how severe are your sensory issues?

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Very mild. I actually enjoy parties with lots of loud dance music and lights, I'm more of a sensation SEEKER than anything else so it's not actually an "issue".
But the sensory issues I do have are mostly to do with touch so I don't like certain clothes and even refuse to wear clothes that are too tight, I get uncomfortable when people touch me most of the time and I don't like humidity and hate being in a stuffy car. I can't filter out background noise so I can never tell what people are saying and if I'm watching telly the room has to be deadly silent for me to pick up the dialogue on the TV programme and I'm always shouting at people in my house to SHUT UP when I'm trying to listen to the telly.

Oh btw f**k the sun. I'm dracula

Light - I'm fine with lights - this has never bothered me. Except for the times when you switch on the bathroom light when you need the toilet in the depths of the darkness of night - but everybody in the world experiences that issue. God! The lights seems so bright when your eyes are used to the dark! But that's just normal. Otherwise - I love light. I hate dull, cloudy days. I love sunny days - it makes everywhere look so colourful and bright. Also, if I'm sitting in a room when it's getting dusk, my eyes begin to ache - and I can't sit there any longer without having to turn on the light.

Smell - Smells don't worry me too much. I'm not sensitive to smells. Yes - maybe when there's a bad smell I hold my nose and whine - but who doesn't? Every NT I know hates bad smells. In fact, they're worse than me! Some smells make me feel sick, but they don't worry me.

Touch - I'm not too sure on this one. There are things I feel funny when I touch - like if I rub the palm of my hand on rough carpet it makes my spine shiver. I've never knew why. Perhaps I'm more static than others. And I have no problem with wearing sandels with the plastic bit between my big toe and second toe. OK, my feet easily get sore in new shoes, but that's normal too. And I don't mind if people touch me. In fact, I love a massarge. If somebody comes upto me and starts playing with my hair in a friendly way, I want them to continue for hours.

Taste - I am fussy with food, but some NTs are too! I don't like tomatoes, parsnips (my worst!), cabbage, lettace, new potatoes, carrots, peanuts, and anything with vanilla flavour - except vanilla ice-cream. But I mostly love fruit. I find this refreshes me, and (funnily enough) helps me keep myself in a happy mood for the rest of the day. I does help! And it helps me sleep at night. I don't know the scientific explanation, but I've prooved fruit does help me with appertite, digestion, sleep and personality. What wonderful stuff!

Noise - I'm happy with all sensories - except one. Noise. I hate noise. Actually - tell a lie. I only hate sudden noise, like car horns bibbing, loud dogs barking, police sirens (when suddenly switched on), bells ringing, and the smoke alarm going off. It's not that these hurt my ears - it's because I have a severe reaction to them. They make me jump so much that my arms noticably fly out into the air (making people look), and also sometimes I wretch because my hearts beating so bad after the sudden loud noise. This is embarrassing for me in the street because it's so noticable. People probably look at me and think ''oh my god, whatever's wrong with that girl?'' That is why I hate walking in the street - I'd rather get the bus. There's no sudden loud noises on buses. But I don't like kids screaming. People always gaze at them as if they're the sweetest things in the world - and they can be, but when they're gazing at an angry, screaming, red-faced brat throwing a temper tantrum because it wants to get out of it's pushchair or some silly reason like that, it drives me mad. That's funny - toddlers often throw tantrums when asked to sit in the pushchair or supermarket trolley, and when they get to about 5 or 6, they demand to sit in a pushchair or supermarket trolley, only to find out they're getting too big. Anyway - back to my hearing issues - my ears hurt at things like if someone's walking about in a room above me. Ohh, my ears seem to pop! But it's not loud - it's just the tone of it and the fact that it's right above my head sends my ears into chaos! My bedroom is downstairs in our house, and my Mum's bedroom is above my bedroom, and she has not got any underlay under her carpet, so it makes the bomping and banging louder. She walks with slippers on, and seems to walk with a quick march, so it's agony for me downstairs.

So - that's my sensory issues. I only have very mild AS, so that may be why I only have one sensory issue.

Me-Mild but can make me cranky and get migraines, but it's only bad when I'm overstimulated. It's not from ASDs it's from something else.

Eldest Son-Severe visual stuff, but he copes really well. He sees way more detail than he's "supposed" to which is very distracting for him, AS related.

Middle Son-Probably mild compared to what a lot of people experience. He can't stand the feeling of air on his skin and is very sensitive to loud noises. We live where it's very hot and his teachers at school get quite upset that he won't wear short pants or sleeves, AS related.

Little Guy-Is very sensitive to loud noises, and gets severe unexplained pain when he's stressed. Nobody knows what he's got. He was initially dx'd as PDD-NOS but no longer qualifies for that but is far from neurotypical. He's just so unusual he doesn't fit any particular profile. I am not completely convinced he's not in the spectrum, but am more concerned with getting him appropriate accomodations than labels.

