nt sensory processing. how can they resist it?

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I am here at college and we are seated waiting for our turn in blood donation. They gave everyone this plastic ball and now I realized I am the only person smelling the ball! This is so intriguing I wanted to make a topic about it. How can they resist it??
also you could consider other sensory processing instead of smell

As an NT who has donated blood, I know the ball you are referring to. But I think it smells icky and I don't want it anywhere near my nose.

I voted 3)same smell but get no pleasure from it. The correct answer may also be 1)different sense of smell, not strong enough. I have no way of knowing if I smelled it as strongly as you, I only know I don't like the smell. I also have no way of knowing what other people are perceiving so my answer is for myself only.

Other -- any or all of the above.

Picked the pleasure option for self.

I think other people just don't notice the same smells that I do. Like the way I can't stand the scent of newspaper ink but other people don't notice it at all.

I am asking this because average reaction was take the ball and put it in the bag. They didn't even tried smelling it. So maybe it strength the first option that they don't feel the smell strong like I do. Or maybe they just didn't care about it.
in order to help trying to figure out how others experience it I am going to share my case. I took the ball and perceived the smell, and I already know I love the smell of some kinds of plastic so I put it near ny nose. It was a pleasant experience so I smelled the ball for one hour or so.

yess we can't know how other people perceive the world. Isn't this freaking strange?? One of the most intriguing things on Earth in my opinion.


based on your experience it is 1 then, right?
it fits some situations in my experience too, like "stop making this noise!" "what noise?"
but I don't know if they are not hearing it loud enough, or hearing a different non-annoying sound, or don't care about it so the noise gets diffused in other noises for them.

and the blood donation was funny, I feel they thought I was kind of mad. I was nervous so I moved my fingers and hand (stimming) like crazy. Two nurses came ask me if I was okay.

I don't know how people resist sensory appealing stuff like that either. I find myself smelling and touching thing almost uncontrollably sometimes. Maybe because people on the Spectrum have so many things that are difficult and challenging and overwhelming that we wish we could get away from as far as sensory input that when we find something we like we just can't get enough of it. Maybe NT's don't notice these things as much or relish them as much because sensory stuff is not something they really suffer from.

People have individual preferences of smells they like. Some people like the smell of gasoline and paint and some hate it and some have no strong opinion. I never donated blood (I actually went to do so with a friend once but was rejected by the nurse because I have Raynaud's-a blood circulation problem) so I don't know about the ball.

Someone mentioned the smell of newspaper ink. I love the smell of old books. Walking through the stacks in the library I think it smells good (as long as it's not obscured by other smells like someone's perfume, of course).

They rejected you for Raynaud's? I have Raynoud's and I have donated blood several times. I never told them though. Maybe i should have.

^
One of the pre-screening questions mentioned circulation problems and when I told her she said I should get a note from my doctor saying it was okay to give blood if he thought so and then come back but I never bothered to.

this is totally me! I go around smelling and touching things too. I try not to do it outside home but it is soo hard to resist, I can barely control it. I got into trouble for touching other people's stuff. A girl even slapped my hand. Now I try to do it when they are not looking
my theory - it reminds me of how babies and toddles explore the world. Maybe I never got out of this phase. I love baby toys by the way look good, feel good, smell good, paradise :p


but I notice differences even if people have their own pleasant smell/sensory preferences. For instance, they say "I love how this pen smells!" and that's it. They don't walk around holding the pen under their noses. And I wonder how they resist it. They can't possibly feel it like I do or they would have urges too.

I've always just guessed that NTs don't perceive things as strongly as we do, and as a result it's easier for them to ignore unpleasant sensory inputs.

This. Maybe the NT nervous system is such that they don't get sensory pleasure out of ordinary things like rubber balls or (as in my case) the smell of magazine pages and the like. They get enjoyment out of bigger sensory experiences, that's why they invented carnivals, but I think their sensory systems are, in general, so well-balanced in comparison to ours that they don't get the urge to smell or feel things or watch lights flashing for long periods of time, it's just not something they even notice. I know my mom thinks I'm really weird when we go clothes shopping and I have to rub all the different fabrics on my cheek to get a more accurate sense of what they feel like, or when I smell new books because the pages have such a nice scent.

I assume this must be the case.

There must be something about their nervous systems which either does not work as acutely or which functions to ignore certain sensations. They do so many things which I find unbearable, and then tell me I'm crazy when I tell them the full effect of what they're doing.

I'm reminded of when I ask them not to use "air freshener" and they talk about how they want things to "smell nice", and meanwhile I'm thinking about wearing a gas mask while using the restroom, because I can't quite figure out exactly what chemicals their little spray smells like, but I know that the noxious cloud does not smell "nice".

The other day I saw an ad on TV for some sort of laundry scent booster, and I thought the idea of it smelling "fresh" was ridiculous. Laundry only smells nice and fresh when it comes right out of the dryer. Anything that attempts to replicate that smell just ends up smelling like a bunch of harsh chemicals.

i've always had a keen interest in texture and smell of things.
when i was little i'd grab anything i could get hold of so i could feel it and smell it.