Touch sensory issues - what bugs you the MOST?

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I get super sensitive to sock seams on the bottom of my foot. I always have to pull the sock up so that the seam is on top of my feet so I don't feel rubbing against my foot when I'm walking. I also get sensitive when people touch my waist and certain parts of my back. Another thing that makes me sensitive is when I am touched lightly by people. Like when my mom rubs my arm softly I freak out and move away. It's not the emotional feeling that bothers me it just feels weird physically. That's why if shes give me foot massages or neck and back rubs then I make sure she does it firmly (not too hard or gentle) so that I don't freak out.

Food textures: Jello, over-ripe bananas, goobery eggs. These things do not belong in my mouth.

Also:

- Light touch (especially sitting next to someone and their leg/arm keeps lightly touching mine)
- Velvet. Hate it.
- Dense carpet on soles of feet and palms of hands
- Waistbands (still haven't figured out how to solve this one without having to resort to wearing dresses all the time)
- Panty hose are the worst.
- Not wearing a bra. I CAN'T STAND NOT WEARING A BRA
- Having my neck touched
- Any garment that constricts or touches my neck (chokers, turtlenecks, anything with a high neckline at all. It has to be a relaxed v-neck or scoop neck.)
- Any garment that is not breathable (most synthetic fabrics).
- Clingy/staticky clothing.

It's mostly the clothes, you see. If I had my way, I would simply wear a shroud. A shroud of linen or cotton. And a sports bra.

Last edited by cmoonbeam1 on 12 Sep 2012, 10:34 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Styrofoam, newspaper, crayon wrappers

Itchy clothing is probably my worst -- wool, cheap polyester like that heavy thick crap from the 70s, terrycloth towels that were dried outside on a line inside of in a dryer. Clothing tags have been known to bother me, but I'm not particularly sensitive to them.

Getting wet -- why I've had hygiene problems over the years. I HATE that first step into the shower or tub when the water first starts wetting me down. It feels like bugs crawling on me. Ditto for washing dishes. Getting my hands wet that first time is hell. After that initial baptism, I'm OK.

The greasy, wet food on dirty dishes. Another reason I despise doing dishes.

Anything gritty on parts of me that are already wet. Sand on wet feet, especially when it's between my toes...yeesh.

Having my hair pulled -- even if I do it myself. I can't stand it to the point that I've been known to flail out at people who have done it. I've even hit myself!

Being hugged by people I don't know well -- church ladies, people I just met.... I even had an attorney that always wanted a hug before I left his office.

Feathery barely there touches from people I'm not intimate with. I'll occasionally sleep with my mother if one of us is sick or if we have company and I have to give up my bed. She always wants to put just her big toe on my leg or just an elbow against me to let her know I'm there. I can't stand it. My mom's bf likes to pick and aggravate people, so he's always touching my chin or my neck, Drives me nuts! And men I don't know will do things like brush against me. HATE IT! (NOTE: This things don't bother me with boyfriends of my own. They can touch me all they want!!)

Finally...old lady skin. Meaning: for some reason old ladies always want to hold your hand when they are talking to you. I can't stand that soft thin skin. Completely creeps me out. I feel like washing after one of them touches me.

Some sort of silk or velvet.

i think what BUGS me the most is BUGS landing on me. that extreame light touch just makes me wanna scream!

I absolutely hate:
Crushing a styrofoam cup (or even touching one)
Anyone touching my Adam's Apple, Belly Button or Spine (I can't figure out how any girl can get that belly piercing!) I would rather be stabbed in the arm with a knife than touched in either area.
Anything around my neck I had to wear a Turtleneck as a kid and HATED it more than anything in the world. I even refuse to wear a neck guard at hockey despite almost getting my throat sliced open. Yes, I'd rather risk getting killed than have something touch the front of my neck.
Any type of light electric shock. When the kids were doing this to each other in Junior High I was almost hysterical.
Tight jeans (extremely tight jeans were the 'cool' thing in Junior High for boys). I got teased and bullied for switching to jogging & track pants but it was worth it.

While not touch, I also hate the smell of chocolate and vinegar to the point where I would prefer anything else. Yes, even rotten garbage. I would not consume either product even if I was offered a million bucks!

I agree with many of these things (especially Jell-O and runny eggs *shudder*), and would like to add anything stuck in my teeth, hair in my face, eyelashes that are stuck together, and dry lips.

What Webalina said about greasy wet dishes. Yeah, that's pretty bad. I used to hate doing the dishes especially if we'd eaten spaghetti sauce. If the dirty dishes were stacked together (and still dirty)...I'd be close to gagging. Then the combo smell of hot soapy water + greasy spaghetti sauce was enough to make me have to leave the room.

