What are Your Sensory Issues?

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I'm another who is very sensitive to noise & can hear high-frequencies that most people don't. I can hear sonic 'animal scarers' which are designed to be very uncomfortable of course, but try explaining that to someone who is oblivious to it why you can't stay in their garden because of the noise.

It's worse when i'm tired as you apparantly get a release of hormones which increase hearing acuity. After one bad sleepless night I could hear pitches normally inaudible to me, like a chain moving or air escaping from a soft chair when someone sat down, both of these sounded as painful as the sonic alarm normally does.

I react badly to loud or 'explosive' noises, so door banging neighbours are a nightmare. Also get this at work which means it's really difficult to concentrate on anything as I end up a bundles of nerve endings who just wants to rip someone's arms off to *make it stop*...

Clothes & shoes - I can't stand things like seams or tags, bits that stick into my skin or soles just SHOUT their presence and mean I can't wear that item. Hair makes me so itchy, light touch sensations are maddening.
It's often most acute when trying to get to sleep, it's like my body is crawling with bugs...
Bright light is too much for my eyes, even daylight most mornings & often continues later. I can't wear contact lenses as my eyes are so dry and itchy.

Smells - I can really react strongly to some odours, my friend uses a brand of aftershave that makes me feel ill. It's making me feel queasy just thinking about it. Other smells just linger in my nose long after they should be gone, such as smoke.

Oddly I can feel nauseous or cold when listening to certain sounds or music, and not even at death metal decibel levels ! It may be a touch of synaethesia, does anyone else experience that?

My sensory issues are as follows.

- A loathing of loud, sudden or high pitched noises.
- A dislike to touch cotton, sand or sanding paper (and other items that I am unable to recall, probably).
- A dislike of bright lights and the dark.
- A dislike or spicy and bitter foods.

Add me to the list. Regular pepper is too hot for me. And sweet chili sauce which people find weird because it's usually the mild kind I find too hot.

There are also many plants/ trees in my town I can't stand the smell of. They like like wet mouldy sponges.

I'm like the opposite. I am addicted to spicy foods.

I can't stand bitter food at all, though.

Touch and noise. When I was a teenager, I often considered puncturing my ear drums to make myself deaf because so many noises bothered me so much. I am dead serious.

I could always remove cloathing that bothered me or punch a bothersome brat, but there was nothing I could do about noise.

Yeah everyone thinks I'm crazy because I think it's hot. You are the only other person I have met who thinks so as well. LOL Depending on the food, it may not be as bad because some things neutralize it a bit. However, it drives me crazy when people cook it in green beans or breading on chicken - extremely hot!

Even worse is when someone puts jalapeno peppers in something. My mom does this to spice her vegetable soup. I once told her, while I was eating it, that it was hot. She said, "No, it's not. I only put a little one in." I said, "Oh yes it is." About an hour later, she said, "You're right, it was hot. My lips are burning." lol!! !



Me either!! ! Of course I cant stand foods that are bitter, spicy, or have strong flavors (seafood). As previously noted, I also hate sweet vegetables. I loooove tangy/acidic foods though (tomato, orange, pickles etc)

I will eat jalapeno peppers whole, you know? And there's no way I'd spice a soup with a whole pepper like that. Talk about overdoing.



I hate seafood with a few exceptions. I remember once trying a dish with seaweed (figuring it was fish I hated, right?) and it made me sick. I love the tangy/acidic foods (although tomatoes I mostly just like). I find a lot of vegetables annoying because of texture (depending on how they're cooked, especially) and taste.

Visual
* I dislike the sun. Good thing I live in the 2nd most overcast area of America.
* Seems like certain red brakelights are blinding if I look into them, even in the day. Don't now why since they don't seem bright.

Scents
* A strong scent of meat is no good. Especially fish and balony. And most especially tuna.
* Smelling wet catfood makes me heave, probably would make me puke if I sat around it too long.

Sounds
* Can't deal with thumping car stereos. But that's likely true of many NTs. Who can they stand to be in a car or horse-drawn buggy with all the noise? (Yes, I've seen horse-drawn buggies with rogue Amish teens doing that.)

Mmmm pickles...
Beetroot, garlic, fruit/tomato/onionchutney, chilli or lime pickle that blows steam out your ears...marvellous stuff.

