Sensory Sensitivities: Physical vs. Emotional

[bentHnau]

What exactly counts as a sensory sensitivity? Does it have to be something that causes a physical effect (such as pain or nausea), or do emotional effects (such as anger or anxiety) count as well?

 

[Cali Cat]

Good question. I think it includes emotional effects as well. I know I have emotional responses to sensory sensitivity. I would think it would be feasible to include it.

 

[AsheSkyler]

Why wouldn't emotional effects count? It's an effect. If emotions didn't matter in regards to sensory input, there are a lot of items on the market that wouldn't be there.

 

[bentHnau]

Why wouldn't emotional effects count?

To clarify, I meant to ask if it would count as a symptom of autism/AS.

I don't know why it wouldn't count. I've just noticed that when I see people discuss sensitivities, they tend to talk about physical effects, and I wondered if I was actually experiencing the same thing. I think I get fatigued by noise, but it isn't nearly as unpleasant as the anger, irritation, and sense of violation I experience when I'm forced to listen to lots of talking.

 

[OddmanJive]

The disabling physical effects caused by sensory overload that I had as a child have almost entirely subsided (I'm 47). However, I still have emotional responses to certain sounds and sharp voices. I especially have trouble processing speech in noisy environments, or when two or more people are trying to talk to me at once. I feign hearing loss, but the truth is I cannot filter out one conversation from many inputs. This can be very frustrating, and can get in the way when I'm teaching. I sometimes have anxiety about missing things, and often process complex verbal interactions for days.

On the brighter side, I get a lot of pleasure from many colors, some textures (I'm like a cat with raw silk), some music (mostly instrumental classical or jazz), and I sometimes experience a pleasurable synesthesia with rave music, even without drugs. People with soft and in-tune voices are very attractive to me. I don't really know if any of this is related to ASD, but it seems likely.

edit: I habitually carry earplugs. It helps.

 

[ZackSkylar101]

I think you are right. From what I've seen from myself and other people who have overloaded, there are definitely the physical things, but there are also the emotional things. I think (like most things about living on the spectrum) it varies from person to person. One person may have a large emotional outburst when they are overloaded, while another may keep it to themselves. But yeah, I think it does cause a violated feeling. If I go to yesterday when I was overloaded by bad acoustics/microphone use in a lecture, it made me feel quite trapped and irritated (mostly because the person could have moved a meter closer to the microphone and turned the microphone down a bit and it would have been sorted XD).

So yeah, I think you are right. I think there are emotional elements to overload as well as physical, which would make sense as you are flaring up your sympathetic nervous system through the adrenergic input that is forcing you to respond like there is a threat, which would lead to a change in emotional state (boom! Neurological correlate I love a good neurological correlate )