Light Sensitivity

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Oh, I believe you. I've stocked up on those old fashioned bulbs because of that. Almost equally bad as the flickering is the humming the florescent lights give off, well, not really humming, more like, a frequency that's just high enough you can feel/hear it, but not high enough that it seems to bother other people or so that you can explain what the sound is like. Those things really set off my headaches. I also find it the light completely destroys my ability to concentrate. I used to pray the teachers would forget to turn on the light and just use natural light because I'd get so much more done without those infernal things on.

Although one time I found a store that used such horrible florescent lights that I could finally get an NT to look at it and see what I meant. It was a major victory, especially once she commented that now that she'd seen what I meant she couldn't walk past that place any more - the light was just too bad. To this day I use that store to make my point about florescent lights gone bad and most NTs who go there and actually stop to pay attention to it seem to agree that that really is quite horrible.

But yeah, I usually wear sunglasses. One casual set for normal days, one that goes fully around my eyes for very bright days. For my rooms, I like indirect light. I like it bouncing off the walls, not shining right down on me. I also love having a dimmer to control the light level. Another reason that absurd ban on incandescent light bulbs solely for the sake of making their makers more money pisses me off, so many of the bulbs they're selling now you simply can't dim even if you did love cold buzzing blue over-saturated light.

I really hate those lights with a passion. My parents had me put one in the living room. It stayed in for about five minutes until I couldn't take it anymore.

I hate to sound so unself-aware, but:

I had a CFL in my bedroom lamp (with a colored glass "shade" so the light was purple), but it's since burned out and I've replaced it with an incandescent. What I have noticed is that my migraines have cut down significantly since then, although I didn't connect it to changing the bulb itself. I wonder if that is the case.

CFLs are the devil. I am pretty sure they triggered my dry eye syndrome in 2000.

Now my eyes cannot stand CFL and LED monitors alike.

I can only work with CRT while wearing diving goggles to preserve my eye moisture.

Oh god, dry eye? I had to keep a bottle of visine at my desk at all times. It's not as bad now, but I am using an LCD monitor, still. I find CRTs difficult, but I've also ended up propping my monitor at an angle where the colors/illumination are a bit more tolerable (well, that wasn't the intent, but it was the outcome).

Lately, fluorescent lights just kill me.

If you're still at the "eyedrops" stage of dry eye (as opposed to "forced to wear goggles" stage), you should only use ones labeled as "artificial tears" specifically, and without preservatives (usually packaged in a multitude of tiny containers).

LCD's CCFL backlights have a refresh rate which is irritating all by itself. When you stare a white page, like Google, you're essentially looking into a fluorescent lamp. I would suggest shifting to LED displays, though they have "different" potential issues with "blue light"...

I will keep this in mind.

I occasionally have to wear sunglasses, being as they're all I have. Not sure that's related.



Yeah, I do not love the refresh rate. I don't see a flicker, but I did have issues with the same rate on CRTs.

This explains so much, though. I'll have to look into getting a new monitor if/when I can afford one.

I have extreme light sensitivity issues. I don't always wear sunglasses though. No wonder my eyes sometimes feel like they will fall out. The droopy and twitchiness is a bit of a worry too.

I suppose I can survive as long as lights don't flicker or flash.

I cannot work with a CRT below 85hz, but frankly 100hz is where the image looks TRULY solid and functions as if there's no refresh whatsoever. My eyes are irritated much faster with 85hz at work than with 100hz at home, though we also have those fuсking fluorescent office lights all over this place.

I think my monitor's top end was 70 or 75, I'm not sure. 60 was really annoying/distracting, though. 70 was an improvement. I think this LCD was an improvement over the CRT, but it's still not ideal. I suspect a lot of my headaches and fatigue might ease up with something better.

I have lots of sensory issues but with the light one the worst thing for me is the optician when they shine the light in your eyes. I can still see it five minutes later and I know without a doubt I'll be getting a migraine. I have so many pairs of sunglasses and I wouldn't even think of going out without them. I even wear them at night if I'm in a car because the other headlights are blinding and it'll be migraine-time again, yippee!

Tiffinity.

Yeah. Light, sound, touch, probably the others too although I'm not sure how I'd know—I do have some really strong dislikes in taste and smell, so maybe those count as hypersensitive.

BTW, with CFL bulbs I found cutting back on the wattage helps me a lot. Where I used to have a 60-watt incandescent, I now use a 40 CFL.

I honestly have less of a sensitivity to artificial lighting than bright sunlight. I can't stay outside very long when it's bright, I get extremely bad headaches and will often times end up vomiting because of it. I wear sunglasses all the time when it's bright outside, but it doesn't do a ton to alleviate.

Some indoor lighting does bother me, but that's usually when I'm in a white room (think florescent lighting ina white classroom with nothing on the walls and a lot of uniform desks/people). That's the point where I need to sit near the door and take breaks to try and keep the sensory issues from overwhelming me.

Sensory issues are wretched. I have them with bright lights, loud noises, strong smells (chemical not organic, strangely enough), high pitched/low pitched noises, particular textures/sensations, and much more...I hate explaining why I have problems with sensory issues /sigh/

I am incredibly light sensitive and have a lot of visual sensitivities that literally cause my vision to just look like a shattered incomprehensible mess. I also have frequent migraines, which also cause light sensitivity and other visual issues.

One thing I've found is that I have trouble with direct light in general. I can't even look at the light from my incandescent lamp as bounced off the wall directly in front of it, I have to cover that up somehow and then just get the light from the room in general.

I forgot to mention my visual snow/pixellation/whatever that intensifies with overstimulation.

It doesn't really impair my vision so far, but it's definitely visible and occasionally a distraction.

It's always seemed to me like mine was excessive "system noise", nerve or brain static. Yeah.

You know, it's really nice not to be the odd one for a change in my life. That's what knowing about AS and being around here has done for me—I'm much more comfortable with myself. I wish it hadn't taken until my 54th birthday, but better now than never.