'Invisible' Sensory Issues?

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I've read a lot about sensory issues and there seems to be more of an emphasis on the extremely hypersensitive side of it, the side where everything could send someone in to overload: impacts to their senses are obvious such as earaches, visual distortions etc.

I'm curious about the potential for sensory issues to go undetected or be blamed on something else, to be 'invisible'. Though I've read quite a bit about many different types of sensory issues including hypo-sensitivity, what I read isn't nearly as in-depth as when it's about senses that are hypersensitive. I've read that sensory issues can cause unexplainable concentration issues, fatigue and body pains without presenting itself in obvious ways (i.e. no white noise).

I'm really interested in this side of it, and wonder if it could relate to how and why a person makes decisions. For example, a child not wanting to go to the beach could be viewed as lazy. It could also be viewed as them not liking the beach and/or preferring to stay home. What is the reason for that though?

Could invisible sensory issues underline preferences such as not going and/or preferring to stay home? Could they go out to the beach, feel uncomfortable and without knowing why because their senses still 'seem fine'?

I might be over thinking it and it might just be something as simple as they don't enjoy the beach as much as a computer game, but it's intriguing to think about.

I'm sure that's possible. I often find myself in situations that I feel fine in, only to realise once I've stepped away that I'm completely exhausted, or all the sensory problems come crashing down on me at once without any warning. For instance, last night, I had been sitting in the kitchen watching TV on the computer (we have a computer in our kitchen, don't ask why!) with my mom cooking all sorts of pungent things behind me while my sister and stepdad both sat trying to talk to her at once and our dog bounced around getting underfoot, all while the fluorescent lights were buzzing overhead. I felt fine with this for a good half hour or so, then all of a sudden everything came crashing down out of nowhere and I had to get out of that room as fast as I could or I was going to shut down, so I made a swift exit to my dark, quiet bedroom, but even the light from my laptop screen was too bright so I turned it almost all the way down and just sat in the dark decompressing for a while. It's rare when sensory overload comes out of nowhere for me, but it definitely happens. Social overload can creep up on me in much the same way; I'll be feeling fine being around people for hours at a time when all of a sudden I just have to get out of their presence or I'm going to explode and get extremely angry with them for no reason whatsoever.

I noticed that when people are at my house I can talk for a bit and then I tend to sort of walk off and go seek out and pat my cats. I'm not entirely sure why I get the urge to do that but it made me wonder if it could be sensory related or just because I didn't want to be social at that time. I have done this sort of thing a lot in my life and for a reason I can't really pinpoint.

I don't really have sensory overload that comes 'crashing down' like you describe though, if I have sensory overload (which I'm assuming I do) it's a sudden feeling of irritability that builds and then I gradually get more and more annoyed and/or unsettled. Bad example, but I could be out with my mum at the shops having fun and suddenly my mood seems to plummet at one point and I just want to go home. I'll start acting accordingly and tend to start walking around and feeling stressed. I'm not sure if this is laziness or sensory related, or something else entirely.

I wonder about this also. Outside of dogs barking and sudden phone ringing and certain touch issues. I usually do not notice them. It is common belief that poor eye contact is the result of sensory issues. Dr Leo Kanner who discovered autism in his thesis http://simonsfoundation.s3.amazonaws.co ... ontact.pdf. noted panicked reaction to noise and movement from the outside, but not when the children he was studying made the noise themselves. He theorized it was the noise's intrusion into a child's "aloneness" . It seems that is the case with me.

This quote most definitely is the case with me.

As far a "silent" sensory issues, I think I have identified the sound of a shower or a filling bathtub as sufficiently irritating as to subtlety cause me to avoid showers and baths. I am compensating by starting the bath water running the stepping outside the bathroom for a few minutes while it fills. It seems to help.

Regarding social gatherings I find I have about a two-hour tolerance. The first signs of losing it are becoming irritable. As soon as I sense it starting I either leave (if possible) or withdraw to be by myself.

So I read this post this morning and thought, "Nonsense! People know when they're annoyed or irritated." Then I went to church. I was seated about 15 feet from the organ. It took me like 3 minutes to realize how loud and piercing the music was. I mean it was really hurting my ears. This is common for me. What struck me was that I hadn't noticed at first. Then I remembered this post. Maybe my subconscious was pondering the post and how irritating the organ was, put two and two together and voila. Either way, I'm a believer in this invisible sensory issues thing now.

I have found that certain sounds make me nauseous and sometimes when people people speak too loudly I get a type of nausea as well. I also get very tired and sometimes get pain in my ears from certain sounds. I can also get disoriented a bit as well. I find certain smells nauseating too. We used to live not far from the Wonderbread factory and I had to control myself from throwing up every time we drove by it. I have had lights make me nauseous and exhausted too. So I will sometimes leave wherever I am to find a quiet place to get away. When I was little and we used to visit my cousins I used to go hide away and spend a lot of time with the dog. I never knew why because I did not know I was on the Spectrum at the time.

But this weekend we were invited to spend time with friends at their home out of town from us. My husband asked me to go but I insisted on staying home because last weekend we attended a big social thing and I was still not recovered from that so I knew that more socializing would just do me harm. He was able to go without me and that was great because he had a great time, our friends were encouraged that at least he made it and I got to spend a few days in solitude which did me a world of good.

ive had a few things like that, i never understood it, like, i always knew why i dont like going for walks in the city is because of the loud cars hurts my ears, and i dont like sunny days but because it hurts my eyes. but i also get some anxiety and discomfort when Lunch time at school was mentioned and i think thats because of the noise. its the only thing that comes to mind.

