Overcoming my touch sensativity. explained.

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When I was younger I used to scream and pull away whenever my family tried to hug me. I couldn't stand being hugged. In grade school I hated the presence of others standing too close to me in lines or at the same table and in the halls and had trouble dealing. In middle school... things changed. I wanted to be around girls, and I understood that meant hugging and being hugged.

In middle school I met a girl who literally hugged everyone... all the time. When I first met her she hugged me and I pushed her away and as very disturbed. I had her in two classes and I observed her interactions with others. I came to understand that most people were uncomfortable with the behavior, but they were able to cope and I was not. around the same time I learned about a treatment for sound sensitivity involving placing the person in a room and blasting sound at them. Afterwords they are better able to deal with sound (or had gone a little deaf, same diff). I resolved to apply this theory to my touch sensitivity and befriended the weird huggy girl.

Basically what all I did was sit next to her, and every day I would endure being hugged over and over again, barely suppressing my panic response. It helped that I developed a crush on the girl and the behavior continued from 7th to 8th grade. By the end of 8th grade I was able to deal with relatives wanting to hug me and was able to force myself not to recoil when my grandma went in for a peck on the cheek (though I still don't reciprocate).

we were apart for a year and then I had some classes with her in high school again, but she had started to change and when I was uncomfortable or had a lapse and recoiled away she now took offense and eventually the behavior slowed and then stopped.

Most of my autistic/aspie "traits" I consider to be just misunderstood personality traits. Touch sensitivity was different, touch sensitivity was going to prevent me from achieving my goals. training my touch sensitivity is a lot like a work out/diet plan, but instead of conditioning your body you are conditioning your mind/emotions. When you work out the entire point is to push past your limits or you will never progress. The same applies to troublesome traits.

I don't think I would have progressed as far as I did as quickly if I didn't have someone to take the pressure of making the decision to tackle my problem from me. I didn't have to decide to exercise my panic response to touch. she was the one lifting the bar, I just had to make sure it didn't fall and crush me. I will quite pretentiously suggest that others may be able to reapply this concept. I have a minorish case, I think. I would not have been diagnosed if my brother was not so severely disabled. If your parents are supportive you may be able to battle this tick the way you might exercise, daily repetition and laddered increases.

Set aside a few minutes a day and just have your parents/friend/BF/GF hold you. I don't know how bad other peoples trust issues are so if you want free will to give up or choose to have to stay in that place the whole time despite the desire to stop IDK. But if you do it every day, and every couple weeks increase how much time you spend, eventually the initial panic response might subdue and once you hit that milestone it is much easier to progress. I now crave that kind of contact and it is one of my favorite parts of having a GF, just sitting and holding them. That would have been unthinkable to me when I was younger.

IDK if this info will help anyone or if is just cathartic for me to express. I really think that for some people touch sensitivity is a trait that can be modified with a little effort and help.