What are Your Sensory Issues?

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Whether it is touch, sight, sound, taste, etc, what are your gripes? I have high tolerance for most, however, there are some that literally make me nauseous...

I'll share a few of mine:

I don't mind knocking on doors, but God forbid if I am on the receiving end of a knock. For years, the questions was, "Well how do you want me to knock for you?! No knock is a good enough knock! Loud?! Quiet?!" to which I would respond, "I would prefer it if you just call my name, thank you very much." I would consciously pull myself out of sleep as soon as I hear stomping towards my room and yell out, "Don't knock on my door," to prevent that heinous sound. And please, don't say something and then 'Knock on wood' for luck...

Someone brushing his or her teeth. Brushing is not allowed when I'm in the shower. I'm lax about rules when I'm in the shower, but if I so much as get the notion that someone is brushing his or her teeth -- even quietly -- I gag. The sound is terrible, and, please, don't let me see that white foam around your mouth therefore...

...if you're seizing on the ground, I WILL help you, however, once you start foaming...so...

...don't even ask me to smell your breath because I'm not going to do it willingly. And don't blow in my face either.

Driving at that time just between sunset and twilight. I don't like the light at that time of day...

Scratching your fingernails against fabric. Sends shivers down my spine...

REALLY LARGE FONT. Some people laughed at me because I described it as obnoxious. But it's no lie...

Surprisingly, the strange sounds that don't bother me: scratching fingernails against a chalkboard, or a knife/fork on a metal plate, or rubbing styrofoam together...

As far as food, I can't eat red apples simply because of their texture. I can't eat apple sauce for its texture. I can't eat melons because of their texture [my aunt once forced me and my twin brother to eat watermelon or we wouldn't be able to leave the table. We both cried and cried, and finally, when she threatened to give us a spanking, we ate the watermelon, vomited, and were spanked for vomiting, haha...], I can't eat mushrooms for their texture, I can't eat chocolate because of it's smell or taste, etc...

What are yours...?

Smells; faeces (I get nauseous and gag, and on occasion I have actually thrown up), bad breath, mayonnaise, fridges (because they always have this horrible smell of all different foods smushed together; I literally have to hold my breath when I get something out of a fridge), petrol, a variety of male body sprays, cheap nail varnish remover...there's probably some other things too.

Visual; I can't walk down escalators that have stopped, particularly if they're really big ones. The pattern of them make me really dizzy and I have to keep having breaks whilst doing it or my vision sort of starts to blur everything and I will just fall. It's very scary and irritating. Bright lights are difficult for me too. -.-

Sounds; nails down a black-board. I cannot stand it. And I also tend to pick out all the little sounds in a room, especially ones caused by machinery such as that infuriating noise that laptops often make. This is mostly just annoying when I am trying to sleep, though, and all I can hear is my clock, and next-door's television.

I'm not sure if these count but they're things I've noticed that I'm more sensitive to than most NTs I know...firstly, you know how cutting an onion makes you cry? It makes me cry for wayyy longer than other people do...could this be a sensory issue? I don't know much about biology so I don't know, haha. The same goes for when it's windy, I seem to be more prone to my eyes watering, and also I find it more difficult to breathe when it's windy...like I find myself actually gasping and nobody else seems bothered by it? It's strange...but I don't know, maybe that's just me. Oh, and, I'm really sensitive to temperature changes, does that also fit the criteria? I don't know.

Wow, I actually thought I only had a few things, but there's quite a lot there xD

Everything!

Sounds! Beeps! What is with the constant beeping following me around? I almost lost it in the shops today.
I hate the smell of cat food.
Visual: the lights. The visual sensory sensitivity is becoming worse. Flashing lights are the worse.
I am even sensory overloaded when I have berries in my cereal. And it's cereal that comes with berries.

Oh, my eyes always water when there is windiness!

I also hate getting my hands wet. As a result, for some months when leaving a bathroom, I wouldn't wash my hands, I would just use soap. Whenever I wash dishes, I have to do it with a particular sponge [it actually has a handle!] and use the tips of my fingers.

I also can't stand using the sink to brush my teeth so I brush in the shower so that I don't get just my hands wet...

Escalators bother me as well. I always have to do calculations in my head, "Okay, step on...............er.........................NOW!" and the like.

So many more issues, even though I claimed to have high tolerance....I suppose I may have lied....

I have that problem with not knowing when to get on and off an escalator, haha, but then I know a few NTs who do as well. I can't handle walking down them when they have stopped though, you know what I mean? I have to get somebody to like hold me and lead me down them and stop every now and then. It's humiliating because everybody else is looking at you like you're a complete freak. There's just something about the pattern of them that makes me dizzy O.o

Also, I am the same with certain foods, particularly foods that feel slimy, like cooked mushrooms or anchovies. They make me feel really sick.