It seems like I only get sensory overload when I'm tired or in poor health. I enjoy bright lights and loud music when I have energy. I often suffer from sensory deprivation. I love moving around. I actually feel relaxed when I'm on roller coasters. When I have to stay still I get very restless and irritated. If I'm forced to stay still for too long I get very hyper.

I love roller coasters too. It's kind of weird because I would have thought that that would have been too much for me. I probably get more tired on them than I realize but since I only get to go on them once every ten or fifteen years or so I guess I don't mind it if I get good rest afterwards. But I absolutely love them.

Yep, when I'm tried everything has the capacity to set me off it seems. I attribute things irritating me as me being tired, not as me having sensory overload (even though it could be a sense that is irritating.) If I ever have a breakdown I will invariably fall asleep within at most an hour after having it (well, not when I was working I couldn't, I had to slough through the day), even if it's a nap during the middle of the day.

Even a couple days ago I was feeling really hyper, couldn't sit still, had to move or else I just felt crappy. But instead of going for a walk like I could have done with all that energy, I went to bed and fell asleep lightning fast, just like I usually do when going to sleep for the night.

It seems like my meltdowns can be attributed to me being tired.

I enjoy loud music and lights, etc though too...if I'm in the right mood.

My therapist was talking with me about what I've always thought of as Agoraphobic symptoms, asking me what it's like for me when I have to go out, say to run errands, and how I feel when I get back home.

Then, BOOM, out of the clear blue he asks me "Have you ever been evaluated for autism?" I'd suspected it for a real long time, and asked him why he was asking me about it.

"The answers you're giving sound just like what my autistic patients say when asked those questions."

There's apparently a lot to what you're saying.

Sensory problems don't have to cause someone to collapse, screaming in public with people calling emergency services thinking they're dealing with a real psych case. The effects can be far more subtle, draining, and leaving someone in need of just curling up in a ball and sleeping for a few hours once they get home.

I think this has been the case with me. Some of my sensory problems have always been obvious, like being a very picky eater. But others were more invisible or less obvious, even to me. I just didn't really have the awareness that certain things were bothering me. It was kind of like I wasn't really in my body that much when I was younger. I knew I felt tired or uncomfortable or overwhelmed or oversensitive but I didn't really know why. I thought that was just the way life was.

Also I was brought up to think that you just have to tough it out no matter how uncomfortable you are. And people would get mad or make fun of me if I said something was bothering me so I just tried to get through things without complaining. And if I really wanted to do something I would be willing to suffer through it but probably end up crying about it anyway without really knowing why I was upset. But usually the things that made me uncomfortable, were things I didn't really want to do to begin with, so everyone would just blame it on me being stubborn and self centered if I got upset.

I didn't recognize that I had misophonia until I was 17, but I had no idea then what it was or that there might be a name for it. I was taking the SAT so I guess it was the added pressure and importance of the test that finally made me aware of it. The sounds of the other students' pencils scratching and desks squeaking almost sent me into a rage. After that I gradually started to notice more and more when noises bothered me or distracted me. I never told anyone because I didn't understand what was going on. I was really scared for years that I might get locked up so I wouldn't talk about things like that.

Some things I attributed more to being a physical problem, like allergies or skin sensitivity, or being physically delicate or weak. I sunburn very easily so I thought that was reason enough to not like being out in the sun. Plus I would black out on my feet if I got too hot, still standing or walking just unable to see or hear anything. I would suffer through marching band practice because I loved it, but sometimes I would have to go inside and sit in a dark room and put my head down for awhile. One time I got in an argument with a teacher because she said I had to go back out to band practice, and I refused. I told people I was getting a migraine so they would leave me alone. I did get headaches and still do but I don't know if they were actually migraines. My dad used to have migraines a lot so I thought I might have them too.

I never really liked going outside much, other than playing in the woods. I could walk through the woods and not even notice that briars were tearing at my skin. Sometimes I was just oblivious to things like that.

On the other hand I couldn't go to sleep if I felt a wrinkle in my clothes or bedding. I was just like the girl in the "princess and the pea" story. I never went to sleep at naptime in kindergarten, I would just lay there and fidget because I wasn't sleepy at all, but even to just lay there awake it bothered me to feel wrinkles. I would have to smooth them out. One time I got in trouble because the teacher told everyone not to move, but I felt a wrinkle under me so I just HAD to smooth out my towel. She made me stand up and spanked me right there in front of the whole class.

Situations like that gave me the message, over and over again, I was just supposed to tolerate whatever physical discomfort I felt, because the reactions of other people would be much worse and sometimes abusive. It made me dissociative and I think I learned to block out some of my body awareness.

Some of my sensory issues were always obvious, like sensitivity to bright light, noise and smell, but others were much more subtle.

Certain kinds of light (esp. fluorescents) could bathe everything in a color that would make me feel slightly ill. Prolonged exposure could nauseate me. I might also find it hard to concentrate in the wrong lighting conditions. These more subtle effects took a long time to recognize and understand.

Sounds at the threshold of audibility can have a similar effect.

I think you're onto something here. Might explain why I get migraines after going to social events / parties / crowded places.

I have noticed this. When I play trivia I'll be fine through out the game but once I get home I realize I am exhausted.