I'm not sure which to select but mine are pretty bad. I can wear only certain fabrics, and have to avoid many situations or I go into overload. A simple conversation can leave me reeling. Sometimes it seems like sensory issues rule my life!

Smell - no sensitivities

touch - can't stand human touch (including my own hands at times), but not sensitive to textures anymore than a typical person

visual - I get overstimulated when I'm stressed or have had a bad day but generally not as problematic as most aspies, fluorescent lights don't bother me for example

taste - very mild, only a few certain triggers

hearing - very sensitive to background noises, exacerbated by stress and after a while music and voices especially really start to grind on me

Overall mild, noticeable if you know me for touch, but nothing that affects me to the degree of a lot of people

jeez, i'm still figuring it out. every time i think a certain thing hasn't affected me much then i think back and remember something ..

in fact i thought i had posted here already and was going to add stuff but i guess i didn't.

some days i don't notice much of anything but some traffic noises if i'm sitting outside, and my skin which is almost always really itchy. occasionally it feels like bugs are crawling on me.

it all seems much worse when i'm tired or feeling more anxiety, etc.

just today all these things:

- went into a store with fluorescent lights, the flickering kind .. confused me, had trouble making sense of the store layout.
- was in an enclosed room with someone using a cleaning product the smell of which made me so sick and angry when she left i started crying
- machinery noises, similar effect to above - nausea, frustration (even with earplugs in - which bother me also, as then i can hear my amplified hearbeat, breath, footsteps, jaw movement, swallowing, etc etc)

.. and this ^ is because i had to go to work. so i'd say they're somewhat major, since i realize they are a reason i avoid certain working conditions, even when my unemployment benefits are about to run out. i feel like i did in high school where i have to be dragged there kicking and screaming, and i wasn't even sure why until i really started paying attention to everything that bothered me. oh yeah, and i realized i am always 2 mins late because i cant stand being inside when the start of shift bell rings. so this is just nearly an intolerable work environment for me.

lots of sounds really bother me but i've written about it in the "i hate the sound of __" topic and elsewhere so i don't feel like repeating.

also, i don't know if this happens to anyone else but sometimes my sensory processing is just strange. i disable lots of avatars because they flicker or pulse (and some of these aren't animated - i just see them as pulsing if not looking directly at them)

i've organized this post horribly and want to go back and arrange it by sense, but i'm too tired ..

if i'm wearing something striped, sometimes i can't read because it flickers in my peripheral vision. same slatted heating vents and that sort of thing. i'll have to cover it, change clothes, look in the other direction or something. can't sit under a ceiling fan (the flicker). i frequently feel as if suddenly someone has given me a small dose of acid. halos around lights, small trails, shadows on a wall appear to be moving or spreading, everything is bright x10. to be honest it's not unpleasant, but difficult to function. can't say much or make sense of things. i guess this is triggered by a change in environment and / or stress. if i walk into an apartment i haven't been to, and someone is burning incense it might happen, for ex.

when watching TV shows shot on digital instead of film, when characters start moving quickly i get a strobe effect. can't tell which direction sounds are coming from, sometimes confuse smells for other smells. occasionally around a lot of noises or activity i can't taste my food.

also .. some smells stay with me for a bit after i've left wherever they were. i remember going to concerts when i was a teenager and for a week after i would occasionally get a "flashback" of the stage smoke.

so smells are the worst, but there are only a handful that really bother me. they just bother me way more than anything else (except the itching). i get anxious immediately and feel like i can't breathe.

i have to add ..
my neighbor uses ben gay in his bathroom. i can smell it through the wall.

Sight: Very mild. The sun bothers me, so I always wear sunglasses, but without them I can survive. Flickering florescents, bothersome also, but I can survive.

Hearing: Very sensitive, but in only the good way. I can hear anything anywhere. I can hear the song playing in one of the apartments across the street with the windows shut. Any repetitive sound, even if it is very soft and down the hallway, will distract me when I am trying to teach.

Touch: There are many things I don't like touching my feet specifically. My feet either need to be bare (in which case I usually walk on my toes), or I need to have have both shoes and socks on. having only socks on my feet is NOT cool. I will leave my feet bare no matter how cold the floor is. When I was a little boy my mom loved to buy me one-piece pajamas with the feet in them, but I would scream and cry until she cut the feet off. Almost any plastics touching my anywhere is irritating, including polyester fabric, but if I HAVE to wear it, I can.

Smell: Hairspray and strong soap fragrances are horrible.

Taste: No problems of which I'm aware.

I hate loudness when I am trying to talk. It makes me want to just shut down, cry, kick or otherwise.

I only have one major sensory issue - smell. I voted for 'it can be avoided' because even though certain smells bother me a lot, I don't have to put myself in situations where I'll be exposed to them.

only a little bit. i find kids annoying even though i like them because they're loud and i hate the sound of metal scraping a plate intensely.