I can't tell if anxiety or sensory overload

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As a NT and patent of a child on the spectrum, I so wish I could see things through Aspie eyes too!

Your tactile sense is your sense of touch. It's not as simple as it sounds, as it is comprised of (according to Wikipedia & other sites) modalities including pressure, skin stretch, vibration and temperature. Overall I'm mildly hypersensitive to light pressure (light touch) and temperature, but at the same time I'm hyposensitive to deep pressure. I'm not so sure about differences in skin stretch and vibration because I've never really looked into them.

When someone touches me lightly it's quite irritating. I don't have it as bad as some people where it actually hurts them, but it tickles in a way that is uncomfortable unless I know it's happening - somewhat like running into a spider web I guess. I also seem to be more ticklish than the average person in certain areas. When someone lightly rubs/strokes a part of my body it quickly gets itchy and depending on how fast they do it, it may hurt (not severely). If I'm not really prepared to be touched and someone lightly touches me (especially on my head) I tend to recoil and feel slightly shocked. I also had a hard time getting into pools when I was younger, because the temperature seemed too much for me (least that's what I assume it to be). Everyone would try and convince me to just run and jump in but I ended up spending about an hour walking down the stairs each time. Eventually I tried the jump but.. yeah, no. Not doing that again.

Not that I'm always inducing it on myself, but deep pressure for me is godly. When I was younger and slept with my mum and sister I'd always essentially press my whole body up against them or even wrap my legs over the top of them and push down. They'd always get mad at me and tell me to stop sticking myself to them, but I wondered why. It was super comfortable for me, and it's one of the reasons I love sleeping with my cats. Perhaps it's also why I rather sit on the floor than on a chair at times, because there's more pressure. I don't know. I've craved pain before, but only certain pains such as scratching the inside of my nose and making myself sneeze, or fiddling with a loose tooth constantly when I was younger. I also love pressing injection sites and flexing my arm where they injected me. I don't really punch myself or anything like that.

I'm not sure where this falls in to it, but I hate sweating, having messy crap on me (feeling slimy in general), clothes tags, thongs, denim jeans/rough materials, digging through sand etc. There's lots more I could list, but the main thing is that I really don't like not feeling clean as it feels uncomfortable. I remember growing up and seeing everyone have their face painted, and I had to make excuses to get out of it etc.

Last edited by Norny on 13 Feb 2014, 10:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

It feels the same most of the time for me too.
The only way I can tell the difference is when I step back and ask myself if I was thinking of someting that scares me,or if it's the noises etc that I'm exposed to at the time.
If I don't take a moment to consider it,it all feels like anxiety to me.

I never though over stimulation leading to anxiety but that makes a lot of sense why I am less anxious when I am sitting here on my computer alone then when I am in a crowd of people. Bright lights bother me to and noise, fire alarms are the worse. I been known to cover my ears. I get anxious a lot but usually when I am around lots of people. I was in a situation where I was living with other women 24/7 and at first it was ok but in the end my anxiety was so bad and I had a few meltdowns because I couldn't take it anymore. I would hide in my room with the lights off and sit on the ground an sometimes rock to calm down. Or another time I did under the stairs because well it was the darkest place I could find. Load music bothers me a lot. Being touched bothers me a lot too. But always thought it was just anxiety. I get claustrophobic easily like I have to sit on the end seat or I start to panic. I started to meltdown one day at class because all the front row seats were taken ( I would always sit on the corner of the front row in every class) I flipped out got upset and someone gave up there seat for me. Then another girl got mad at me because I touched her guide dog in training. (My mind was not thinking oh you can't touch it, it was thinking it approaching me it wants me to pet it, animals calm me down I am really anxious, plus I had seen other people pet guide dogs in training. I knew you couldn't for real guide dogs but thought I could for that and was rather surprised when she got upset at me.) Apparently when I was younger my mom would buy clothes and I would wear them once and not want to wear them again now I wondering if it was a sensory issue.