Colors causing discomfort

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I noticed that while exploring a historical building, in certain rooms, I would feel off. I'd get this electric sensation from the core of my body, radiating out. At the same time I get a feeling like I have to get out of the area, no matter what and if I don't, I feel extremely nauseous. This happened only in rooms with a lot of gold and red, like this:


Is this something to do with autism? With brain damage? Does anyone else experience this?

I'm guessing it has something to do with sensory overload. Too many patterns and rich colors. Definitely an autism thing. Not brain damage. If it helps, I don't like that room either.

Are you only experiencing this discomfort in heavily ornate rooms?

I very much experienced this strongly when I was a child. I don't recall a time recently as an adult that I had it, but I have always remembered the worst incident of this from my childhood.

It was at a wedding reception of a family friend. I was maybe 4 or 5 years old. It was the 1960s and the room the reception was in had floor-to-ceiling plastic curtains with lacy holes, and these curtains were orange and yellow. The filtered light through the massive windows and these massive curtains made me feel nauseous, panicky, and unwell in ways I found I couldn't describe to my mother. I even got a headache from them. I started to feel so unwell yet so unable to describe why and what was happening to me, even less so that it was the curtains doing this to me -- nobody could believe or understand that was even possible, it seemed so preposterous to them.

Eventually I was so distraught that I was taken home. It was these orange and yellow curtains and the light filtering through that made me crazy-unwell, although probably the general noise and hubbub too, as that was also an issue. But for me at the time even that faded into lesser territory in comparison to what those curtains did to me.

There was also a drink called Lucozade. I don't know if it's still around but back then it was packaged in this plastic wrap that was orange-yellow. Just looking at that wrapper made me feel queasy as a child, similar to the curtains.

I don't remember being so severely affected now that I'm older.

...It's not discomfort , it's kinda/sorta pleasurable , but certain colors in comic books or color newspaper comic sections , or color pictures in newspapers , give me a nice twinge , especially when read under sunlight .
I was just doing that to-day , as I came here (this computer lab , myself not owning a computer) .

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Funny you mention this ...
on a website earlier today, I came across a weird picture
of someone crying a purple tear from their eye
and the tear stain running down their face.
I moved my hand in the way to cover it up
thinking that if I looked at it too long
I would get nauseous.

Yes, an autism thing, I think.

I've certainly experienced nausea from colours.
Where I used to work a number of the rooms had a coloured feature wall.
There was one painted a scarlet red and another a golden yellow.
The paint was also the glossy kind and the combination of the reflection and the overpowering intensity and amount of colour itself used to make me feel physically ill.
So yes, it does happen.
Maybe it could be autism related or visual sensitivity related because I also have Irlen syndrome.

The intense blue on-light for electronic equipment causes problems as it seems to blur my vision way beyond it's actual luminosity and I experience an unsettled/vertiginous feeling and have to look away. When similar Christmas lights go up en-masse both my son (who also has autism) and I spend a lot of time averting our eyes - fun when driving!

Go into a room that is causing you problems with colour overload. Take a piece of white printing paper with you. Study the room for a very short amount of time, not too long, and then look at your white paper. Have it ready in your hands by holding it horizontally and bring the paper upwards into your field of vision, so that it blocks out the scene in front of you.

When staring at the paper, just relax and tell yourself mentally that "It's just colours". Do this for a brief period and then bring the paper down to get it out of focus. Study the scene again, and then raise the paper again. Tell yourself "It's just colours", wait a little while, and then bring the paper down like before. Repeat this process for a short amount of time. Use this process again when you're either feeling uneasy with the colours in a room or you want to practice tackling the problem.

Basically, this is to get your mind to understand that there is nothing special about the scene in front of you. It is possible that you are attributing too much meaning to the colours that bother you, and that this subconscious meaning is overwhelming your senses.