Hyper / Hypo sensitivities (including using internet)

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I have only been dx with AS for a couple of years, but I am slowly starting to see my sensitivities, and observe how inconsistant my perception is of their movement within me.

It's really funny but pre-dx (which spans 41 years) I developed a persona of normality that somehow protected me from a lot of sensory stuff.

However, I am starting to be aware of what feels overstimulating for me, and more often than not it is using the internet that causes me to get over-aroused, I was curious if internet use has this effect on others?

Chris

been thinking a while about this, and it could become interesting

yes, i have sensory issues, which also teaches me an awful lot about how my intelligence works (or seems to work) and my 'findings' are ... remarkable...

i always new i heard more than most, but i now understand so much more,
also about the relation between language and the OTHER senses (! !! !!)

and how that is affected, in me too, in every sentence, comma and space of my written language, however 'natural' it may ever have come off; and the same applies to my 'ease' in interacting socially, which includes the use of spoken language

how the hearing in me takes precedence over everything
why i am so BRILLIANT at picking up foreign accents
--- it is all the same autistic two-dimensional recording ----

how i CANNOT picture things
why i panic when in two IM-text-only convos: i cannot see the screen whole typing with two fingers AND i cannot IMAGINE by picturing
why i still have more trouble with reading english than reading it; AND
why this is not the case in dutch, despite the FACT that i have always FELT
more at home in english;

it is what has blocked my creative writing
it is what blocks my memories (if they are there at all)

it is what makes me HATE hidden=invisible coding
i MUST have WYSIWYG

apart from that as a comment, i am not sure if you...
i am sure that i dont quite get what you specifically mean
(wonder if you do)

morepracticalexamplesplease/[email protected]

Before my diagnosis, I was so unaware of a lot of sensory stuff. I only knew I was getting annoyed--and even that, I wouldn't perceive consciously--until I ended up in meltdown, hurting myself to try to cope.

Now, I'm a lot weirder; I've put in place a lot of things that help damp down the sensory input. I do a lot more stereotypically autistic things; I've even acquired a whole new stim--rocking--and found it very useful. I'm also a lot more functional. I can do things now, as an obviously autistic person, that I couldn't do when I was younger, spending a lot of resources on trying to look normal, and coming across as merely an odd duck.

I really think it's a good trade-off. If looking weird is the price for being able to do things I never could before, I'll look as weird as I need to.

I intended to start a new thread, but after reading this it ties in neatly to what I wanted to ask there: Could someone please describe to me what a sensory overload feels like?

I wondered what that would be like and why I don't seem to have any overloads myself, or if I'm just like Callista; not recognising them for what they are.

How interesting................i can connect with you.

I feel that as a child I had to 'cut off' my natural ('autistic wings') in order to survive. This only resulted in me becoming 'overheated' by my sensory issues. When in meltdowns I would 'freeze' rather than 'act out' or make a noise, and I would also get fixed into OCD stuff as a way of minimizing the out of control feelings associated with my sensory issues.


It is a real breakthrough to see and understand, why life gets difficult, and to have real tools to come back to a safe place within myself.

Chris

sj............for me sensory overload would be feeling flooded with a tidal wave of sensation, and this feeling can make me feel out of control and anxious.

Now I have the dx I do not get that anxious as I know this will pass and I can facilitate in it's passing my being in a darkened room or going for a walk in a park.

The other day for example, I was interviewed by the bbc with re my book (A Journey of a Soul with Autism) and I felt quite over excited about it all. Then I got into the underground train surrounded by thousands of people, and I really wanted to scream, the noise and lack of space left me feeling like there was an electric current throbing in me......arrrrrrrrr, I put my ear plugs in even tighter, and looked on the floor, trying to find an anchor point to look at, so as I did not get totally swept up in the kaliedscope of colour, movement and noise, that left me feeling like my skin was ripped of me and my insides were picking up all static electricity around me.

In the past I would seek unhealthy ways of trying to dampen down the hyper arousal of my nervious system.......however, now with the Godsend of Dx I am learning decompromising stratigies, and ways of helping myself.

Chris

I would say... "annoying". Like, that feeling you get when you "just can't take any more"? That's the feeling of sensory overload. When you're overloaded, everything seems louder and brighter and more jarring, and you feel like everything's pulling your attention in ten different directions, and you just plain can't think clearly anymore. That's how it feels to me, anyway.

I still have yet to commit to a diagnosis, but I trust my own knowledge/judgement along with the few professionals on campus who feel the same. Anyway... as far as internet and sensitivities... I'm not so sure it's the internet or if it's typing/keeping my eyes still for too long. When I was like 13 or 14 I once stayed awake for three days strait, and used a PC video game called counter-strike to keep me awake. Because when my eyes are active and constantly scanning things I am wide awake.

It's only when my eyes lack that mobility that I get sick and extremely tired/disoriented. Which sucks because I have to force my eyes to focus when I type like this, and my tendency to rant and constantly have to edit what I type to make it logical = extreme disorientation/visual obstruction like things in my vision vibrating/shaking or zooming in and out while shaking. It's really unpleasant, and once it happens I have to either stop for like three hours, or bear with it and make it so bad that I will end up totally crashed mentally for the next day. So with that I will cut myself off for now

Yeah... I only write short stories for a reason.

The biggest problem is that I have to spend so much time with my eyes settled in one area because I constantly edit what I write to better represent what I am seeing in my head. It's like having a really epic movie playing and you have to do it justice with words, and also metaphores since a lot of the things are extremely hard to describe. Like if someone had to describe a giant Live Oak ( http://www.louisianagardenclubs.org/liv ... atburk.jpg) to someone from a desert in Africa. Bleh.

You know what I really can't stand? The texture of potter's clay that's hardened but not yet been fired. It's all gritty and UGH. It makes me shiver and almost spit.

When I was little I was oversensitive to bulky coats and to the noise of the vacuum cleaner and lawnmower. These hypersensitivities have subsided now but I still get annoyed by the noise of a vacuum cleaner.

If I sit on the computer for too long I start feeling dazed, but I hear this happens to NTs too.

criss, i too "freeze" during melt-downs. i go quiet and my face appears "blank." i'll often have silent tears in intervals, but that's all. if forced to try to communicate during a melt down, though, i can "explode" (not violently, but i can yell quite loudly for people to leave me alone. )

for me, when i have a melt-down, i alternate between being emotionally overwhelmed and being so emotionally exhausted, i can no longer process emotion at all. coupled with this, i experience extreme physical exhaustion as well. i have a hard time concentrating during a melt-down, and greatly dislike having to speak or be around anybody. when i have a melt down, if at all possible, i go home and sleep it off. it's like when a computer freezes up because it has too many programs running all at once and needs to reboot.

I had server problems with sense from beginning. After dx I just know why.

Computer helps to calm me down. Is not a stimulant for me at all.

The only stage where the texture of a pot bothers me is after it's been bisque-fired, but before it's been glaze-fired. Seems like most terracotta planters feel like this in their final-fired state. I doubt if I'll ever work in terracotta. I love stoneware. Wedging it, throwing it, and reduction-firing the heck out of it.

I'm all kinds of hyper-sensitive, but the net doesn't bother me at all.

yeah, the internet is a stress-reliever for me, too.

my biggest sensory issues is cardboard. even the thought of the feel or sound of it makes my skin crawl.

I think that's probably what I was ineptly trying to describe. Thanks for the explanation.