Hyper-awareness?

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I was wondering if it's a common theme for people on the spectrum to feel like they are hyper-aware of everything physical.. What I mean is.. I am aware of every single inch of my body- of other people- of their position to me- I hear everything... I am extra sensitive in all of my senses... It's like for me, everything is under a magnifing glass at 1000x and even wearing things like ear plugs-- I can still hear (and it actually magnifies my own noises (breathing etc). Is this a common thing or just me?

Definitely not just you. When the telephone rings in my room I hit the ceiling because it's so damned loud. Same thing for my roommate's cell phone alarm and his snoring. They are very loud. I'd wear ear dampeners but I have this thing about needing to hear everything as a defensive device.

I can also get overwhelmed with visual stimuli. While driving I notice everything - the shine in the street, the new construction sites, the new light poles, the honking horns, the woman crossing the street with her dog, everything, and they all can hit at once. Talk about distracting. I sometimes feel like I should wear blinders when I'm driving.

The only thing I've done to lessen these effects is withdraw to my room and watch movies. Yeah, it's kind of isolating, but I feel safer that way.

Yeah I notice all this stuff too. I'm also hyper-aware because of PTSD I think. It makes life really stressful at times.

ditto

The reader should note a distinction between hyper-awareness and the hyper-vigilance of PTSD as they are NOT equivalent.

The former is a sensory sensitivity issue.

The latter is a fear and sense of continuous vulnerability issue. The mind becomes hyper-vigilant with the purpose of avoiding future potential trauma.

I hope that adds some clarification.

Count me in as well. My sensory system is dialed right up. Requires constant compensation which in turn is physically and mentally wearing.

No wonder I need 8 hours or more of sleep a day.

I have both hyper-awareness and hyper-vigilance.

I have the same issue of being "hyper aware". Everyone tells me and has done so for all my life that I am hyper sensitive (not to be mistaken with over sensitive.) Some days are better than others as far as how I react to it.

I do believe though it helps me with my art and I do love focusing on how the paint, the brush, and the canvas interacts. It's how I "tune out" the rest of it and get a little "quiet" for a while.

I would feel relieved to know for sure that it is an Aspien thing.

I was afraid that I did too much drugs back in the nineties.

This is the very definition of what Autism is. A hyperabundance of sensory neuroreceptors in the brain. Every symptom and behavior associated with Autism is a direct result of that.

When you are hypersensitive to every sensory stimulus in your environment - light, sound, touch, taste, voices, facial expressions, nonverbal social cues, etc., everything becomes more difficult, because your nervous system is always humming along at 110% capacity and its impossible for the brain to process it all fast enough.

It explains why autistics are so insistent on routine - predictability is our friend, it means we have fewer sudden surprises to process. When things change and go off-script, we are immediately overwhelmed.

I compare it to Christopher Guest's amplifier in This is Spinal Tap. A normal nervous system maxes out at 10, but generally operates at about 6 or 7. The Autistic nervous system is permanently stuck at 11.

Some understand that better than others and make use of the same coping mechanisms when approaching others that they are unsure of.

Hi Nyxjord!

I have the exact same thing. However, it is something that I have developed later on in life; earlier I was quite the opposite. Maybe I developed it because I learned that people in general are not so nice and therefore I developed it as kind of an alert system. Maybe I have developed it -- esp the body-awareness aspect you described -- from disciplinairy activities like doing sport and learning a musical instrument. Maybe we on the spectrum develop hyper-awareness because it is so soothing to us, after all it is similar to mindfullness meditation, esp the Zen style where you learn you to apply these techniques in your daily life and not only during sitting meditation.

Anyways, I consider it as a good thing.

Muziek, I have actually thought one time while I was in meditation that the whole 'observe your surroundings' part of it is something that I already constantly do- and not on purpose, either.. I just can't tune anything out. Anyway, have you had any luck with distancing yourself with everything and looking on without becoming attached to daily life?

Also, next question for above posters.. What would be the difference in reaction to PTSD vigilance and just sensory issues. I understand that one is vigilance and another is issues with senses but in daily life/ reactions/ examples, how could I tell which is actually to 'blame' for issues? For example, could the things I mentioned be explained only be vigilance? I mean, I don't think that hyper awareness of body/ issues with clothing tags could be. But could the rest? Just thinking out loud here.

OH I LOVE that too

everything about it.....the sound of the knife, the bouncing of the canvas, the look of a sable brush when it is bleeding colour onto the paper............AHHHHHHHHHHHH

most focus on the finished product but most of the joy is in the process

Think of hypervigilance as a state of fear where you are checking your surroundings constantly...always amped up....always afraid...trying to catch the first sign of further abuse in your desperate attempt to see it coming and escape it. Think distress.

Hyper-awareness is merely that the intensity of the sensory experience is very high...very sensitive....large amounts of sensory data
It is feeling too much sensation.

Tell me if this is clear.

I think it's a pretty common symptom of autism, to have trouble filtering out sensory inputs. Sometimes, I'm jealous of how NTs can just ignore things that would drive me batty.