I am older so I have been living with sensory issues a lot longer than you younger folks. I just wanted to weigh in and say some of the things that used to bother me don't anymore, and other things that didn't used to bother me do. An example is that I was a very picky eater. It was a flavor, texture and aroma sensitivity problem. As I got older I started to eat more and more things and there are very few things that I dislike strongly. I still prefer to eat the same things over and over, but I enjoy trying new things as well. On the other side of things summer used to be my favorite season. I loved hot weather. Now I cannot tolerate heat at all. The older I get the harder it is for me to tolerate a change in temperature. Most of the time older people hate air conditioning. I can't live without it. I consider myself hyposensitive in many ways. When I was a kid I would get bruises and not remember what I did to make them happen. My mom was really concerned about it because I looked like someone beat me with a stick all of the time. I am dyspraxic so I would constantly run into tables, trip, drop things, so I wouldn't remember the actions that led to getting bruises, but at the same time I could barely tolerate having my hair brushed when I was a kid, and socks drove me crazy. Sensory issues are extremely complicated, and you can be hyposensitive about one thing and hypersensitive about another.
Yes, same. I'm an elder Millennial, but still noticing changes in tolerance. I think excessive trauma might have desensitized me as well. On the other hand, I'm finding that using gloves for dishes, something that I didn't think bothered me anymore, has actually helped significantly in my patience/tolerance in other areas.
I'm a gen x person and I relate A LOT to most of what you wrote above. Yes re heat. Yes re socks. Yes re brushing hair. Most of it. I also was the same re hypo and bruising and unknown origin injuries. I picked my toes a lot as a child too, would have stubs on top of stubs coz I wasn't that good at walking as a child.
Wow laying on the floor as a stim. Yes. That explains that. Senior year in high school was so stressful, and I slept on my bedroom floor that whole year because that’s what felt cozy. I love a hard floor. If it’s cold, even better.
Same 😂. As a kid I always slept on my floor and always thought how strange it was. But it was because my soft bed made me feel uneasy and uncomfortable. It’s not that soft is bad, it’s just it caused me anxiety which i don’t really understand even today.
I don't sleep on the floor but when I was younger I was always lying on the floor. I still sit on the floor a lot and lie down on my porch occasionally.
Sensory processing differences include hyper or hypo sensitivity to changes in a sensory input. For example, you may prefer gradually increasing sound or light level but not sudden change. It’s also possible to be hyper and hypo sensitive to specific inputs to the same sense, for example seeking and enjoying certain strong smells but not being able to tolerate other strong smells.
great video~ i'm an experimental audio/visual artist who reached 40 before getting an autism diagnosis.... it's been pretty wild looking back at my long desire for creating abrasive sounds and visuals while at the same time rarely am comfortable with loud or abrasive sounds and visual things if its not happening at my hands lol
That’s so cool!! I’m at uni at the moment and found myself drawn to making experimental video and audio! I’d always play and make music but the sensory joy I get from creating soundscapes and visuals is INTENSE! ☺️
@@MrBlobbysLover love that. i can kinda now see how it's been one of my main areas for stimming the whole time, really can't imagine a world without that outlet
Wow, my senses really ARE all over the place! I’m visually sensitive, but I enjoy visual input that is interesting as long as it isn’t overwhelming. Think lava lamps, kaleidoscopes, slowing color-shifting or spinning lights; it seems the key is that the lights overall are dim and the changes are slow! 😌
In my country, people cannot fire you for asking for accommodations but are required by law to help out, and if you do get fired, it will be on the employer to prove that the issue which got you fired couldn't have been mitigated / fixed if accommodations were met.
When I was younger, I remember coming home after hanging out with a guy I absolutely adored and the situation went like this: -Oh, mum! We talked about music, videogames, marcial arts! He's perfect! -That's so nice, dear! So, are you going to see him again? -No. He uses incense in his house. I can't date somebody who does that. He must be insane. He and I became good friends with time and we had a good laugh when I told him about it. Getting my sensory profile helped me notice there was a reason behind all these situations and find peace in it.
For anyone who gets a lot of joy from intense visual, and auditory stimulation (mainly music), and is hypo in vestibular, if you ever get the chance, you should give Beat Saber on a VR device a go. I find myself full on bawling because it just hits so good. It's pure joy for me, and with the 360 levels, it's amazing! If you want to take it to the next level, add a haptic vest, and 🤯! Doesn't hurt that it's some wicked cardio too!