I also can't stand getting my hands dirty, it makes me feel so "contaminated" even though I know I can just wash them afterwards. For example, I hate filling up the dishwasher. My parents laugh at me and are like, "you can just wash your hands afterwards!", but I can't help it! I have to pick everything up really gingerly so that I don't get dirty hands, haha.

my sensory issues are primarily tactile.

i hate the feeling of fabrics against my skin, but i must get dressed so i wear cotton if i can.

my skin is so sensitive, that i can feel dust settling on it when i am undressed at home.
when i have to wear clothes (all the time), i feel the weave of the fabric i am wearing with extreme sensitivity.

i can not wear denim and i can not wear wool because they send me into a state of turmoil.

i usually wear cotton "long johns" underneath my pants and a cotton tee shirt underneath my business shirts.
tee shirts have short sleeves, and when i wear a long sleeve normal shirt over my tee shirt, the fabric that is on my arms after the end of my tee shirt short sleeve length seems to graze my arms to the point of me going mad, so i always pull the sleeves of my proper shirt up over the ends of the short sleeves of my cotton tee shirt.

whatever my other program has finished processing a question and i can do something else now so i will leave it at that

Bright light, in particular sunlight or car headlamps at night, they absolutely blind me. Strangely though disco or strobe lights don't bother me at all.

Fortunately, my sensory issues are relatively minor. I have problems in rooms full of people and an aversion towards being touched. I can't fall asleep if my wife is touching me. I can't fall asleep if there is any music or T.V. within hearing range. I REALLY hate telephones ringing. But none of this rises to the level of actual pain. Just major annoyance,

I get distracted, annoyed, and then a headache from too many sounds at once. The white noise of the refridgerator, the hum of the computer, the washing machine down the hall. I crave just one dominant sound that can drown the rest out.

Smells are worse. I can smell everything. Someone's feet after they take off their shoes, yes the smells in the fridge (some good, some bad, but all mixed together) I'm not a fan of small group conversation because I can smell everyone's breath and BO. Wet paint in another room. People in my building actually seek me out if they're not sure if they smell gas or carbon monoxide. I'm always right.

I may try to present my list, but it means processing - I have a fair range myself, and then as a born classifier I feel I need to outline the different sets for my wife and Number 1 Son, with a temptation to inlude my parents and siblings....

But for now:
"Scratching your fingernails against fabric. Sends shivers down my spine...

Surprisingly, the strange sounds that don't bother me: scratching fingernails against a chalkboard, or a knife/fork on a metal plate, or rubbing styrofoam together... "

A lot of people have some variant of this. What seems to be going on is a reaction to the same kind of noise, but with different people set at different wavelengths. For the average Joe everybody says the fingernails on blackboard thing. That is nothing to me. I cringe at the sound of nail filing, or any kind of filing [but sawing is okay] or touching a file or certain kinds of cloth. Some hardbound books I can barely read because the cover has the wrong fabric.

For my wife, forget the blackboard - metal utensil scraping a metal pot is her thing. Number 1 son moves that slightly - what gets him is scraping metal with a WOODEN spoon.

And then T says she gets the same effect listening to Frank Zappa!

Would love to know how the frequency filter gets set.

On the flip side, I find the sounds of the ocean VERY soothing.

I can't stand certain textures and sounds. For instance I can't stand using chalk or being around chalk being used on a blackboard.

I have NO sense of smell,
and extremely dulled sense of taste - 8 packets of sugar pe glass of tea, food drowned in hot sauce, etc, all for me to taste a meal. I also don't like many tastes most people love- peanut butter, cheesecake, etc.

However, I have hyper-acute hearing.

I've only recently been able to understand exactly how my sensory integration differs from other, NT people's. I was diagnosed as tactile defensive early on, but always thought it meant a super-sensitive sense of touch. The realisation that it actually means touch can invoke a panic response made a lot of things clearer
I've only gradually come to notice I have more acute hearing than other people too, hence the looks I used to get at the university dorm when I asked people two floors above me to keep it down.
Strangely, I only started to understand this because my sensory hypersensitivity seems to have receded a little in the last two years. While that means my extremely sensitive hearing and touch have toned down, I've practically lost my sense of smell, which also affects my sense of taste. I don't think I ever had a super-sensitive sense of smell.

Still:

- I can't deal with anything touching my neck, my stomach or sides next to my stomach or the bottom of my feet, or with unexpected contact anywhere at all. I've stopped trying to go to concerts or clubs or anywhere were respecting personal space isn't the absolute word of god (and where noise is also an issue).
- Catching sight of any movement, even the picture on a TV screen, can distract me and make me lose my train of thought, or the thread of a conversation.
- I need complete silence and darkness to sleep, or I can't stop focusing on the stimulus. I've never managed a romantic relationship and while I now think I have the neccessary interpersonal skills, I still can't think of any way that sharing a bed with somebody wouldn't be a stumbling block.
- I absolutely can't handle it if there are two "equal" streams of the same kind of sensory information at once, especially sound, like two people talking to me at once. My train of thought just disintegrates and I get panicky.

The tone and volume of human voices trumps any other issues for me because it's the only sensory problem I have to confront regularly. I can be fine with angry shouting but only if there's familiarity with the speaker and clear reception of the words and intent being conveyed. Other sounds too when I'm not anticipating them, but they don't effect me so much over a spectrum of emotions and I feel more control changing how I handle them.