Someone said eyelashes feeling tangled...omg, I thought I was the only one in the world with that! My right eyelashes have had that sensation off and on for my whole life. One day many years ago I got so frustrated with it that I cut them all off. Then I had eyelash stubble dragging across my eyeballs every time I blinked, lol. Never did THAT again.

Sound and light are definitely number one, but a close second is a feeling I can only describe as unevenness in my body. If I am touched in one part of my body, I feel the need to touch another part of my body to cancel it out, but it never quite works, so I keep touching or moving different parts of my body until I feel "balance". I guess this is technically part of stimming but I've never been 100% sure on what is or isn't stimming (like does it only apply to repetitive behavior?).

Hugging is also really bothersome and as mentioned above greasy dishes (my hands feel "lost").

My new therapist asked me a lot of questions about this when I met her for the first time earlier this week. I said I mostly wanted help with my OCD, which lead to talking about how often I wash my hands, which of course lead to texture sensitivity (I need to wash my hands whenever I touch something that feels sticky/itchy/dirty/moist, which is frequently).

The worst:
-fruit texture (both manual touch and oral)
-clothing tags (i cut them out)
-certain types of glossy paper. Tri-fold brochures are a major culprit.
-glassware that has been washed in a dishwasher recently.
-chalk and chalkboards. also whiteboards.

edit---- forgot about styrofoam. And speaking of auditory stuff, I often wear earplugs to escape from that source of agitation. Too many things audio wise to list, and some of them tie into OCD. Like, the fridge motor is on, it is loud, it is distracting, it sounds off somehow, is something wrong with it? is it broken? *check fridge temperature* it feels warmish? how warm are fridges normally? if it's broken I'll need a new one, to get a new one I'll need to talk to my landlord, i don't want to talk to him (social phobia), but I have to talk to him to get a working fridge in the apartment, and on and on.

- People tapping me on the shoulder to get my attention. I really don't know why people have to do that. Can't they just say excuse me? I have to rub the feeling off wherever they tapped, and sometimes I just have a sudden flare of anger/annoyance (which I have to quell unless I don't want friends anymore).
- Getting patted on the head. People still do this to me even though I'm 19.
- Getting grabbed at the upper arm suddenly
- Having the edge of a piece of paper flicked across my skin
- Dry fit shirts
- Stretchy but tight clothes
- Hair on my neck (but only if I can't move my arms to flick it away.)
- Liquid foundation makeup

and I don't know if this counts,

-Funk bass. I have sound>touch synesthesia, and funk bass feels like someone shoving at my sternum really hard and scraping the back of my neck. Ugh.

My ex-husband was a lot taller than me and he would constantly do this. Sometimes he'd even say, "Good girl." One day I finally screamed, "I am not a G-D Golden Retriever!! !"

I can't abide air blowing onto one spot of my skin, like from an air vent in a car. My skin feels raw. And although I actually enjoy most perfume, there are a couple of brands I can't stand. It feels like I can taste them

I also hate this too. I hate it when people grab my shoulders or tap them. It's just so annoying and I also get a flare of anger and I want to severely injure the person who did it.

I know I hate the feeling of other people's skin touching mine or rubbing on mine, I absolutely hate that feeling, it doesn't matter if the skin is dry or not. Even if it's my own skin, I hate the feeling of it.

I also hate the feeling of cardboard rubbing against my skin as well as certain types of wooden surfaces, though I really don't know the specific types. There are also certain types of hand soap that feel like they have sand or something in it and I hate using that kind of hand soap.

About touch sensory issues, I can't bear:
-Wadding;
-Polystyrene;
-Cotton things;
-People toughing me direcly on the skin.

I was an aircraft mechanic in the USAF for 20 years (my actual time working on jets was only about 5 or 6 of those years however), to say that there were a lot of unpleasant aspects of that job would be a gross understatement. It was a long 20 years, but worth the reward of receiving a guaranteed income for the rest of my life.

This counts for any kind of auto maintenance as well
JP8 (jet fuel, also gas and diesel fuel)
hydraulic fluid (especially when it runs down the back of my neck or armpit, yes it got that bad some times)
Molybdenum disulfide (Moly-B, grease)
Citriclean (cleaning agent used to wash aircraft, real nasty stuff, imagine putting on rain gear and then rolling around in this stuff for about three hours, an F-16 looks small until you wash one)
engine oil
noise levels around running aircraft, the only time I can reliably understand someone is in a quite setting, one on one, and when I'm not too distracted, the only way I understood anything was due to the limited vocabulary used during communications, in other words I only understood what was being said because I knew in advance what was most likely to be said. (imagine trying to have a conversation with the person in the cockpit through the comm set while standing next to an F-16 running at full after burner, at 150 dB)

but it never gets old
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWm4h6OhvAo

Here's a video of what an F-16 launch was like for me, I probably did this hundreds of times. Come to think of it it was actually an extremely repetitive job which was actually rather nice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzgF0kOqSW4