TASTE: I don't mind the taste of onions in some things. In fact, I think some things don't taste as good when onion isn't added. But only if it tastes good will I eat it - it's the texture of onions I can't stand on my teeth! To me, it is the weirdest combination of crunch and tweak on my teeth. Oh, I won't eat raw onion. If I put onions in something I'm cooking, they get sauteed first (usually with butter and a little brown sugar).
Celery - same texture of onions, but worse with all its nasty little strings. Eew.
Any taste I'm not expecting in a dish I order at the restaurant. Ruins the whole meal.
However...When a meal is really good, my mouth goes insane, in a good way. I feel like a wondrous blessing's been bestowed on me. Shrimp fajitas.
I am very particular what to have with what. Why bother with fajitas if there's no guacomole?
While we're talking guacomole, avacados to me are delicious. Nutty, mild, comforting. It is the best and only condiment for a roast pork sandwich.
Coffee tastes really good in my mouth.
Sweet pickles? Yuk, yuk and more yuk. Eew. Nothing redeeming about sweet pickles.
Very particular about sandwiches and burgers and what goes in them. Burgers with a lot of trash on them I can't eat, the bun goes mushy and the colors mix together and it's the grossest thing. Other people like it and I think that's gross too.
Never cheddar with roast beef or pastrami, always mild light cheeses.
Never thick slices of any kind of meat, always deli-thin.
Can't stand too much peanut butter in a PBJ.
Can't stand bacon cut too thick.
Love cantaloupe, hate watermelon. Texture!
I think McDonald's ought to do away with all their breakfast except the sausage biscuit. They ruined pancakes and biscuits and gravy. Their gravy is dis.gus.ting.
The best dill pickle, IMHO, is okra. Mild, perfect crunch, no slime.
Why does this taste good: Lay's potato chips with chocolate ice cream.
And this - french fries dipped in vanilla milkshake.
Can't stand ketchup on fries - love mayonnaise on fries.
Won't eat a waffle at a restaurant, they never know what a good waffle is. And restaurant pancakes are always like large, round thin sponges. Weird.
There is such a thing as food too cold, or food too hot.
Scallops make me want to hurl.
Mushrooms taste like dirt. I think stuffed mushrooms are funny. It's like they're trying to cover the taste of the mushroom.
I get short-term food obsessions. Had to have scrambled eggs on buttered toast, night after night, for almost two weeks. Had to have shells-n-cheese. Had to have fried potatoes. Had to have buttered toast dipped in hot chocolate. Had to have rice krispie treats. It will go on for about two weeks, then I just can't have it again for years. I went three years when I ate no chocolate at all - not a candy bar, hot chocolate, Hershey's kiss, nothing.
ODORS: Anything the slightest bit rotty, wet-cat-foody, rusty, feety, or pooplike. Gag! Not just gag, but it makes me irritable. Angry! Walking into someone else's gas. The odor in the home of a person who doesn't clean up after themselves. Old leftover food burning on the bottom of an oven. Those odors stick inside my nose and it's hard to get rid of them - or the memory of them. Raw eggs in a bowl, eew. The worst: the odor of ground beef cooking. I have to leave the room.
Sometimes I really, really need one spoonful of something - such as brown sugar, or soy sauce, or peanut butter, or molasses.
But the odor of Brut? Chanel No. 5? Coffee? Rose? Hibiscus? Clove? Gasoline? Eucalyptus? Smells good! Fresh magazine odor, and the smell that comes out of my copy machine, I sniff it up! They make my mood better. I don't mind my own armpit smell at all.
FEELS: Getting touched when I'm not expecting it makes me irritable, and a little mad at the person who did it. If there's anything wrong inside of a shoe, I have to fix it or get rid of it. Even one tiny little stitch rubbing on my foot. I always put moleskin in backs of my shoes because I have narrow heels, and I can't stand the heels slipping off when I walk. Also I can feel the cracks in the sidewalks, so I avoid them, or I will continue to feel them, and think about them for an hour. And I always step off curbs with the right foot first, otherwise my steps won't "feel right." When I take a tag out of a piece of clothing, I undo the stitches they used to put it in, otherwise, I can feel the top of the tag. I wear long underwear inside out to avoid tags and thick seams. I've been told many times I wear clothes far too big for me. I know I do. Can't wear anything binding. Only certain pieces of clothing I can wear close fitting or snug. Never wear a bra, not in many years. Sometimes sock seams are too weird, so I wear them inside out. Three-quarter sleeves? They feel stupid, look stupid, they seem not-finished-yet. Won't wear 'em.
My neck seems incredibly sensitive. Can't wear turtlenecks, and that's not the half of it. I can't sleep if the blanket is touching my neck. I won't wear button my shirts all the way to the top because the collar will touch my neck. I'd rather go cold than wear a scarf. If I imagine something touching my neck, I can actually feel it. Ack! Husband's lips and mustache, however, can almost bring me to orgasm, not kidding.
I will lay down sometimes and lightly drag the fingertips of one hand on the opposite arm. That feels so awesome.
I really, really love having my back scratched, hard.
Tickling is anger-inducing, and I will hold a grudge.
My kitten's fur on the inside of my wrist is comforting and sweet. I will rub my wrists on her until she gets tired of it.
EYES: I see patterns everywhere. Some I love, some I really hate. It seems silly when other people can't see the same patterns. I like florals, but really hate houndstooth. Houndstooth makes my eyes dance, and I mean that in a bad way. Same thing with polka dots. Disproportionate bodies strike me as very odd. You know those guys who think they're beefed up because they're lifting weights, but they're only working their arms? The rest of them are still skinny? Weird.
I'm okay if I find a zit starting on my face...but if it gets a twin-zit on the other side, I have to pop one or the other.
Women wearing too much makeup look like clowns to me. And that's not envy speaking, it is literally the bright lipstick and the black outlines around the eyes, and the weird colors on the eyelids. Clownish.