Beat Saber makes my heart go pitter patter… with the beat! Love that game; I’ll get so invested, I end up playing til I can’t catch my breath! Don’t have a haptic vest, though😔
This is interesting. Even though I consider myself very sensitive to light and sound, I find myself attracted to many sensory stimuli toys. I hate to have music playing when I am trying to focus, unless it is very boring sort of music. "Normal" noise drives me nuts and I hate the constant drone of a TV going. Yet, I am attracted to singing, chanting, working with singing bowls, chimes. But blowers, mowers, car noise, just noise in general can send me over the edge. Even though I am sensitive to light, I cannot see worth a darn in the dark. I am on the hypo end when it comes to vestibular and proprioception.
This is very interesting, however, I seem to be very sensitive to how the box keeps changing size. Each time it changes, I have to restart reading because the change in font size makes it difficult for me to process the information. We are all neurodivergent at our house and it has been challenging to navigate our varying sensory challenges.
I'm hypersensitive to most stuff, but I loooove spicy stuff. I don't think I have a super high tolerance but I love the feeling of really spicy food. I have a high pain threshold in some things, like I gave birth without any pain meds and I was just fine. It hurt, but quite tolerable. Migraines will ruin my day though, my whole body hurts all the time because of stress. I guess it depends. Maybe it just doesn't bother me if the pain is worth it. I like tight consensual hugs and touching different textures. I don't like weighted blankets for sleeping, but I like it when sitting up in my recliner. In proprioception I have all the red side going on and more than half of the blue. I drop and break mugs constantly but I find myself slamming doors on accident a lot. I NEED my space, I run into walls and large objects or people a lot. I'm great with a chef knife somehow. A true miracle 😂
Maybe like you - I love spicy things and really strong flavours. The weird thing is - if I take a bite out of fruit or lick something sweet my taste buds flinch hard. Whole body shuddering scrunches, caused by something as innocuous and otherwise delicious as a grape, have almost had me get run over before. I'm fine (usually enjoying it) after about the third taste - but the first one is always serious. I'm fearful of being pestered, by well intentioned people, into 'Just have a taste - it's delicious!' as it can happen next to busy roads, cliff edges or canals. I have to remember to be firm despite the weird contortions that the interaction might perform ('she's saying 'no thank you' just to be polite' etc.).
Thank you for this! As a late diagnosed adult, I have been struggling to figure out what my sensitivities are (hyper or hypo). I even tried enlisting help from a doctor, who ended up telling me, "You already know everything you need." This video has given me more insight than I could've imagined! I look forward to part 2! :)
I am diagnosed AuADHD, recently diagnosed 57 year old woman. Going along with your video I am both hypo/hyper it seems. For example lots of people in a room and loud voices, noises, etc bothers me alot. But I enjoy going to concerts that I like and I like to listen to music alot. I can relate to some of both the red and blue categories in all areas.
I'm just about to turn 54 and I just got a Sensory Processing Disorder diagnosis. I am in the 2.5% range. I hear, see, and what other people don't or can't.
Interesting. Can I ask where you are from? We don't have that as a potential diagnosis here yet, in the US, but I would definitely have that! I would imagine most of us on the spectrum would (?).
@@sharonaumani8827 actually I do live in the United States started out when I was talking to my general practitioner about being classy all my life and how pediatricians every time I see you when we just be totally dismissive and say oh you're just growing fast and so along with my diagnosis dyslexia I suspected I had dyspraxia that diagnosis quickly turned into a sensory processing disorder to which I am in many ways off the charts.
Idk if I’m autistic, but I’ve been looking into the topic for a month and I might be; anyway I used to worm walk when I was little, but I got really into balance, agility and dexterity because I wanted to be like my favorite fictional characters and used to practice walking like I was on a tightrope and balancing on one foot and doing basically parkour stuff.
I’m in my forties and on the unending waiting list to get on the waiting list for diagnosis. Basically I’ll never get to the top of it. But I’m also firmly convinced that you’ve been secretly spying on me because you basically just recited my entire life story in this one video. When you got to stims, I thought it would fall apart, because I had always seen examples given as things like fidget spinners which make my skin crawl. But no, you again listed immediately everything that makes my life possible. Including laying on the floor. So much of this I would never have identified as a stim but it’s how I have had to live my life and been called weird for. Are you living in my ceiling?
