What is the actual mechanism...

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...that in the wrong moment makes even a familiar noise go straight to the "must scream" mode? I didn't literally scream this time, though I felt a "scream" inside and certainly flinched.

And guess how stupid I felt when I realized it was just my air conditioner coming on in another room?

But for that first moment, it literally didn't sound right--it was like the volume magnified ridiculously and went straight to the category of Did Not Sound Right--Danger! Why, exactly, does that happen, even with a long-time familiar sound??? What causes these kinds of sensory issues? Very frustrating, that.

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Official diagnosis: ADHD, synesthesia. Aspie quiz result (unofficial test): Like Frodo--I'm a halfling? 110/200 NT, 109/200 Aspie.

I don't know, but my day is regularly punctuated with jolts of adrenaline.

I get a punch of adrenaline rushing through me when:

the phone rings
a neighbor closes their door
my rat knocks her bowl against the glass
a dog barks
someone outside coughs
a car outside honks its horn
someone rings my doorbell (fortunately, this only happens a few times per year)

All I can hope is that the person who told me, years ago, that a little scare now and then is good for the heart and keeps it strong was correct and not just making stuff up. Because if it's true, I must have the strongest heart in town.

I don't scream, but I drop what I'm holding to grasp my ears and duck my head protectively. It's kind of like seeing something moving toward your face and for a brief moment reflexively assuming it's something harmful, like a baseball, causing you to throw your arms up and flinch. But then you see it's just a butterfly or something and feel pretty silly. Certain sounds cause me to react the same way. It's like for a second my brain tells me it's going to be much more harmful than it turns out to be. I am pretty sensitive to certain sounds and volumes to begin with. So alot of startling sounds do tend to make me flinch or cover my ears just by reflex.

I've done the "duck-and-cover" with insects and even random dust particles that floated my way! Not actually gone fetal, but REALLY flinched bad, to where it's noticeable. It happens a LOT.

I don't know why I can't school myself not to react that way. I'm not as bad as I was when I was little, but it's frustrating to have what I KNOW are exaggerated reactions to stuff at my age. I'm in my twenties, for crying out loud!! ! I've graduated school, I've learned how to hold a job, and I can't freaking not flinch! It makes me feel like a major doofus. Or as certain relatives have called me (truly not realizing, I think, that I may have AS-like traits) a "spaz."

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Official diagnosis: ADHD, synesthesia. Aspie quiz result (unofficial test): Like Frodo--I'm a halfling? 110/200 NT, 109/200 Aspie.

I flinch and get a release of adrenalin frequently from seeing my own shadow moving.
I also do things like walk up to a pillar in the grocery store so I can stand next to it to look at the produce displayed there, then turn and see the pillar and flinch.

I'm not sure there's any way to stop it - although I did manage to stop from screaming every time my partner walked into the room unannounced, but at the expense of flinching even worse and getting even more of a rush of adrenaline. And now I have lots of nightmares where I can't scream when danger is coming and I didn't used to have those before I trained myself out of screaming.

Based on my analysis, the mechanism is simple: good old fashioned stress.
The process leading up to the stress is not so simple.

I have no definitive proof, but I'm willing to bet that us aspies are sometimes in a state where we're more vulnerable to stress-invoking stimuli. Sometimes I can hear a loud screeching noise and not react at all, but other times if I hear chalk on a blackboard, I'm jumping out of my seat and running away. There's got to be some way to tell when I'm vulnerable, and there's got to be some meditation or short-term medication that could help when I am. (I feel a research project coming on...)

That seems sensible...I was actually having a very frustrating conversation over at another forum (which I will NOT name or discuss), at the time that happened.

Though sometimes I can't find a single "reasonable" explanation.

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Official diagnosis: ADHD, synesthesia. Aspie quiz result (unofficial test): Like Frodo--I'm a halfling? 110/200 NT, 109/200 Aspie.