I am dazzled and I stare at those India women who wear fancy clothes and do that ancient dancing. Belly dancing, too. Hula. The eyes of a wild animal. A giant anaconda with a hippo in its stomach.
EARS: Chanting is dazzling to hear, especially Maori haka. I don't want it to stop. Monks singing. Old time Chinese singing. Wild animals growling. I feel thunder in my bones when I hear it and I like it. I feel like it is the child in me, trying to kick her way out of the trick plate in my back.
When I come to work and find anything not in the same place I left it, I ask around until I find the person who moved it, and then explain to them to keep their nasty dirty unthinking inconsiderate paws off my stuff. When they ask what the consequences are, I say, what more consequences do you need than to to have it confirmed your mitts are nasty and dirty and that you are unthinking and inconsiderate? Because...it messes me up, it messes with my work, my work is behind because I can't find stuff, and it's all your fault. And it all started when I SAW that something wasn't there or got moved. It sticks in front of my eye, like when you look at a lightbulb or the sun for too long and then there's a shadow in front of your eye.
I can't stop staring at peoples protests against government. Depending on the situation, it's incredibly beautiful as much as scary and horrifying. I mean real human protesting, not the eyerolling-inducing tea party sign waving or parents-again-sex-ed foot stomping. It is the triumph of the human soul that strikes me in my heart. I ached and I loved when Thailand was protesting last spring. I cried when I saw a photo of a Buddhist monk tied to a chair wearing plastic handcuffs. How could anyone, on-spectrum or off-spectrum, not be deeply, deeply affected by a photo like that? I mean, Buddhist monk. What's he gonna do anyway? I was right with those people when I watched them stand unarmed against their own army. I was horrified when Commander Red got shot in the head, and I watched that video over and over and over. Now, it's the protesting in Egypt. Beautiful and horrific.
Driving at dusk is something I will avoid, always make husband drive. People are stupid about their lights, the sun is stupid with its winking and indecision, and the shadows are stupid in their length and size, I'm stupid by having to drive this time of day. By "stupid," I mean, it's all making me that irritable, that everything around me seems stupid.
The toenail on my big right toe must be exactly the same length as the toenail on the opposite toe, or I focus on the feeling that one is longer than the other, bumping against my shoes, and it's so distracting.
When I used to wear make-up, I could feel every tiny little milligram of it. The sandpaperyness of the powder, the stickiness of the mascara, the sliminess of the lipstick, the cakiness of the eye shadow. I never got through a day well with makeup on.
I can't stand it when the sun's too bright. Hate too many streetlamps. Really hate when someone turns out the light when we're watching tv. It feels like the world just died.
Husband says broccoli and cauliflower are just about the same thing. I say, texture. Texture is why broccoli is good and cauliflower is pukey.
If I eat a fried egg, the yolk has to be runny, otherwise, through the fork my fingers will feel the awful firmness of that cooked yolk. It is awful, I get where I have to shake my fingers to get that feeling off me.
Food shouldn't wiggle. I think we can all agree. Jell-O? Why oh why do people eat that.
Borden brick cheese slices are awesome. Single-wrapped cheese? Wiggles! Gross.
My hair has two different textures: smooth straight brown hairs mixed with curly-wurly black hairs. When idle, often I feel my hair. If I feel a curly sticking out from the rest, I feel on it for a while. I make myself not pull it out, because I really don't want that to become habit. I feel it and look at, and examine every twist and turn it makes.
Soaps that leave too much lotion on me feel weird. they don't belong together, because they're meant for separate things. So I use very simple soap and put real lotion on later. I hate any cold air attacking my skin after a shower, so as soon as I'm done, I lotion up. it creates a barrier between my wet skin and the air. then I dry off, paying particular attention to toes and my back so as to not moisten the clothes. A damp spot on my clothes, no matter how tiny, will have me unclothing, drying some more, and putting different clothes. It seems I can feel the damp spot forever, even after it's dry.
Any movements by other people within my personal space I take seriously and personally. Those people who pretend to throw a punch, or pretend to flick your face, etc., because they're immature and think it's funny. I find it invasive and stupid. I've never had the same person do it a second time to me. I'm not sure why. Something about my reaction (like the screaming or yelping and sometimes crying) seems to make them decide not to do it again. I can feel those actions days later, feel the air snap around the hand just inches away from my face. Jerks.
Hate getting startled, especially through touch.
Men whose lips are too pink I will avoid looking at because it doesn't seem "right."
Really sorry if this one grosses anyone out (for real sorry, not just should-be sorry). A few things about having a "monthly" bother me, like odor, feminine products feel alien and weird and somehow conformist. I've never been a big believer in the "evilness" and "grossness" of a woman's monthly. But I do know the odor bothers me, and the products too. I got a menstrual cup and discovered that feminine products created most of the odor. The cup is a dream, no stickiness in my clothes, no drippy feeling, nothing going to landfill (which helps fulfill another stupid social obligation keeping things out of landfill, those b*****s who think you're evil if you don't recycle everything in the house have got NOTHING on me and my cup - and the fact that I don't buy a lot of disposable stuff).
Sorry my very first post is so long, but I was excited to join the sensory issues discussion here. I've read so much in this thread that sounds like me.