I'm hyper-sensitive to some things and under-sensitive to others in the same sensory areas. I've also learned not to react to some things, because I'm used to it being a problem to me, (sound wise mostly) combined with delayed processing sometimes, and a learning of overreaction= bad, I've swung to the under-reacting side despite being overstimulated.
@lairx it's crazy how much this happens in every day life. I never actually realised before how intense my fixations were, to the point I couldn't hear what he was talking about because I was waiting for the transition and it made me jump every time it happened 😅
I'm sensitive to the way certain makeup and sunscreen feels on my skin (especially the greasy feeling) , and some moisturisers makes my eyes sting and feel too greasy. I pretty much try to avoid sunscreen growing up as a child. Smells are also a big thing for me. I have this habit I developed growing up in a city where everytime I walk past a smoker I would hold my breath as long as I can, and that developed into me taking a deep breath and slowly releasing it out to avoid running out of breath
Same here. I can only tolerate makeup if it's part of a costume, and even then, it drives me crazy, and I can't wait to wash it off. I wear hats and/or use a 'sunbrella' (umbrella) because I can't do sunscreen on my face. I've tried, and it's so uncomfortable that I can't really function. (Edit: + pollen, dust, etc. sticks to my face if/when I wear makeup or sunscreen, which doesn't help my seasonal allergies any.) The only moisturizers I can tolerate are the aloe vera based ones that feel as light and non-greasy as possible. On the other hand, I love oil based cleansers, massaging the oil into my face and then washing it off with hot water followed by cold water.
I can get more "accustomed" to wearing makeup regularly after a few weeks if im diligent about doing it like, 8 out of every 10 days, but the BIGGEST help was actually just using different products from what's usually recommended for "beginners" or daily wear. Mascara is horrible and feels like grainy sandpaper when washing it off, so whenever i want better lashes, i wear false ones (strip or cluster asian beauty has some great subtle ones so it doesn't have to be dramatic) or, for that sticky/greasy feeling on the skin, i use an asian sunscreen with alcohol in the formula (so it dries fast and pretty thoroughly) and i either wear powder foundation, something that self-sets completely, or I bake with powder even when not reccomended for my skin type. Though those solutions all introduce other sensory stimuli (weight on eyes, heaviness on skin) it's ones i can personally handle better.
I didn't know I had a diminished sense of smell until I had to deal with my drunk sister. She had borrowed my car and got it stuck, so I used my mom's car to rescue her. Mom specifically asked me to notice if she smelled of alcohol. When I picked her up, my sister gave me a hug, and I couldn't smell anything on her. When we arrived back home, Mom said that she could smell the alcohol as soon as she entered the room. Definitely an eye-opener for me
The touch sensitivity is an interesting thing, for me. I cannot stand to wear anything binding [the whole clingy, legging fashion boom has been a real drag for me, and one I have been slow to take to]. I don't do tight! I don't like scratchy. The odd thing is, I actually love intentional light touch or stimulation, or "body brushing", as well as deep massage. But I cannot tolerate the bangs on my forehead [no matter how much better it might appear, as opposed to parting it in the middle and tucking it behind my ears, where it usually ends up when I am working]. Feeling something lightly touching non-intended, unexpected, is a whole different thing. I will embarrassingly overreact if I suddenly feel like something is crawling on me.
I am high on the visual sensitivity, but I also have poor depth perception and, like you Thomas, I love the stimulation through various lighting, colors, many pleasurable stim's.
