What are your sensory issues?

[Cerulean]

I'm hating jeans more and more. After years of itchiness only after wearing them and trying about 100 different kinds of detergents, I think I may just have a sensitivity or allergy to the dye they use. Nothing like coming home at the end of the day and taking off your pants to find your legs covered in hives.

 

[kchapman1988]

i've got a quick question for everyone as a side note, does anyone else find spice (heat) physicly painful? i'm not sure if this is the intended reaction but anything above bell peppers and my mouth is in severe pain. i dont even like the TASTE of peppers

 

[Soup]

@Kchapman: Spices don't hurt per se, but my mouth reacts badly by getting little bumps all over the inside, my tongue feels thick, my mouth & eyes water & my throat feels like it's narrowing. With some fruits this can happen too even though I like the flavour (fruits, not spices) my mouth goes crazy.

 

[Megan]

i've got a quick question for everyone as a side note, does anyone else find spice (heat) physicly painful? i'm not sure if this is the intended reaction but anything above bell peppers and my mouth is in severe pain. i dont even like the TASTE of peppers

Maybe. I hate spicy food, or any very flavorful food for that matter, so I haven't had any for as long as I can remember. Maybe I hate spicy food because it hurts.

 

[kasmanaft08]

i've got a quick question for everyone as a side note, does anyone else find spice (heat) physicly painful? i'm not sure if this is the intended reaction but anything above bell peppers and my mouth is in severe pain. i dont even like the TASTE of peppers

I love spicy food, but I think that has more to do with what you're used to. I grew up with a lot of Tex-Mex and Korean, so I'm guessing my taste buds literally got burnt out- it used to bother me as a child, but overtime I could increase the spiciness.

What DOES bother me, though, is food temperature. Someone eating an ice lolly/popsicle with their teeth always makes me cringe.
I'm also a bit more sensitive to sour foods and things like vinegar. I have more of a reaction to that than spicy food.

 

[smith2267]

Yeah I love hot food. It's an acquired thing. I was starving my first time through undergrad, and my best friend was from TX...you get the idea.

 

[fjord]

Wow, I can see I'm not alone in the sensory overload department.

I quickly feel overwhelmed by multiple stimuli, and have trouble conversing with anyone. If I'm talking to someone and their kid interrupts us, I feel very frustrated.

As with many of you, these are really troublesome:

• direct lights, especially flashlights or lamps that aren't directed at the floor
• laundry detergent, and particularly dryer sheets
• dishwasher detergent - I use a fraction of the recommended amount, otherwise I can taste it on the dishes
• the bass from music down the street
• barking dogs
• clothes or jewelry around my neck or waist
• the feel of synthetic fabrics
• being touched at all - I like to be the one to initiate touch
• perfumes and deoderants
• the oily hair of labradors, ugh!
• people standing behind me
• strobing lights
• loud, sharp noises
• people whispering in my ear - that's the worst

 

[kasmanaft08]

[*]people whispering in my ear - that's the worst
[/LIST]

That's one I kind of forgot about mentioning before that really bothers me, actually.
Unless it's someone I'm specifically okay with being physically intimate with (long term boyfriend), then it feels suddenly abrasive and uncomfortably sensual. It will still bother me if it's RIGHT in my ear, though. I think most people don't actually know how to whisper, maybe.

It's difficult to describe that to people, but it's sort of like someone talking to you too closely. It feels very invasive and I can't focus on anything besides how uncomfortable the situation suddenly is.

Another one that bothers me in a similar way is a standing-in-line scenario: when the line moves up, the person behind you stands uncomfortably-and unnecessarily close behind you. When you move up, or to the side, it just continues. Out of all that I've mentioned, this is probably the worst for me- a stranger shadowing that closely behind you.

 

[Scaramouche]

My main sensory issue associated with the food textures. Since 2 years old my ration meaures about 1/3 from the ration of the most people just because I can't even place most of food in my mouth. I thinked one time that this is not a sensory sensitivity but just a one of my whims, but I realised that this is not true. For example I like dried pineapples but hate preserved, like pear juice but hate pears, like the taste of onion but hate pieces of onion in the food etc. Well, there are also number of food that I just don't like or that seems tasteless to me. Such problem presents to this day.

Another issues includes sensitivity to loud noises - construction sites, rock-drills, motorcycle engines, noisy crowds; also large closed environments (like underground stations and big halls) with the "cave effect" makes me easily overloaded. I never experienced the state of meltdown but sometimes enters the state of shutdown. I usually enters the trance-like or daydream-like state when being on the noisy street - this is one of my main state when I'm outside home. On the other hand I feels good in quiet places - like library halls or conservatory, even with many people around (so I think that my unusual states not connected to the presense of people but with the noise they producing).

 

[Cinnamon]

I don't know if a dislike of people whispering into your ear is necessarily an aspie-trait.
Whisperers often talk so quietly that there is no way you can tell what they are saying, or so loudly that everyone around you can still hear it, in which case the 'whispering' is pointless. Added to that you get their warm, humid, disease-riddled breath on and in your ear - which is just gross- and it tickles. Plus, the whispering person will be very close to you, whether you like them or not, and they may touch you without asking or warning you, and they may stink, too.
So ear-whispering is just objectively horrible.

 

[Soup]

That's exactly how I feel about whisperers: it's a stinking obnoxious behaviour considered rude in the NT world & offensive to many Aspies as well. What also bothers me about this is that the information, so sensitive & classified that it had to be transmitted by such a foul method, usually turn out to be a whole lot of unnecessary nothing!!! THe person could've stood on a roof-top with a megaphone blaring it to the world & no one would've cared.

