Sensory issues: are some days worse than others for you?

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For those of us with sensory issues/overload issues: Are some days worse than others for you?

For me, some days are worse than others, for some reason. Today I've felt much more sensitive than usual, but with no idea why. A knife and fork scraping on my own plate nearly made me vomit earlier (loud, high pitched, abrasive noises often make me dizzy, among other things). I keep not being able to read with the TV on at the same time, plus I've been listening to things at a lower volume than usual today. (and usually, I keep thinks at a pretty low volume).

Yes, I have more severe days than others. I do know some reasons why this occurs though or at least ways to reduce it - if I sleep with a humidifier on, I'm far less likely to be overly touch sensitive than if I don't. Similarly, if I'm dehydrated, I'm likely to find all clothing like I want to rip my skin off.

Yes, sometimes I listen to music at lower volume,too and on other days on higher volume....as if I could hear less or more one day.

I remember one time where I had something in my left ear and couldn't hear well, after the doctor removed it from me, I suddenly could hear everything. I mean I could hear every single little movement so clearly. It was very very strange. Everything seemed to be incredibly loud. I don't know what happened there.

Yes, when my fiance is home I know he is going to have on very loud video games and tv so I often can do little more than sleep those days. Any attempt to try to explain to him why it hurts and ask him to do something else I can enjoy usually results in him yelling at me or degrading me saying all I care about is myself. I'm at a loss. I really don't know what to do anymore. Has it just been me or is There is no expectation of tolerance for an autistics needs in society bc their needs seem to be just too "farfetched" or much to ask for for NT minds.

YES!! If my anxiety level is high then my sensory issues are worse which makes the anxiety worse, it's a vicious cycle. When I have PMS my senses are heightened even more.

I have upstairs neighbors and I have to keep in mind some noises are normal everyday noises, I can't expect them to be totally quiet all the time. As far as apartment living goes they've been quiet, that is after they were warned multiple times to be quiet at night. Playing an electric guitar at 2am is not acceptable. During the day I rarely hear anything. During times when my sensory issues are worse than normal I spend a lot of energy trying to remind myself they are really not making a lot of noise. I've lived under MUCH louder people.

Last night I went to hear a local band at a coffee shop. I knew it would take somewhat of a toll on me but I rarely do it and I enjoy the particular band and the coffee shop. I ended up leaving early, I just couldn't pay attention any more because I was too far out of my comfort zone for too long. When I got home everything bothered me, the feel of the carpet under my feet to the feeling of my clothes. Thank God for Ativan otherwise it would have been much worse.

o/

I suspect it has a lot do with PMS.

I would say I have moderate sensitivity that I tolerate most days.

During PMS it's just awful, I either can't hear people talking or almost can't "see" their faces when looking right at them, I can see it, I just can't process it or something.

I sometimes wear sunglasses in public when it's bad.

Yes.

Some days I just want everything to be silent, dark, and perfectly medium in every other way.

It's not solely you Sookie.... I've seen a lack of tolerance for non NT in our society. How sad it is that our world believes that sensitivity needs to be numbed or it's considered "farfetched". Your fiance shouldn't be yelling and degrading you. He needs to accept and love your sensitivities. Have him get some wireless headphones to use when you are around and persist with doing things together also. Video games and TV can be addictive. They are for me anyway....

Regarding our society, occasionally I see places that accommodate sensitivities. I was at a church that had a large second room for those who didn't care to listen to the loud music. Nice touch... and it wasn't a little room in a glassed area which churches have done for years that are nice for parents with small kids but generally distracting for everyone like me.

I think SuzzyQ's wireless headphones idea is a great one. Using headphones is much more immersive in games anyway, unless you guys have a pretty good surround sound system (in my opinion, at least). You can use that to help persuade him, if you need to. If you're lucky and he likes it anyway, and doesn't need any persuading, it would double as a gift to him.

Another option is, you could get earplugs or something else to muffle or block your hearing.

My sensory issues vary in intensity, yes. I'm not sure that it is a day to day variation, because I can wake up fine, and find I'm growing more and more sensitive as the day goes on, or even vice versa. For me, I seem to have a reserve of tolerance for sensory overexpose, and my reserve returns at a mostly fixed rate, however exposure to the sensory stimuli is not fixed, and it feels as though the rate my reserve is drained is somewhat of a parabolic curve, the more spent I become, the quicker I am drained further. Many random stimuli throughout a day might upset my inner balance and cause hypersensitivities and shutdowns at unpredictable times. I do know taking a moment to isolate myself and focus on inner calm and allowing myself to sort of "reset" can sometimes help, but is not always a luxury available. Or it might all be random I guess, who knows?

Your partner should not yell at you or be degrading you. It sounds as if that he is doing so in a manipulative way, as well. If his actions are specifically to get you to just "get off his back" and allow him to continue to screw off however it pleases him, then he is going to be very unhealthy to remain in a relationship with. I just want to caution you, I don't have any real specifics, but my impression was that you are in an unhealthy relationship. Again, not enough information available to say anything with conviction, just, please be careful and take good care of yourself.

Yes. Some days I'm not as sensitive to things and other days it's like every loud noise, every touch, every smell is torture. I'm worse when I'm not feeling well. I've found I tolerate alot of things that upset me, but when I'm not feeling well I just flip straightaway.

For example my daughter (as most 6year olds do from time to time) can make alot of noise, most of the time I can more or less block it out but a few days ago when I felt a little ill she was trying to jump on my back for a piggyback, I gave her a ride around the house once. Then had to sit down because I felt dizzy, then she started jumping on me, her face was about an inch infront of mine and she was giggling and saying "I want a piggy back mummy, please, please, please" etc and wrapping her hands around my neck. It was awful, her face so close to mine the noise of her giggling, the smell of milk on her breath, her hands on my neck, I wanted to scream and cry and tell her to just shut up and go away, my head felt like it was going to explode. So I calmly asked her to stop, by now she was getting over excited, I asked her 2 more times to stop, no more piggy backs. I could feel a meltdown coming, so I yanked her arms off my neck and ran to the bedroom to scream into a pillow, cry and then just lay there for about 30 minutes.

i also have better and worse days considering sensory issues; they seem to coincide with my sleeping pattern and normal energy levels though.
as for the lower volumes on everything; i'd love to do that, but it is already almost impossible to keep things at an acceptable volume on my better days, so on the worse ones, there is no way of having an acceptable volume/brightness/insert setting on anything

Yes. For me, some of the reasons why they may be worse include:

Stress
Sleep loss
PMS
My brain just being in a "f**k you Rachel, I hate you and will now proceed to make everything painful for you" mood.

Only tactile sensitivity or smell sensitivity can wax and wane. My light sensitivity and sound sensitivity is constantly bad. I have to wear ear phones and sunglasses pretty much every time I leave my front door.

Stress and loss of sleep just means I'm more likely to have a seizure and have worse ADHD symptoms the next day.