How bad are the sensory issues to you?

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While I seem to be pretty light on the spectrum, I've noticed that the sensory component seems to affect me quite a bit.

Background noise, even in small amounts, completely drowns everything else out.

Florescent lights are awful, but bright incandescents are pretty bad as well. At least they don't strobe.

I've always had touch issues. I prefer people I am not intimate with not to touch me. Getting touched unexpectedly can be like getting hit with a cattle prod. Clothin is another issue altogether.

With people I am close with, the entire touch thing presents a different set of challenges. I simply cannot deal with light, carressing touches.

Is this the same for everyone? How do you cope?

Yes. I hate for people I don't know to touch me. I don't even like being near enough for them to touch me if it can be avoided. I go to great lengths and cicuitous routes to avoid bumping into them or brushing past them. :-/


<b>YES</b>. That is excruciating. It feels like tickling, only worse. But I feel guilty when I pull away or ask the other person to stop that, because they mean for it to be nice, and I don't like it.

Sounds bother me a lot, especially thin thready high pitched sounds, like a computer or T.V. with the volume turned down. Background sounds muddle my thoughts. Too much of any sort of sound drives me nuts. My idea of peace is a silent very dark room with soft comforting things to lay down on.(hopefully it woudl smell comforting also).

Oh yes, and smells. Secnts can make me ecstatic or tortured. Women's perfumes are especially bad. Women who don't wash enough-UGH! For some reason, most men don't provoke the same reaction, even if sweaty. Also, my enitre body seems more sensitive to allergens. I have actually had my lungs choke up and be hardly able to breathe in a smoky auction barn. even a little bit of milk sends my ears, throat, and chest itching madly inside, even before it is swallowed. I think one of the worst sensory issues for me is simply the aura or presence of other people, it is sometimes unbearable, even if they re silent and odorless and out of sight. The feeling of them being there bothers me .

That is hard for me to say. I've rarely been touched, so I don't if it really bothers me that much, it is not something fresh in memory.

Book about coping with sensory issues: Too Loud, Too Bright, Too Fast, Too Tight: What to Do If You Are Sensory Defensive in an Overstimulating World. Quite useful.

Quite bad. Not as extreme in the areas of hypersensitivity as they used to be, but it's more overload these days. The one thing that's still as bad as it was is proprioceptive, I still crave pressure LOTS. Tactile probably improved most, although I still have some foods I can't swallow and only use some types of fabrics, and use lots of fabric conditioner.

I have always had sensory issues. Now, I can manage my senses more easily, but it can still get bad.

Light
Fluorescent and bright "neon" lights are really hard to stand. I am not lucky : almost all rooms in college are lit this way. Sometimes, it does the same thing outdoors with the sun instead of the artificial light.
How I cope
I wear a cap when I can. Or I ask people to turn off the lights when it is not necessary.

Sounds
When there is too many sounds, or when the noise is too loud or high-pitch (when people move their chairs), I tend not to bear it.
How I cope
I avoid such places (crowds, etc). I tried classic ear plugs, but it feels weird. I have been thinking about covering the noise with music with a walkman but I do not know whether it would work.

Smells
This does not bother me as much, but sometimes it does. The chemistry lab class last semester was not the easiest one.

Touch
Clothing : I never wear tight clothes and I remove the clothes labels.
I do not like being touched lightly ; I prefer a pressure.
Being touched unexpectedly is like being hit.
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Ok, so how do you cope?

Regarding foods, this is one area that I do pretty well in. The only foods I CAN'T eat are oatmeal (texture makes me gag/vomit) and other slimy style foods.

As far as my sight is concerned, I am not crazy about when someone turns my light on in the morning, as it is dark all night. My light is too bright. Sound, I have changed my thoughts about it a great deal. I used not to like being around big groups of people, but since I am growing up, I am handling social interactions without meaning to be left out. I think I am attempting to get to know more people because I am an adult. Smells don't bother me that much, although I am not afraid to recognize the smell of tantalizing food at all. I am never afraid to give whoever cooks in my place a compliment because I know they do a good job. I don't mind if someone touches me, as long as they are gentle. Bad taste I recognize almost immediately.

Sounds: I tend to 'shut down' and become a shuffling mass of jelly after a few minutes exposure to extreme volume at the average gig or nightclub (on the rare occassions I partake of same). I'm also overly sensitive to the noises made by my neighbours - the slightest little thing they do goes through me, and makes me feel as though they are purposefully trying to annoy me....

Light: Direct sunlight is incredibly uncomfortable for me to bear, and I always look as though I'm sucking a lemon on every exterior photograph of me I've ever seen.

Food: The only problems I have are spicy stuff (I am a complete chilli-wuss), chick peas (I find their texture slightly less appealing than polystyrene) and coffee (makes me feel extremely unwell after more than half a cup of it).

