ASMR triggers

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I've read that ASMR triggers are individual for each person. In this thread share your ASMR experiences and what triggers them. ASMR experience can be described as pleasurable tingling that starts on your scalp and travels down your neck, and down your spine and radiates out if it's intense. It can also be described as "brain orgasm".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASMR

My common trigger is actually not sensory at all. I experience it when someone does a nice selfless act specifically for me, completely unexpected and unprompted, and I would feel personally "touched". It can be an unexpected compliment, an affectionate act, or for example, when a coworker brought homemade smoked meat specifically for me (and not others), or when my boss called me at home and asked me for my address to send me a personal holiday greeting card, or when my boss personally called me after a company conference to let me know that I was one of the select few employees at the company to receive a double bonus even though I wasn't expecting one at all.

These things can trigger ASMR experiences in me that last from minutes and up to an hour if they are strong. They can envelop my whole body and I get a sweet buzz I sit and bask in.

Some of the sensory experiences that trigger ASMR are affectionate pats on the head, touching of ears or neck, rubbing of my back or shoulders, or any intended but gentle skin contact. I would also get ASMR from the purr of my old cat that had passed away 2 years ago. He had a deep resonant purr that could fill a room, and he would stick his purring nose in my ear and I would hear loud ticklish purr that would send ASMR tingles down my body mixed with goosebumps. I miss him.

What are your ASMR experiences like?

Last edited by r00tb33r on 18 Feb 2021, 3:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

When people touch me in certain ways I get that tingle. Some sounds also do that, but I don't think I can think of specific sounds? Touch wise though when people touch/rub my back or upper forearm I get that feeling.

Also, I realized something while thinking about this, it's kind of like the complete opposite of the feeling I get when I touch or hear something I really can't handle sensory wise. Instead of going from my scalp and down, a really uncomfortable feeling radiates into my spine and up to my scalp.

When I get nice gifts especially hugely worked on and when I get innocent cuddles or pats on my head, face and back.

Nice ways to describe it, guys. It made way more sense especially as the opposite of the sensory scratchy events that rise hairs like on startled cat backs.

It's a feeling I would describe as melting, getting my knees weak, mind spinning, heart-warming, release of joy chems from the brain, making a perfect moment happen.

I'd never heard of this before. Interesting.

I think this happens to me with some songs. I feel it in my neck and it can radiate out in all directions, or hover here or there in my body. It depends on the song. It's a tingly sensation for me, fuzzy-ish. Pleasant. I do find it to be calming. I just lumped it in with my sensory 'quirks' only that one happens to be a positive for me instead of a negative not all of my sensory issues are rotten. Some are nifty. Huh, never knew this had a name. Thanks for posting.

I love watching ASMR videos on Youtube. Some of my most reliable triggers that I can think of offhand are spraying noises, having a soft makeup brush used on me (or even on the camera in videos, that’s something people often do in ASMR videos), and certain music (particularly cello or anything chant-ey, and certain vocal harmony).

Before I ever heard of ASMR, I remember whenever I had an exam in school the teacher would be typing on a keyboard. The keyboard typing felt really relaxing and made me wish the exam would never finish.
Most triggers I get though are from YouTube videos. I listened some of the same videos what feels like over 50 times over time and they still trigger me a lot and make me feel calm.

I like the soft fluff of my plushy when I hold it.

I get that tingly sensation when:

My wife comes home from a long business trip, smelling her skin and hair.

Recalling specific scenes in movies or books when I try to tell someone about it.

Hiking through:

https://www.nps.gov/pinn/index.htm

Or driving through:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owens_Valley

Viewing great artwork like at the Tate in London, the Oakland Museum of California, or the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.

This album will usually cause it too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYdQ3J9 ... VRLxTJ3092

DIVAIR

This is also one of my common triggers. Feeling "touched" is a really good description. Others triggers include having my hair cut (as long as the hairdresser doesn't talk), and anticipation of certain events, often very mundane everyday things.

Long before the invention of the internet and YouTube videos, I used to experience what is now called ASMR in response to my mum's voice. I know my mum experienced it as well. I remember at a family get together one Christmas, probably about 45 years ago, my mum was trying to explain these sensations she experienced in response to certain sounds. Everyone was looking at her like she was mad but I immediately knew exactly what she was talking about. Of course, it didn't have a name back then. It's been quite amusing to have a read a number of online articles recently where the writer doesn't seem to have realised that what is now called ASMR has probably always existed and didn't start with YouTube videos.

Could this perhaps be musical frisson rather than ASMR? I find frisson to be a relatively brief and quite exciting phenomenon, whereas for me at least, ASMR is a much more subtle long lasting sensation which leads me into an almost trance like state.

I get highs like adrenaline rushes from songs kinda like elevator going down feels.

I don't know if it is frisson. The physical sensation stays going throughout a song once it starts, getting more or less 'intense' depending on how the music goes. The disruption of the song ending is enough to stop the physical tingly/fuzzy sensation for me, it's like a little a reboot to my system or something. I dunno. My body does stay relaxed for awhile though, and the calm does stick around awhile after the song is over. Not for an hour or anything, maybe fifteen to twenty minutes? That would probably depend on my mood, how tense or calm I am beforehand. Yeah, I don't know what it is, but I know I like it