got ur video on my feed (bc ive been watching autistic content creators a lot recently) after a 2h therapy session talking about autism that got me rlly worked up and ur video really regulated me, u have a very calming voice and overall vibe while staying very interesting and not boring at all despite the calm, thank u for this 😊 will deffo watch it again and do the homework 👀 and to anybody reading this, take care ✌️
3:00 I can vouch for it not having to do with taste myself, I don’t have a great sense of taste at all since the first time I got Covid in 2020 and yet I still need to chew SO OFTEN. I struggle with eating too much (I’ve been able to lose and then maintain my weight for almost a year now and I’m so happy I’ve gotten somewhat control over it) and I’ve found chewing gum really helps when I feel like I want to eat, but I know I’m not hungry. I know some people even get stim toys for chewing as well and I think it’s awesome
So I did the list. Oddly enough I have great vision in low light. For sound I have all 4 of them. All sounds are magnified and I have incredible hearing. Cannot stand loud music or even worst is annoying sounds created by other people (like a neighbor playing too loud music or music that hits high pitch notes). I have to use a white noise machine to drown out the neighbors unwanted sounds or else it drives me mad. Neighbor does this after 10 pm. Got the smells too. I cannot go in any restaurants or coffee shops. And I have to totally avoid all manmade smells like perfume, air freshners, paint, ink, etc. I dont even OWN any perfume! And yes I get horribly sick. It starts out with burning eyes, itching and joint pain but can quickly go to breathing isdues. I have celiac, corn allergy × MCAS. I have a very restrictive diet. I mainly do ketpvore. Mainly eat meat (grass fed beef × lamb) plus eggs, liver. Eat a little safe fruit. Its that corn allergy, celiac + the MCAS. i really dont like foods mixed together. Like years ago when I had a wider diet I would eat each thing seperatly. Like eat boiled carrots with carrots. Then eat the beef. Etc. I HATE sand in my toes!! I hate it if it gets in my shoes!! 😡 clothing tags can bug me too but that sand drives me nuts and I will get angry about it too!! ... On the other hand I do have a high pain threshold (but I read the more athletic you are the higher threshold you get plus I have hEDS). One time I got bit by my cat and the hand got swollen with angry red infection and I had 0 pain! I do like blankets on me. I also love leggings or tshirts that hug me. But I HATE tight socks! They drive me nuts! I do think the no pain with the cat bite is the hEDS. I do have incredible balance. I have great balance on a horse and while walking on ice too. One time the other year I walked like 4 or 5 miles on icy sidewalks without slipping. I am also the only one they trust to lead a horse over ice ground at the ranch! BUT... My balance can get unsteady if I try to balance on something like a balance beam due to my fear of heights. Then the fear takes over. I do like theme park rides but its forever since I was on any. I can have weak grasp on some things do to the hEDS..i cannot carry flat boxes very far as they just fall out of my hands constantly. But no problems carring a box that is folded into a box. Or pencils, etc.. Sometimes I do have issues with fine motor skills. I feel my fingers are big + clumsy so very bad at stuff like knots. Or doing fine detail work that involves twisting things or holding tiny stuff. But I can draw + color stuff in no problems. Just dont ask me to do beadwork or knot tying or making jewelry! That is all very fine work.. But I can do pen + ink, coloring, watercolors, grooming horses, putting the tact on horses, drawing, hoof picking... Tying a knot in a lead rope it OK or in the shoestrings but if you want a knot on the very tip of some string I cannot do that - the knot will end up in the wrong spot - like 1/4 from the end with a bunch of "extra" string poking out!
The day after I first learnt about sensory issues I was thinking about how that doesn't apply to me. I can handle crowded situations etc. While I was thinking about this a colleague asked me if the morning delivery truck had arrived yet. I looked at him confused and he looked back at me confused by my confusion. The truck was backing in to our yard audibly beeping as it did so. I said "The morning delivery truck is backing in right now" He listened for a moment and said "oh yeah"
Thank you Thomas - for so much insight and openness. This is really helpful stuff, especially as i am just rediscovering myself. Two remarks in addition you might want to follow up on: 1.) Emotion (both hyper and hypo - where as I wouldn't be sure what the difference is between hypo and alexithymia). Isn't emotion comparable to sensory input, just internal instead of external? I mean, you can listen to/feel your gut, can't you? And 2.) Cycling (not sports or anything competitive). This helps me regulate sensory issues in so many ways, (provided of course there is adequate infrastructure installed), I sorely missed you mention that.
I'm glad I watched this, I didn't really understand the hypersensitivity stuff other people were talking about, like I do flap my hands and rock sometimes but i didn't think I was stimming all that much. I have an app on my phone where i can make pretty liquid colours that move around i whip out sometimes and I sing a lot, have nice coloured lights, currently have an essential oil diffuser going beside me. When was young I used to eat all the sour candy I could find,. I only eat salt and vinegar chips and I always have some flavoured carbonated water in my fridge I also love sweet and spicy flavour combination and people look at me weird when I put hot sauce on my pancakes. I used to pick my hair when i was really young, I remember I gave myself a bald spot on top of my head in grade 2 and when we went to the park i would stay on the spinny thing the whole time.
