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Aspie sensitivities
Jan. 22nd, 2017 08:41 amAn FB post in an Asperger's group was asking about sensitivities. This was my response:
1. I can't stand the way certain fabrics feel. Courderoy, some velvets; they feel greasy in a way that gets under my skin and feels like I'm being invaded. And even clothing makes me uncomfortable. I'm only truly comfortable when nude. (Or as comfortable as I can be, given the fact I still get itchy skin no matter what I do. Usually when I tell people this, they tell me to shower more often, but bathing/showering makes it worse.)
2. The sound of paper napkins crinkling (for lack of a better word). I have to close my ears until it's over with.
3. Smokers and vapers (which is pretentious smoking). The smoke makes me cough and choke. I have a hard time confronting people about smoking around me, though, so I usually just leave. Which can be difficult; people around here like to smoke by the bus stops, even though there are No Smoking signs on all the bus stops.
4. I can't stand screaming/crying kids, or infants and toddlers. Older kids who aren't making a ruckus, I'm fine with. Even when I was a kid myself, I rarely cried or screamed or made a ruckus, because I can't even stand the noise when I'm the one making it. (Come to that, I can't stand noisy adults, either.)
5. Sunlight. It hurts my eyes and often makes me sneeze. And as a ginger, I sunburn easily.
6. I can't smell very well, but some scents I am very sensitive to. The flower called Baby's Breath earns it name, as it smells like an infant's fetid halitosis to me. I have such a strong reaction to Baby's Breath that it makes me reflexively hiss like an angry cat when I smell it.
7. I think this counts. I have such sensitive eyesight that I can look at a tree off on the horizon and see the individual leaves, when most people can barely even see the tree. It's cool in many ways, like the fact that an eye doctor once told me after testing me that I have "better than 20/20 vision." And on those "what animal's level of color vision do you have" online tests, I nearly always get either Hawk or Robot. (Robot being higher than Hawk.) Pretty sure I only get Hawk because of weird color settings on the computer. But my spectacular vision can cause sensory overload, which results in headaches that turn into migraines if I leave them too long.
8. Some kinds of noises make it impossible to sleep, even quiet sounds. I found it impossible to sleep while using my CPAP because of the gentle sounds it makes when it's working, at least I did until I started sleeping with the fan on. The fan's white noise is steady and drowns out the CPAP sounds, which lets me sleep.
9. Alcohol. I can't stand it at all. I can smell alcohol in things even when other people can't, and if I ingest even a little of it, it makes me sick. I can't even use mouthwashes or medicines with alcohol in them.
I have a sensitivity to injustice, too!
Dunno if this counts, but sudden noises (especially loud ones) make my anxiety spike; it can take many minutes for it to fade back to normal levels. Even something as simple as a knock on the door can do it, depending on other factors. I'm most sensitive to car horns (especially the "friendly" kind of beeping for attention; I've been bullied and even sexually harassed a lot from people in cars) and fireworks. The Fourth of July and New Year's are two holidays I most loathe and detest for that reason.
I have food sensitivities, too, but as those are caused by IBS and not Asperger's, I won't list them here.
I'll do more later if I think of them.
1. I can't stand the way certain fabrics feel. Courderoy, some velvets; they feel greasy in a way that gets under my skin and feels like I'm being invaded. And even clothing makes me uncomfortable. I'm only truly comfortable when nude. (Or as comfortable as I can be, given the fact I still get itchy skin no matter what I do. Usually when I tell people this, they tell me to shower more often, but bathing/showering makes it worse.)
2. The sound of paper napkins crinkling (for lack of a better word). I have to close my ears until it's over with.
3. Smokers and vapers (which is pretentious smoking). The smoke makes me cough and choke. I have a hard time confronting people about smoking around me, though, so I usually just leave. Which can be difficult; people around here like to smoke by the bus stops, even though there are No Smoking signs on all the bus stops.
4. I can't stand screaming/crying kids, or infants and toddlers. Older kids who aren't making a ruckus, I'm fine with. Even when I was a kid myself, I rarely cried or screamed or made a ruckus, because I can't even stand the noise when I'm the one making it. (Come to that, I can't stand noisy adults, either.)
5. Sunlight. It hurts my eyes and often makes me sneeze. And as a ginger, I sunburn easily.
6. I can't smell very well, but some scents I am very sensitive to. The flower called Baby's Breath earns it name, as it smells like an infant's fetid halitosis to me. I have such a strong reaction to Baby's Breath that it makes me reflexively hiss like an angry cat when I smell it.
7. I think this counts. I have such sensitive eyesight that I can look at a tree off on the horizon and see the individual leaves, when most people can barely even see the tree. It's cool in many ways, like the fact that an eye doctor once told me after testing me that I have "better than 20/20 vision." And on those "what animal's level of color vision do you have" online tests, I nearly always get either Hawk or Robot. (Robot being higher than Hawk.) Pretty sure I only get Hawk because of weird color settings on the computer. But my spectacular vision can cause sensory overload, which results in headaches that turn into migraines if I leave them too long.
8. Some kinds of noises make it impossible to sleep, even quiet sounds. I found it impossible to sleep while using my CPAP because of the gentle sounds it makes when it's working, at least I did until I started sleeping with the fan on. The fan's white noise is steady and drowns out the CPAP sounds, which lets me sleep.
9. Alcohol. I can't stand it at all. I can smell alcohol in things even when other people can't, and if I ingest even a little of it, it makes me sick. I can't even use mouthwashes or medicines with alcohol in them.
I have a sensitivity to injustice, too!
Dunno if this counts, but sudden noises (especially loud ones) make my anxiety spike; it can take many minutes for it to fade back to normal levels. Even something as simple as a knock on the door can do it, depending on other factors. I'm most sensitive to car horns (especially the "friendly" kind of beeping for attention; I've been bullied and even sexually harassed a lot from people in cars) and fireworks. The Fourth of July and New Year's are two holidays I most loathe and detest for that reason.
I have food sensitivities, too, but as those are caused by IBS and not Asperger's, I won't list them here.
I'll do more later if I think of them.