Oh man....I'm a thread killer.

I hate escalators! I am always afraid I'll get stuck getting on or off.

Anyone hyper-sensitive to taste to the degree they Love the taste of food? I feel I love to eat more than the average person. Although there are plenty of foods I don't like...

yelling. (especially due to a verbally abusive ex-husband)

thumping car stereos

bright lights.

My niece sleeps with the tv on. If I have to sleep in the same room with her, I go crazy! I see the flicker through closed eyes. I also hear the hum of a muted tv.

Flashing lights - I didn't know this until going through a hall at an airport that had flashing likes, I felt like I was going to faint. Christmas lights are ok, but the new led ones hurt my eyes.

Hyper-sensitive to the feel of things, but especially things I like such as:
soft blankets
the feel of a cat's fur, especially when he's purring.

Mine are not so bad.

Smells: Cigarettes. If I smell them I instinctively cover my nose and start to feel angry. When I was younger I used to tell strangers "Enjoy getting cancer!" or cough really loudly in front of them when they passed by. But people told me to stop doing that or I'd get beat up one day.

Really strong perfume. Gives me a headache and also makes me feel angry.

Tomato sauce. Makes me physically gag.

Mayonnnaise. Also makes me gag.

Ground beef or butter in a frying pan. Have to cover my nose and leave the room. Makes me wanna vomit.

Tastes: Sushi (aside from inarizushi). I have come close to vomiting after eating only 1 piece. The vinegar makes me gag.

Tomato sauce. Also have come close to puking from eating 1 piece of pizza with it. I only eat white pizza now.

Mushrooms/Eggplant/Scrambled Eggs. The texture makes me gag.

Touch: Clothing tags feel like they are very sharp and kind of stabbing me.

Seams in clothing that are in certain areas (the side of my arm, at my chest) really really bother me to the point that I feel like someone has wrapped something around that body part.

Wool is very very itchy and gives me a rash.

Chokers/Turtlenecks. Feels like strangulation.

Heat and humidity. I find it difficult to breathe and have to drink lots of water to get my breath back.

Visual:

Fluorescent Lights. Make me feel dizzy, give me a headache, after some time it becomes impossible to keep my eyes open.

Clutter. Makes me feel very uneasy and anxious.

Strobe lights. Make my heart race and make me feel really frightened. I always close my eyes, even if they are just on TV.

Sound:

Ticking clocks/watches. Drive me crazy. It seems that I can only focus on THAT and nothing else.

Movie theatre sound. I have to wear ear plugs. The volume is just painful.

Leaking faucets. Same deal as ticking clocks.

Hair dryers/vacuum cleaners. When I was a kid I put my fingers in my ears whenever my mom used these. To this day, I never use a hair dryer personally and avoid vacuuming if I can sweep instead. I don't like these kinds of sounds at all.

certain smells, for sure. I can NOT tolerate the smell of cigar or pipe smoke. I will vomit immediately upon smell of these odors. I can tune out sounds and sights... but smells will definitely bring me to my knees.