Sometimes, too, if the person had used soe common sense & waited until a more appropriate time, he could simply have said whatever it was out loud...or even better: sent a txt.

 

[Cinnamon]

Hehe, my 15 year old son also thinks whispering is horrid.

I wonder if anyone here has trouble with hearing. My hearing is fine - I had it tested- but I cannot understand what people say if there are more people talking, or if there is background music and such, and I find it very hard to understand what is being said on t.v. for instance. I always watch t.v. with subtitles, otherwise I'm worn out from concentrating after half an hour or so. I have trouble on the phone as well, except with two people who I know very well. And I startle very easily, especially from sudden loud noises.

 

[Cerulean]

I have a similar problem, Cinnamon. I find it really hard to pick out particular noises sometimes. Mostly in restaurants or other places where most of the noises sound the same. I have a hard time also with songs, since most of the singing and the music playing happen at the same time. I usually end up singing a bunch of nonsense lyrics

 

[buckyboy14]

I have the same problem with songs. I can never for the life understand the lyrics! Is that an Aspie thing?

 

[Cinnamon]

I think some song lyrics are just unclear anyway. Like this: Napalm Death - You Suffer (with lyrics !!!) - YouTube

For me, the t.v. is annoying because I can't really enjoy programmes unless they have subtitles. Of course it's also annoying in group meetings, lectures and stuff like that. In a lecture I usually manage to follow what is being said in the beginning, but after a while I get tired and then I can't follow it anymore.
Group conversations are worse - these days I can avoid them, but when I couldn't, I would just sit and wait until it was over. and most times. I had missed a lot of what had been discussed.

 

[King_Oni]

I think some song lyrics are just unclear anyway. Like this: Napalm Death - You Suffer (with lyrics !!!) - YouTube

Death metal... and to some extent a lot of metal has unclear lyrics, yet it does fit the music I guess.

Years ago I was vocalist in a band much like the example you posted (but our songs were 3 to 4 minutes, not 20 seconds, heh). Quite often lyrics are unclear, but I found that's quite often because of lousy articulation (which can be hard considering the speed at which some lyrics are bursted out) as well as non-standard word use (since especially with death metal 9 out of 10 bands have lyrics about torture, murder, death and all kinds of nastiness). The more and more I listened to certain bands, I could decypher the lyrics more easily.

I remember people always whining how it sounded like screaming and the lyrics weren't clear. Then, asking my mom if she could transcribe lyrics of any artist she liked to listen (since she was one giving me a bit of heat for my music choice) she couldn't either... and that was a "normal" singing voice in her preferred style of music.

I thik it's a matter of a trained ear to even be able to transcribe lyrics in a lot of cases. Even now, when I listen to some rap music, I sometimes have to either rewind of take a lyricsheet somewhere cause I just went "whut?".

To make it even more interesting, there are a few death metal bands that don't even use lyrics, but just add in grunts and random shrieks so the voice is more of an instrument in a different way than traditionally.

While we're at it; here's a funny video to illustrate lyrics contents. Since spoilerstags are gone on this board I'll put up a warning here. It's probably NSFW and if you're easily offended by gory lyrics, do not check it out

 

[fjord]

I wonder if anyone here has trouble with hearing. My hearing is fine - I had it tested- but I cannot understand what people say if there are more people talking, or if there is background music and such, and I find it very hard to understand what is being said on t.v. for instance. I always watch t.v. with subtitles, otherwise I'm worn out from concentrating after half an hour or so. I have trouble on the phone as well, except with two people who I know very well. And I startle very easily, especially from sudden loud noises.

I also have trouble understanding when someone's talking on the phone or when there's any other noise around. My husband and I watched TV with subtitles for years; it's a bad habit in that if there was a show with no subtitles, we really had a hard time! So we forced ourselves to stop using the subtitles. Now, I just spend the whole show asking, "What did they say?"

The crazy thing is I actually have supersonic hearing and can hear tiny noises nobody else can hear.

 

[imagesbyholly]

Loud noises produce utter terror in me, even if I'm expecting them. I feel like I'm being eaten. Very large objects up close too- like boating near a very large bridge support. I totally know what you mean by the tv and subtitles! I'm famous among my family and friends for being able to hear things no one else could like high pitched noises or a mom coming up the stairs (quick, stop kissing!- "woah, how on earth did you hear that with the music up so loud?").

 

[Cerulean]

Right now my dad has a flashlight plugged in in the kithen and it emits a high pitched sound only I can hear. Its driving me nuts becase I have to work in the adjoining room and I hear it all the time. I can usually hear the electricity in the tv and my work phone as well but not as bad as this dang flashlight.

 

[Margaretha]

Loud noises produce utter terror in me, even if I'm expecting them. I feel like I'm being eaten. Very large objects up close too- like boating near a very large bridge support. I totally know what you mean by the tv and subtitles! I'm famous among my family and friends for being able to hear things no one else could like high pitched noises or a mom coming up the stairs (quick, stop kissing!- "woah, how on earth did you hear that with the music up so loud?").

I know what you mean. I was like that when I was a kid. Noises like a car or truck coming down the street would frighten me so much that I would run and hide my face in a corner of the porch. Thunder storms would terrify me too and they still do, but I can talk myself down from the fear and then it seams surreal and it's kind of exciting. also I know I can hear things being said behind my back that I wasn't intended to hear.