Can our sharpened senses also make us happier?

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The title probably isn't very good but I didn't know how to summarize this in a few words.

Okay so many of us probably have sensory issues. This can cause a lot of pain.. but what I'm asking is: can this make us "happier" than the normal NT as well?

A few things I noticed is that some sensory things make me extremely happy and relaxed. For example the sound of rain, or certain mild smells, or silky textures. A great song can cause me minutes of extremely pleasant chills on my back. Other people are just like "yeah rain sounds nice" or "yeah this song is kinda great" so they don't seem to feel as intensely.

Opinions?

I enjoy color - a nice blue sky that saturates through branches or fresh grass, especially with a little dew and spider's webs - and a pleasing blend of flowers - not too contrived. I enjoy the wind - when it is just right, not too warm and not too cold, not too fast and not too slow. I like to watch the wind race through the grass or chase little waves across the water. I like to follow the rhythm of my boots on the asphalt when it is quiet outside. I love to hear cicadas hum, crickets chirp, and dragon fly wings. I like the little whistle of feathers when a large bird passes over. I like smooth, cool marble or a polished steel pole. I love bird feet on my finger and the soft muscular belly of a snake around my arm. Oh, I think there are many pleasant senses that are enhanced. I can easily get overwhelmed even by 'good' sensory encounters, but there are gifts.

I'm auditorily hyposensitive, and yet I honestly think I can get into music more than other people can. Like, I have it all on all the time, because it's a stim for me.

I often enjoy my perception of the physical world.

Many sensory eggsperiences are pleasant.

I definitely feel strongly about some sounds or songs. I don't get this with visual stimulation, just sounds.

In the long winters near the north pole, or the jungles of The Kalimantan.... sensory sharpness is an evolutionary strength.... esp. when wolves and bear, tigers and snakes, are at your door

The modern noisey and busy equatorial type city[even away from the equator now] with all its bells and whistles..... causes overload

A simple sunset or landscape may offer more happiness to an autistic, than an NT who may be easily bored

by a lack of stimulation

I'm really pleased to see this thread because I feel this is absolutely true and never gets talked about - only the negative side of hyperstimulation (even though that is understandable as the negative side is what makes daily life difficult).

One of my favourite things to do if I am feeling down is to take a hot shower. I love the way the water feels on my hair and skin, and being able to just close my eyes and be alone with the feel of the water and my own thoughts is very relaxing and happymaking for me. Other people apparently shower to get clean; I enjoy my morning shower and often shower more than once a day to cheer myself up, not because I need to be cleaner! If I mention this to anyone they think I am really weird.

I love fleece blankets, the really soft ones. I enjoy stroking them with my hands and feeling how soft they are. My cat happens to share this passion with me and we love to snuggle up in them together.

I love classical music and one of my other favourite things to do is listen to some of my favourite pieces, just lying on my bed or sofa with my eyes closed, so nothing exists but the music (though my thoughts wander about, they are sort of dreamy and flavoured by the music I am listening to). This can send me into rapturous emotional states. I get all tingly and high.

There are probably more things. But I definitely have the impression that I gain far more pleasure from certain sensory things than most people, and I'm very pleased about that.

And dont forget about the sharpened logic
and profound "superior" understanding

It takes quite a while to be more or less certain about a thing
but after that I feel really convinced. And at least a good mood comes from that...

I get what you're saying, never thought of it before but noone really gets me when I say, 'wow, look at that sky!' and I'll stand there for a while just obsorbing the colours and shapes.. and they just glance up and say 'yeah, it's nice' before doing whatever it was they were doing.... I can stare at a landscape for hours, Tree bark is amazing... I used to lie on the ground in winter and stare up through the leafless trees, I miss that, maybe I'll do that this winter
Its the simple things that make me happy, mainly natural shapes, the seemingly chaotic patterns in nature that are beautiful.

Stu

I hate having sensory issues. I'd rather go without. I don't think I have sharpened senses, I am just hypersensitive to a lot of different noises and I get irritated with it more quicker than others. But I don't hear noises that others can't. One day in the summer we were sitting in the garden, and my cousin (who is a 21-year-old NT) said, ''I can hear the telephone ringing!'' My aunt tried to listen but she couldn't hear anything, nor could my mum. I tried listening too and I couldn't hear anything either, but my cousin said she could hear it clearly, and my mum went in to answer it and my cousin was right, it was ringing and it still was ringing when my mum went in, so it's obvious that my cousin had sharper hearing than all of us.

Like I said, I'm sensitive to noises, but other people can still hear noises I can hear, but just don't get so bothered by them. I am a bit deaf so I don't hear noises that others can't. I'm no dog.

Have you heard of hyperacusis? Basically, your working nerves overcompensate for the ones that don't work, which sends up in an auditory hypersensitivity that imitates sensory processing disorder, but isn't SPD at all.

At times I've wondered if my attention to these things was natural or normal/mainstreamed. E.g., a refrigerator compressor sound is something that relaxes me and even sends me into another orbit. And I'm not sure why I do this, but I start thinking in a different direction ( a good rumination) with this low hum/drone. I love it.

And I'm swept off my feet with a distant train horn blowing; but to get this there has to be snow on the ground to alter the sound of it; it launches me into a different 'thought orbit' .......(it sounds different as everything does with this ground cover.)

I've always had keen senses. All of them, too. Great songs give me shivers. I notice details that everyone else don't. I haven't been diagnosed as Asperger's, but I scored 156 on the test and 26 on the other part. I noticed that others aren't as perceptive or intelligent as I was at an early age. I used to think I was an alien because I percieved things differently than everyone else. I use my abilities to better myself and my friends. I can't imagine what it's like not to have keen senses. The downside is that my emotions are powerful, too. I inadvertantly made changes to the way I think and react to the world. These changes are for the better because I fit in better. I took drugs(hallucinagens) when I was in my 20's and I've changed how I percieve things. I wouldn't recommend this. I have a strong sense of self and when the world was falling apart I was a constant. I'm still weird and socially awkward, but I look people in the eyes more. I still blurt out the wrong things at the wrong times, but now I realize when I do it. I think I'm happier than most people because I live honestly. People who lie to themselves and others are sad inside.