The Seven Senses.
Aspies tend to be plagued by oversensitivity. They can sometimes drive us crazy. Most of these are related to the 5 senses of vision, hearing, taste, touch and smell. But there are two more senses. These are proprioception and vestibular. So at the moment I am researching vestibular and trying to relate Aspie oversensitivity to this sense.
The following is a list of some of the traits related to problems with vestibular in the area of balance and spacial orientation:
* Imbalance, stumbling, difficulty walking straight or when turning
* Clumsiness or difficulty with coordination
* Difficulty maintaining straight posture; head may be tilted to the side
* Tendency to look downward to confirm the location of the ground
* Tendency to touch or hold onto something when standing, or to touch or hold the head while seated
* Sensitivity to changes in walking surfaces or footwear
* Difficulty walking in the dark
* Muscle and joint pain (due to difficulty balancing)
How applicable are these problems when viewed from an Aspie perspective? Do any of these relate to your experience?
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Author of Practical Preparations for a Coronavirus Pandemic.
A very unique plan. As Dr. Paul Thompson wrote, "This is the very best paper on the virus I have ever seen."
The following is a list of some of the traits related to problems with vestibular in the area of balance and spacial orientation:
* Imbalance, stumbling, difficulty walking straight or when turning
* Clumsiness or difficulty with coordination
* Difficulty maintaining straight posture; head may be tilted to the side
* Tendency to look downward to confirm the location of the ground
* Tendency to touch or hold onto something when standing, or to touch or hold the head while seated
* Sensitivity to changes in walking surfaces or footwear
* Difficulty walking in the dark
* Muscle and joint pain (due to difficulty balancing)
How applicable are these problems when viewed from an Aspie perspective? Do any of these relate to your experience?
Imbalance: some of the time but not too much
Clumsiness: yep
Difficulty maintaining straight posture: Not that I'm aware of
Tendency to look downward: yep
Tendency to touch or hold something while standing, or touch or hold the head while seated: yep
Sensitivity to changes in surfaces: Haven't noticed this
Difficulty walking in dark: A little bit but I don't think more than a normal person
Muscle and joint pain: some but may be unrelated (I'm also young)
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"Ignorance may be bliss, but knowledge is power."
In my case, both of those senses are sensitive.
But for all my life, it never been a problem to me like at all. If anything, it became much of an asset to me, perhaps more than I might've realized.
Maybe, just maybe...
The clumsiness relating to that sensitivity could be traced back from poor spatial awareness or processing. Spatial, not necessarily visual-spatial.
My non-visual spatial sense is strong enough to perform echolocation. I'm the kind you could likely rely on to navigate into the dark. Because I simply can make sense of 'occupied spaces' and presences without actually seeing it.
If not, then a form of 'vulnerability' in certain sensitivities in vestibular sense. You know, being easily dizzy or sick in motion. The kind that makes one insecure of their own footing kind of vulnerable.
I almost never had these, unless the ground IS literally shaking. Or that something is wrong with my inner ear.
Sure, I'm very sensitive to surface changes -- I'd know if this ground I'm stepping is rough, slippery, can be run on or not, etc. Then how this relates to the footwear I'm wearing. Not only I could make sense of this, I'm also physically capable of utilizing it.
Or, the kind that makes motion and movement seem less tolerable...
But I had experienced it at one of my worst sensory exhaustion, and yet still I didn't get any coordination issues except moving and sensing balance just become very painful and vulnerable to dizziness -- but still this isn't how I experienced it for most of my life.
If not, it's another layer of executive dysfunctions. Particularly a form of mental multitask, regarding to one's way of tracking their own bodies and movement, along with the external environment -- and can barely make sense of this. Or worse, a form of inattention, in which could happen at any given time.
This could happen to me when I'm drunk, or that my EF had dropped down to worse. It felt like a form of blindness to me, stripping off a layer of awareness that I might as well rely more than vision.
Becoming spatially impaired and limited to mainly visual for a work around -- so yeah, it makes sense to tend to look at the ground or to touch or hold something, which it did happened.
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But for all my life, it never been a problem to me like at all. If anything, it became much of an asset to me, perhaps more than I might've realized.
My non-visual spatial sense is strong enough to perform echolocation. I'm the kind you could likely rely on to navigate into the dark. Because I simply can make sense of 'occupied spaces' and presences without actually seeing it.
Edna3362 - O.K. I think I understand. If hypersensitivity produces these symptoms, you have evolve the opposite hyposensitivity. You use your mind to navigate in the dark.
So maybe I have evolved the same trait. I once wrote the following about driving in a blizzard:
But after living in the country for many years, I got the knack for remembering subtle landmarks along the way. And I will use them to guide me. If I travel the same way several times, I will commit it to memory along with its landmarks. The primary main route I store even a little more detail and information. The region where I live is filled with hills and valleys, which means there are many curves and dips on the road. So the main route home, I feel the angular momentum as I make turns. It is like I can feel the shape of the road in three-dimensional space. I remember the sheer drop-offs along the way. And even when I am traveling in a blizzard with white out conditions and snow completely covering the road, I have some sense of the road beneath and where the danger lies. It is still dangerous, but I have a tool that can roughly guide me.
_________________
Author of Practical Preparations for a Coronavirus Pandemic.
A very unique plan. As Dr. Paul Thompson wrote, "This is the very best paper on the virus I have ever seen."