Martial arts is so good for learning to control your body, increase spatial awareness and physical sensitivity. I used to run into tings and people all the time,. knock cups over instead of grabbing them - stuff like that. 20 years of Aikido has made an incredible difference in training sensory perception, awareness and physical control. I love heaviness and the uniform is quite heavy, the pants alone are made of 6 yards of heavy duck fabric. Tight hugs are amazing and kind of rare!
I struggle my whole life with hyper sensory issues. Worst issues I have with noise. But listening to soothing music helps me a lot. There are very many foods that I just can't eat.
You see, that's a tricky thing. On the Auditory Sensitivity, I identified with all of the Red/Left side, but I also enjoy making noise and/or playing loud music.
I also want to mention that as far as the term "sensory defensiveness" goes, for me the important difference usually lies in whether or not I have control over stopping or regulating the volume of the input. (Rather than in whether or not I myself am switching it on or whether I wanted it.)
Ptsd plays a big part of the sensory profile for me. I love hugs, but all school&health care trauma has made me intensely fear a human hug. Can't live with humans, can't live without them... Long live cats❤.
Just wanted to note that while I have extremely hypersensitive hearing, listening to music at high volumes through my headphones(particularly with a heavy amount of bass) is almost always extremely effective at helping me regulate. One reason for this is that it temporarily reduces my level of sensitivity to noise, and has been an invaluable strategy for me at work. I work at a grocery store, and times when I have to work a shift as a checker during a rush, this strategy has helped me avoid public meltdowns. I don't know what I would do without my skullcandies(skull crushers with the manual bass adjuster and the little 3" subs... I highly recommend them). Probably use my backup headphones(beats solo3... don't waste your money on these.... they are not even close to as good as the skullcandies.)
One thing I would add for visual sensitivity is the motion aspect. Continually changing visual environments bevause of sensitivity to detail is stressful
I definitely lean toward hyposensitivity in most things. I never heard of eating non-edible things as a kid being part of it but it definitely fits- as a little kid I ate lotion, paper, my mom’s cigarettes, once I ate a fish straight from the lake(a minnow), I also ate rat poisoning once too😅. I don’t really remember much of this tho….
That explains why I loved gymnastics and acrobatics, as a kid, when I had the brief opportunity, and while I could still do some of that without killing myself, ha. I also appreciated, to some extent, that feeling of working out with free weights, but ultimately, it seemed to make my back muscles always more tense & sore, than less, so I gave that up. I love to work in the garden [between my ADHD and autism] and could be there for hours, even though I may grumble about it when I get started. I got rid of the weedy grass and nature-scaped my whole yard when I purchased my home over a decade ago. It is clearly grounding, but also a dangerous place for someone with poor proprioception and attention, with a tendency to dissociate into their own thoughts. I have walked backwards into things, as I would be watering or working, geez. All of my acute accidents have been connected to my garden hobbies, ha.
My psych mentioned a sensory processing thingy-after I had my eyes tested for astigmatism. I don’t have, Infact eyesight perfect-It’s the bright lights. Always worn glasses and yellow ones for driving. I also love and do this daily if I can-is stick noise cancelling headphones on, so I can adjust bass settings-then hula hoop to psytance-to burn off restless energy, or zone out while moving, or plan things in my mind. Can’t have stuff touch me from below knee in bed, has to be cold and have a fan and open window. Live in N Scotland, so it can get chilly! But I hate being hot, I completely shut down in heat.
