Sensory things that drive you nuts that no one else gets...

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Television. When I'm at home with the family, the television is ALWAYS on. It's never anything interesting, and if it's not the TV it's the radio. When I'm stressed, I find it annoying to have t process more than one sound at a time - like somebody talking while the TV is on, or playing the radio with the TV.

The funny thing is, the noise itself, or the level of the noise doesn't bother me. There's nothing I love more than that feeling in a club when some drum and bass is played loud enough to explode my ears. It's the clash between two equally audible noises that's annoying.

I don't expect my family to understand this, but I can't live with them. The environment is too stressful

I really hate having this one....I REALLY hate it: My own blood flow, if I have to go to the doctor to get blood taken the needles dont scare me, nor does watching the blood come out its purely the effects of the turnakit. I like rolling my sleeves up but it digs into my arms and I feeling the blood pounding in my arms, I stay calm but I have this feeling like "This needs to go away NOW". So if I wear a jacket to school I try to wear short sleeves under so I can shed my jacket off before I leave toy use the bathroom so I dont have to roll any sleeves up.

Also, when a TV is on and its blank and theres "No sound" I still hear the "buzzing" it drives me crazy and seams very loud, it could keep me up at night. I also dont like being touched when I sleep (well I guess it depends haha) for example one time I was on a train with my dad and it was really tight and his back was barely touching mine and I kept "sleep hitting" him, I didnt mean too but in the light dreary state of my mind it was almost like a heightened sensory issue.

I also dislike when my hands are cold and have to touch things, I had to snow blow for my parents and I underestimated the cold and put on light gloves and after I finished I ran inside and ripped them off, it was terrible I couldnt feel my hands and they were COVERED in something touch them while they were cold, I was freaking out there for a second. Since then I have been looking for some heavy duty gloves.

I also hate things touching my lower back near the kidney area.

Yeah, it is pretty stressful when you are competing to have a sound you are trying to focus on come out loud enough for you to actually focus, especially when other people are doing equally loud things... then the commercial brings the tv's audio up a bit, and everyone else has to do the same thing.

oh, also food. If I touch any type of food I have to wipe my hands/face off with a towel for a very long time. And then I like the feeling of the towel and bury my face in it and my mother gets mad because I'm always "wasting" all these clean towels.

Hands being dirty is a very very annoying thing. I hate it soooooooo much. If I notice my hands getting grimy, the first thing I do is grab the soap.

The sound of a stapler bothers me as well as other items creating a similar sound. The odd thing is, this isn't all the time; most of the time I am fine, but every so often the clicking of it bothers me something fierce.

Beyond that I don't think I have any issues with sound beyond what might be considered reasonably average.

Cool water in the shower. Not cold, but cool and even in the summertime. When I was 17 I went to El Salvador with a church group and we had to take showers where the water was cool. Pretty much everyone else did fine, when I tried to get in I couldn't breathe. I ended up standing to the side and splashing small amounts of water on me in order to shower.


Here's a weird one that happens fairly often and I'll try and explain it to the best of my ability (if someone knows what this is called I'd appreciate it):

Sometimes an idea of an event might come across my mind and my body will feel like it's really happening and cause me to be severely uncomfortable.

For instance, I was in a customer's facility recently (factory) and a fork truck drove by. The thought crossed my mind how it would really hurt if it ran over my foot. For the next couple of minutes my foot became overwhelmingly uncomfortable as if I could actually feel it happening. I kept shifting my foot inside my shoe as if I was trying to move it away from being crushed.

Most of the time this happens it with my eyes. I'll happen to see a pencil tip and get the uncomfortable feeling that the pencil tip is pressing on my eye to the point I can't look at the tip and looking away only brings minimal relief.

Stuff like that doesn't happen very often and is pretty short lived, but a complete nuisance when it does happen.

Some peoples voices push me over the edge. I was watching "Die another day" a few days ago and there is a woman in that movie who voice was so f*****g irritating it just about drove me to bang my head against the wall over and over again.

This one

http://www.shoeblog.com/wp-content/uplo ... ay_015.jpg

I don't know if you ever get that feeling, like you want to put a screwdriver through your head and shake and scream, but her voice is enough to push me over the edge when I'm prone to sensory irritation.

Sensory issues the NTs around me don't get:

As a kid, Mom and Dad tried to shame me for my you're-just-making-this-up-and-being-a-wuss sensory issues:

Overlights and/or any single bright light source. Current solution; I light my home with christmas lights. (Ironically though, I do love the sun!)

Competing sound devices, such as Mom's radio in one room and Dad's TV in another. One or the other! Please!

In the world of work, the hardest is the occasional loud coworker who has a vocal frequency that my ears pick up much like mic distortion. Had to work all day next to one a couple of weeks ago. Thought my brain would explode. These voices are rare, but almost always female.

Though on the flip side, I've found some people's voices abnormally, hypnotically soothing. Also rare, and these are mostly male. So maybe that hypersensitivity works both ways?

I will add though that pre-Aspie-dx, I'd have blamed the loud coworker, or complained about the lights. Post-dx, I now know that it's more to do with me and my senses and I do all possible to quietly find ways around them myself. Like declaring a favorite spot to work ... which just so happens to be as far away as possible from the loud, mic-distortion coworker.

- Jo

The sound of people breathing, especially people who breath through their mouths. Aaaaaaaargh! I also hate it when I have a cold and can't breathe through my nose. That is really dfficult for me, as I just can't stand breathing through my mouth. I end up getting really distressed and crying, which only makes it worse.

The sound of people eating. Because of this I have only been to the cinema once since 1992, and that must have been about 9 years ago. I have no idea what the film was as I was so tense the whole way through it in case someone started eating near me. People shouldn't be allowed to eat, or chew gum, in enclosed public places like cinemas.

Sound of fabric tearing ever since I can remember as a child. I have no idea why. Anyone else have this? It has been a life long mystery for me. Any clues would be appreciated.