Finding pleasure in certain words

Post Reply New Topic

This is my first post here, and really I'd just like to know if any others on the spectrum experience this element of my ASD. I find certain words very pleasing to look at and sound out, whilst most words I have neutral feelings towards. A prime example is 'February'; I find it far more pleasing to look at and sound out than any of the other months, and I've even thought to myself that I hope I die in February so it will be on my gravestone.

So yeah, any thoughts/other examples would be appreciated.

Welcome to WP JustA. We are glad to have you. I have a similar thing where I will use words or phrases in echolalia, repeating them over and over again because they feel good and soothing to me. Usually it's a phrase or word that I have recently heard that just kind of feels comforting for whatever reason. I don't have one going on right now but I do get that kind of often. I might repeat it in my mind or even out loud for long stretches of time and this might go on for many days. When I was little I used to do that with things that I heard on TV or in movies. Now I do it more with things that I might hear my brother say. We are very very close and his words mean a lot to me and so I will often use some of them for echolalia. I am not attached to specific words though. The words or phrases I use for echolalia will change.

I'm guilty of that, too.

Yeah. Sometimes it's random, as in the case of the words and phrases that I repeat over and over again in my head. Other times, it's the result of association, like with the word "radio," which was a past special interest of mine that never quite faded. I also deal with the opposite, though. With how strongly I associate words with their meanings, I tend to find some words really distressing. People saying words that I didn't like were the biggest source of meltdowns for me as a kid, especially when the words were names of things that triggered my sensory issues. I can't even type the words that set me off, but basically, if someone said something as simple as "lightbulb," I would feel exactly as I do when I'm under the influence of a lightbulb, sensory-wise. That made it really easy to send me into a meltdown. So I can't say that I appreciate the trait, though I do find it soothing to repeat some words in my head during moments of overload.

That is fascinating. I have never heard of that kind of trigger before. I wonder if it is a kind of synesthesia and I wonder how your brain works that makes you sensitive to those words. I have emotional associations where PTSD is triggered from certain words and then I have a difficult time functioning because I have emotional overload. Is yours similar to that?

Mm...I'm not sure. My emotional response is definitely secondary to the sensory impression. On good days, sensory-wise, I can handle the impression without much of an emotional response at all apart from momentary cringing. I've wondered if it could be a form of synesthesia, too, but I don't think the feeling is physical enough to count towards that. My reaction to the word often bypasses a physical impression entirely and gives me the resulting sensory discomfort instead. It's hard to articulate. It's kind of like feeling the aura of a physical impression, like when someone brushes your arm and you can feel their touch lingering there, though it doesn't register as strongly as a physical presence.

Wow. I find that so incredibly interesting. I may look and see if anything has been written about that. Do you know if there is any documentation about that?

Definitely there are some words that I find much more pleasing than others, but mostly I just get pleasure from saying words or thinking about their sounds. It's mostly hyperlexia for me, I think, though I do have a touch of audio/visual/tactile synesthesia. Words just suck me in; if there is something in my line of sight with writing on, I absolutely have to read it, to the point of it distracting me from conversation or remembering what I'm supposed to be doing or where I'm supposed to be going.

I think sometimes that the works of literature that I'm most familiar with are the labels on all the bottles of shampoo that I've read while sat on the loo ("sodium laureth sulphate" has a lovely rhythm to it!). It makes no difference whether or not I know what the words are going to say, or whether there is a narrative or not, just making or imagining the sounds of the words makes me feel very... ...something, but I'm not sure quite what to call it.

I was reading recently about the concept of "ideasthesia", which I found interesting. My synesthesia is purely sensory - sounds and visual stimuli give me tactile or proprioceptive sensations ("mixing of the senses" is essentially what the word means). However, many form of synesthesia do involve abstract concepts - people who can taste or smell numbers and words, for example. "Ideasthesia" was suggested as a more accurate word for when these involuntary links include abstract ideas or emotions.

The way that you describe the "lingering touch", or just the fact that it's so hard to articulate, is familiar to me. The tactile and proprioceptive sensations that I experience are also very hard to describe - they are not "like" any true physical sensation that I could compare them with, and I rarely confuse them with a "real" stimulus. They can be just as pleasant or unpleasant as any "real" stimulus, though, and I can distinctly tell which sense is being triggered.

Welcome to WP! You've found a great community here.

Acquiesce is my favorite word by far. There is just something pleasurable about the way it sounds. I'm not sure if it's an Autistic trait(finding pleasure in certain words) but I'm definitely guilty.

My "scripts" are all filled with my favorite sounds, especially the "pt" combination. I repeat sounds and words over and over, mostly when I'm happy. When I'm not happy, I'm completely withdrawn.

I like the word "bug" or "bugs" and "the Circulator" (which is a bus system in D.C.).

I'm going to look into that, thanks. This is the only trait I have that hasn't suddenly been made comprehensible through my research into autism. I'm happy to have a possible explanation for it.


I never found anything exactly like it in the research I did in the past, but that might be due to the fact that it's so hard for me to describe.

"Cat," of course!

my fave word is "heavenly" because it rolls off the tongue with a pleasurable sigh, plus all its associations with all that is good.

My favourite word is plethora, both for its meaning and its sound.

dis.com.bob.u.la.ted

So many segments

DISCOMBOBULATED!! !