Sensory seeking AND sensory avoidant?

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Can someone be both sensory seeking and sensory avoidant?

For instance, here are some of the sensory - seeking things I've liked all my life:

- Crispy food (chips, ribbed lettuce, crispy pepperoni slices, etc)

- Food with "bread- like" textures (thick, doughy pizza crusts, bread itself)

- Deep pressure (being wrapped in a blanket, smooshed with sofa cushions, cuddling with plushies, being hugged/cuddled)

- Soft textures (plushies, furry animals, certain fabrics like minky, velvet, etc)

-Pushing in on my eyelids until I see those strange colors and patterns (I don't do that anymore cuz it can't possiby be safe, lol)

- Massages, having my back/shoulders rubbed (ONLY my back and shoulders - anywhere else and it tickles)

- Soft, drawling, deep, soothing, sexy voices (like those of Sterling Holloway, Owen Wilson, Meryl Streep, James Gandolfini, Forrest Whitaker, Thurl Ravenscroft, Kelsey Grammer, whoever does the voice of Big Macintosh in My Little Pony, etc)

- Certain kinds of foods with "exciting" flavors - like Indian, Thai, and Chinese foods....I do like moderately spicy foods, but not TOO spicy.

Now, here are some of the ways in which I have always been sensory avoidant:

- Certain textures of food (for example, the tomato chunks in the Paul Newman brand of tomato sauce...those used to actually make me almost throw up as I ate them...but my mom never believed that and I always had to try not to. Tomato chunks are okay now, but still take some effort to get down. Grilled Cheese sandwiches and processed lunch meats don't work for me, either. But trust me, this is a lot better than it was when I was, like, six - when I only ate white bread, vanilla yoghurt, peanut butter, and milk ).

- Certain voices/certain tones of voice...I don't like voices that sound sharp, screechy, nasal or punitive or irritated (this does not apply to the squeaky, nasal voice of Bert Raccoon from The Raccoons show, since he's such a likable little guy and I don't mind a nasal tone of voice when it comes from him...with him, it's cute )



...Yeah, I love that show even tho no one else seems to remember it....Spike from G1 My Little Pony had a nasal voice, too, and he was also cute....

....My stepmom, however, often seems to have a punitive and irritated tone to her voice, and it's not cute coming from her.

- Overly bright lights....like sunlight or ultraviolet lights.

- Huge, noisy crowds of people.

- Different people trying to talk to me at once.

- The sound of phones ringing.

- Fire alarms.

- Balloons popping near my ears.

- Thunderstorms.

- Tags in the back of shirts....this one really bothered me when I was a kid, and even today there are a couple of shirts where I just up and cut the tags out of the back cuz the tags and laundry labels were driving me INSANE.

- "Church" attire (more specifically, tight - fitting, scratchy dresses, lacy socks, metal hairclips yanking on my hair, and tights)

- Those rough, hairy mats they made us use at circle time (seriously, is it possible to have skin allergies to circle time mats? - cuz I swear I would get rashes on my legs from those).

Anyway, is it possible for me to be both sensory seeking and sensory avoidant? Is anyone else this way, too?

Last edited by LtlPinkCoupe on 29 Aug 2012, 11:35 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Eberryone is both sensory-seeking and sensory-avoiding, I think. Eberryone has some sensory things that they like and others that they don't.

The short answer to your question is yes, it is possible and not uncommon to have certain things for both. I really like your lists, too!

I believe what you describe is very common in autistic people.
To have both sensory seeking and avoidant and different areas.

For me it's the same.

It's because the sences work differently.

There is a very nice youtube video about it:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O6Cm0WxEZA[/youtube]

I like going to crowded places but then I feel extremely irritated by people walking randomly and bumping into me? is that common? I feel so bored and restless staying at home often.

Well I don't like going to crowded places in the first place... but my reaction tends to be the same. I do feel bored at home though.

Yes. It's even possible to seek and avoid the same thing at different times - this is harder for people to understand. For example - I do this with light touch. I'm always hypersensitive to it, and sometimes I seek it and sometimes I avoid it. (And sometimes both at the same time.)

To a degree, everyone does this if you think about it. Normal people seek sexual interaction, and that is (I think) a very sensory activity. However, most people would likely avoid going into a sewer if they could help it because it is not a pleasant thing to the senses. Likewise, they may seek sex with someone they have a physical attraction to but may avoid it with someone they are repulsed by.

Though I hate light touch (or any touch that isn't from a metallic or furry object), I will sometimes seek it out in unconventional ways not involving direct human contact (allowing my friends to shoot frozen paintballs at me or use their AirSoft guns) in order to feel a sense of pain (not from the paintballs, but from the focused pressure rather than the comforting feeling generalized pressure brings). I don't do it for the emo or kinky reasons people often seek pain for, instead, I do it to flood my mind with input when I can't seem to get enough.
There are some rough surfaces I also enjoy running my fingers across until they are raw or bleeding for the same reason.

I definitely have sensory seeking and avoidance traints

Sensory seeking traits of mine include:

crunchy foods like chips, tacos, crackers, lettuce broccoli, carrots, onions and celery.

Scents. I love the smell of baby lotion (on skin not on the bottle), baby powder, crackers (I try hard not to sniff my food, but i do it a lot, especially hand food like chips and what not).

Textures like stuffed animals and bed sheets

Hard hugs

Music with obvious, resonant base such as drums

Sensory things I do not like for SURE.

The texture of Kiwi . . . I hate that fuzzy skin thing it makes me want to vomit. My roomates wanted to "help me get over it" and had me hold and help them select kiwis, I cried at the store. I think it was a sort of meltdown because I was crying and making this funny sound, bot w/e.

slimy things

Gel things

Dirt

Wet grass

edemame pods (omg its like green beans, but . . . fuzzy its a monster).

Eggsactly.

Toastally! I agree.

Sometimes I make noise in order to block out other noise. For example I'll read out loud or sing or hum to cover up the sounds of people in my house talking, turning pages, eating, breathing loudly etc.. Also as a kid if something was too noisy or I didn't like a noise sometimes I would scream. I've read that other people on the spectrum do this but have never seen anyone else mention this specific trait on WP.....in any case I have it. I think I'm hypersensitive to noise but then I don't mind making things nosier (seeking) with my own noise as it dulls the other noise (avoiding). I'm not sure if this is exactly what you meant.

I absolutely do this. It is difficult for others to understand how you can be showing signs of overwhelm at a noise but then cover it up with my own louder noise.

I have noticed that I can not handle other people rocking anywhere in my sight. Which is kind of awkward and hypocritical because I rock, a lot and I want to be respectful of others need to. But when that repetitive motion is captured in my line of sight I can not block it out, it takes over every other sense and only takes about a minute for me to be so overwhelmed that I will meltdown if I can't get away from it.

I agree that everyone experiences both sensory seeking and avoiding, but it is the scope of this that I do not agree is the same for NTs. Some of the most difficult things for my therapists to understand is the vast contradictions in my sensory responses.

When I am sitting in a uni lecture I struggle to cope with the sensory input, just to stay in the room is difficult as I feel so overwhelmed and desperately want to shut it all out. But at the same time as I am sitting there I am rocking, chewing on things, I usually have my iPhone on my desk playing a video with the volume off, but it is still not enough and i want more and more.

Sitting in general for me is difficult, I feel relentlessly under stimulated, always seeking some kind of input. I guess that being in a lecture is the clearest indication of this because I need to stay seated. I just don't understand the level of overstimulation I am experiencing at the same time- generally after a lecture I have completely shutdown.

For me, finding a balance between over and under stimulation is one of my biggest constant struggles.