Unusual Sensory Issues

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I understand the nature of the more typical sensory issues, such as difficulty with loud noises or sensitivity to lights. I've also heard of some people having a difficult time with certain colors, but has anyone ever heard of sensory issues concerning visual stimuli such as random textural patterns? I tend to have unusually negative reactions to random visual patterns and textures and I'm wondering if anyone has ever heard of this before.

Yes I've heard of it but I don't know the name for it. Some people are specifically adverse to anything with dots or little holes. I have visual misophonia which means I can't watch repetitive movements like people walking back and forth in front of me, without wanting to clobber them.

Do you see "things" in the random patterns, like faces, objects, etc, or is it "just" a feeling you get when seeing the patterns?

I've at times had VERY strong pareidolia, which is:

"is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one sees an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia

This has been at times when I was otherwise very stressed out, and may have been in part due to the psych meds I was on at the time. I finally learned that "Atypical anti-psychotics" are not the meds for me, to put it lightly...

Darron

There are certain textures I don't like to look at because I wouldn't want to touch them.

- pleats
- buttons (on pyjamas or pillows especially)
- wool
- linen
- polyester
- ruffles
- cheap lace
- anything ribbed
- anything shiny
- anything spandex or nylon
- angora

I don't even like seeing stuff like that in shops.

Thanks for responding. I'm basically referring to the tendency to feel extremely uncomfortable with seeing certain textures or other visual patterns.

Last edited by TheOutsider on 06 Sep 2023, 6:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Thanks for this information. I appreciate it. These types of atypical sensory issues are good to know about. They don't seem to be widely discussed with regard to autism.

When I was a kid I had some PJs I think were a certain tone of red and blue and I didn't know at the time it being the 90s that was a sensory overload it would give me a headache if I looked at it to long. I think they were some ninja turtle pjs

I have many visual sensory issues. Examples:

Tumbleweeds wedged under a car.

A bottle wedged between a tire and car frame (some people do this on purpose as some kind of hack, but I don't recall why)

One time my phone fell on top of my coat which was opened up on the floor (inside of coat exposed). The phone landed almost completely in the hole of the arm hole. I couldn't look at it for more than a second.

When edge of a door is facing me such that I can't see either side. I must move my seat or move the door more open or closed so that one side is visible.

If a cereal bowl fits into another one (stacked) such that its rim is close to the other one (only a little bit of the top bowl is visible).

If a bowl fits so "perfectly" inside a strainer that there's no room between the rim of the bowl and the strainer (a bowl one day accidentally ended up inside my strainer and I had to immediately take it out).

Long loose carrots splayed in different directions inside a plastic bag. I must make them parallel.

Q-tips every which way inside a large Q-top box. I don't look when I pluck a few out.

Gel caps all stuck at the top of a bottle (completely covering the top) when I open the bottle (when the bottle was upside down. I can't look. Eyes away, I press the gel caps to get them out of the rim.

When a bullet is in a wall -- but FLUSh with the wall. If it's sticking out a bit, that's fine, but when I watch true crime, I can't look at any bullet inside a wall that's flush with it.

Drool (baby or dog or any animal).

One day I put spinach inside my Nutribullet, with the intention of adding berries. The spinach didn't fall to the bottom; it was stuck three quarters way down, so that there was air space below it. I couldn't look.

For some reason, I find the image of things oozing through screens quite disgusting. The repetition of certain shapes, like insect eggs is also pretty hard to look at.

The other thing that got to me was the feel of the wrist straps for Wii Remote

I had to find one that I could handle

Anyone here find the feel of mittens or gloves on your hands unbearable? I suspect a brother is autistic, and prior to that suspicion, I never thought twice about his aversion to gloves/mittens. He refuses to wear any no matter how cold and has never owned a pair. Our mother got him gloves for Christmas one year and he wouldn't wear them. His hands are very dry and chapped during winter. Could this be an autism thing?

I am not going to say anything saying yes or no involving your brother but from my perspective with someone with somewhat SPD"Sensory Processing Disorder", It can be the material that they are made of or even the stitching on the inside. I have a hard time with normal winter gloves but I can do like work gloves like from harbor fright or even dirt bike riding gloves. Were I live now it gets cold enough to snow during the winter at times.

There's a lot of possibilities. I personally can't stand orange and blue being next to each other. I'm fine with them apart, but when they're together, they just move in ways that they shouldn't be moving. As in they move, and shouldn't.

Patterns can be an issue for me as the visual processing is more than I can really handle, which leads to weird patterns appearing as my brain isn't all on the same page about the positioning of the parts of the pattern.

It's kind of annoying as when I've been evaluated he wanted that to be "unusual sensory experiences" more of a schizophrenia spectrum thing, rather than a sensory processing thing.

This could be related to stress of sensory processing created by the pattern. When I'm at the grocery store the repetitive patterns of products is very stressful to process.

Hey Markitzero,

I clicked your blog link and may I suggest something? You have green text against a black background. This isn't very read-friendly. Perhaps use white or yellow text for more of a contrast? Or if you need it to be green, how about a really really light green?

Try now I changed it a little. The style I am trying to do is like a old terminal computer.