Clothing: I can't stand having any skin exposed outdoors - I always wear long trousers and long-sleeved shirts irrespective of the weather (not usually much of a problem in Northampton though.....). I also generally wear loose fitting stuff wherever possible (not easy when you're my kind of size )

Smells! Smells!! Smells!! ! Fragrance is the worst, it has become an allergy, causing sneezing fits, and eventually an inability to breathe. This isn't a "chemical" thing, my reaction to flowers is the same. Some chemicals that must not bother other people will kill me. At work, I have to have my own room. Other senses are heightened, but not to that degree. It is more of a handicap to me than the AS itself!

I can block out sound very well if I deeply immersed in something. However, a sudden change in either light or sound shocks me and I tend to jump nearly five feet in the air.

I've never quite been able to smell that well at all, but strong ones I can still detect and they do cause me to feel a tad naseaus.

As far as touching people, I often don't know how to react. I like to think that being involved with theatre since such a young age prevented/eliminated many of the social issues that came along with my AS. In the theatre we are very touchy feely and I'll do pretty much anything with my theatre friends. However, if I'm around other people even a simple handshake is overwhelming.

Sound and touch are two issues.

A light touch from someone will often make me shudder. If something touches me, I will often feel the senstation of that touch long after. if something does touch me, I will usually rub the area touched to remove that sensation.

My sense of hearing very acute, sharp sounds such as the creaking of floor boards are rather bothersome to me.

I can't sleep unless I have absolute quiet. The slighest noises will often wake me up. Even more interesting is that when I dream, anything that makes it way down my auditory canals I will be aware of when I dream.

One night last fall when I sleeping, my room mate began to snore and I could hear his snoring in my dream. During my dream I suddenly had to search out the source of the noise, which eventually woke me up.

If I go from a place of quiet into a noisy environment, I get disoriented for a short while until I my ears get acclimated to the noise

And then many many people talking at once is really irritating to me. I get really tempted to shout out at the top of my lungs for everyone to shut up.

Touch- I don't always liked to be touch and I will often pull away from a hug first. I hate all the hugging and kissing hello from the inlaws- my family have never done that so it just makes me feel uncomfortable- I think they have picked up on this slightly cos they've stopped trying to kiss me on the lips (ewww).

Clothing: I like loose fitting clothing, labels really bother me as do my bra straps. I also have trouble sleeping if the duvet or sheet is at all wrinkled.

Light: I am very sensitive to light- sunshine bothers me a lot (I even get an allergic rash from it in the summer), fluorescent lights really hurt my eyes and can trigger a migraine in seconds. Any form of light that is too bright can bother me- we often leave the living room curtains shut all day. I can't look at candles, although I do like candle light, as this can trigger a migraine too.
The light from the pc also hurts my eyes after a very short time and if I'm on too long I get headache.

Smells: I don't do too bad with smells, there are only a few that I really can't stand- lemon scented stuff (especially fake), perfume that is too strong and the smell of a lot of kitchen cleaning stuff.

Noises: I am quite sensitive to noise and when I am tired I get hyper sensitive. The littlest noise will disturb me when I'm trying to sleep (I would try earplugs but I need to hear the baby if he wakes). Sudden noises can make me almost jump out of my skin too and I can't stand it if more than one person is taking at once.

That is actually quite a common phenonmenon. I believe it occurs during the lighter stages of sleep. Basically, it is your brain's way of keeping you asleep. If you hear the snoring and it is incorporated into your dream, it will allow you to sleep through it. This is also why people dream they are drinking a glass of water, having a snack, or going to the bathroom. Because their brain is responding to a physical need or sensation without causing them to wake up.



Sudden sounds do that to me, too. It is quite embarrassing, because I'm always jumping at the slightest sounds. People must think I'm paranoid.

I am sensitive to sound, I think that is my biggest sensory issue. I can become disoriented and lightheaded and even feel disconnected from my body after exposure to low rumbling sounds or prolonged loud/busy sounds, like that of a crowd. I can not block noise out very well especially when I am tired, and there are times when even having people typing on a keyboard makes it impossible for me to concentrate. I have a hard time hearing people over background noise, as well.

I am also sensitive to smell, but it is not as bad. I can't deal with fumes at all, that is the worst thing, and so I now avoid oil painting classes and studios at my school. It makes me physically ill. Household cleaners, sprays, perfumes, and smoke also bother me quite a bit. I thought I was allergic, but I had an allergy test and the results were negative, so it is just an oversensitivity, according to the doctor I saw.

I'm not sure what this is, but I find that I have a hard time orienting myself when things are moving past me. I get a slight vertigo sensation. This occurs when there are a lot of people passing by me, or when I am driving and cars approach and pass me. Does anyone else have this, or know what might cause it?[/quote]

When I was a kid, I used to hear everything in the house. My dad always said it was just the house settling. I'd hear pipes, furnaces, heaters, settling wall noises, floors, sometimes mice or insects, bugs outside the window,, anything or anyone walking around, and such. Needless to say I had some difficulty sleeping.

Being outside in the sun bothers me a lot. I've never noticed any problems with fluorescent lights, though. It's strange. I like to play my music louder than most people, and sometimes I don't even notice background noise. On the other hand, sometimes any little noise will bother me. When I am tring to go to sleep at night and there is any sort of light or I can hear anything, I can't sleep and get really frustrated.

So I tend to be too sensitive or not sensitive enough.