so that it's sort of like I'm on drugs and have to stim forcefully to release some of the pressure caused by the intense overwhelming glee and excitement such images cause. I have yet to come up with a good explanation for the discrepancy between the types of stimuli I can and can't tolerate.

I have mild sensitivities and differences.

But i like showers very very much, and i like my stomach getting rubbed, and weight blankets. i also like to be scratched on my head, i like to hit my head on walls, now i bite my arms, chew on plastic and rubber objects. i like the taste of anything sweet, and the smell of apple.

i hate sunlight, the sound of cars, beeping noises, banging noises, my ankles being touched, i hate people screaming and laughing, i dont like my forearms being touched either, and i,hate the smell of perfume, flowers, and caramel.