I am diagnosed with ADHD but have family members with autism and I think I might be on the edge of an autism diagnosis but sensory issues has always been a MAJOR part of my life. I'm really sensitive to light but am also an artist and find I use a lot of visual stims, I have bad balance and poor spacial awareness so I'm always bumping into things and people. In terms of oral sensations I'm definitely very hypersensitive and I was quite a picky eater as a kid, it took a lot for me to kind of get over it (at least for the most part). I think especially physically and pain wise i'm perhaps somewhat hyposensitive because I'm always looking for strong physical sensations, I love scratches or being squeezed, I enjoy certain pain sensations but when I have a migraine attack all of a sudden I'm hypersensitive and even the slightest touch can cause me intense shooting pain. I'm not sure if the last thing is more related to some nerve issues too. It is pretty validating to see the lists of stims and to realize that a fair few of them are things I do all the time, and my little brother is always walking around with headphones on, he's always been rather sensitive to sound, my older brother appear to be hypersensitive to touch and I remember when he was younger that he actually had a period of time when he'd avoid anything or anyone touching his head, he'd avoid showering because the sensation was too much for him, avoid brushing his hair and he'd get angry if we touched his head. With age we're all becoming a bit more tolerant of certain stimuli but it can definitely still be very overwhelming. I personally hate being outside in the city because there are way too many auditory and visual stimuli for me.
I've read lately that hipersensitivites are rooted in fact that input from particular "sense" is re-routed through area of brain that is responsible for processing pain, that's why it's so bad. With somatosensory category I also feel it's incomplete and it really should be broken into more categories so I did XD. Pain (nociception): I have idiotic pain thereshold, I won't react when poked with needles (dysautonomia and chronic pain combo). I can chew on my nails until they bleed if I don't control it and have tendence to scratching myself and popping pimples until they start to bleed. Love spicy food. Spicy is not taste, it's controlled pain reaction and also linked to thermosensitivity(hot). Menthol also gives controlled pain through thermosensitivity(cold). So hypo to pain. Touch (tactile) - there are places on my body that can't be touched at all without activating defense reaction, but other places need stimulation, so I like touch lot of fabrics. I'm ok with rough textures. But I don't like wet and slimey and avoid those. If fabric is sticky it can send me into meltdown in seconds. I hate hairs and strings on skin, especially wet, but sand and dirt is pleasurable. Food texture is crucial. So more hipo/hiper blend. Pressure: It is nice, but in moderation. Too much and I feel squished (hard to tell it to my cats who think that purring blanket that weight 1/4 of me is good idea - it's nice but for limited time...) and unable to breath, but not enouch and I start to snuggle to everything that won't evacuate fast enough (cats again aren't very happy). So also hipo/hiper blend. Temperature (thermo): scorching hot is non-issue. I like hot drinks, hot weather, hot bath etc. Cold is bad. Cold is painful. Unless we talk about my feets or hands, because they are so beaten by life (bad circulation, high pain thereshold, numerous burns and frostbites combo) that I won't feel hot or cold on them. Rest of body - big problem. So again hipo/hiper blend. Vibrations are absolute nightmare. I feel it in my bones and teeth, they are growing stiff hairs and spikes with every second I feel this. Vibrating phone on the other side of apartment is so painful that I need to wake up and make it stop. Half of electric toothbrushes are evil. Too much bass? Kill me. Someone's leg shaking in a manner that it makes floor to vibrate? Floor is lava! So def hipersensitive here. Categories from vid: Visual: mostly hiper, but mixed overall - bright lights are bad, blinking lights are sure way to trigger migraine, but not enough light and I'm switching to echolocation. Also slow moving colorful lights are great stim! Auditory: very hipersensitive Olfactory: very senstitive, but very specific and also lately less so (after effects of covid two years ago, but it's wearing out) Gustatory: very hiposensitive, but with preferences - I love complex tastes, so things that are one taste dominant are read as... kind of bland. So yes, it can be to sweet or too bitter. There's not enough of complexity so it goes "bland" at this point! Vestibular: I need movement, I love swings and spinning and theme parks... if my chronic pain is not stoping me I'm moving all the time. But I hate car journeys - they are nauseating. But put me on the train or on the ship and I'm fine. I mean if 10 in Beaufort scale wasn't enough to stop me from eating... Hiposensitive. Proprioceptive: Very high on both ends. I hate chew hard things now, as my EDS is flaring up, but in childhood loved to (it ended somewhere around high school) to feel this muscle tension of jaw. Also I'm drawing I'm very good at fine motor skills that way, but I have weak grasp too, so very inconsistent. I prefer to keep distance, but with my balance I bump into people a lot XD. Part that linkes to Internal (interoceptive) - feeling proceses inside my body, like peristaltic movements of the intestines or menstrual cramps etc. is part where I'm also inconsistent. Some things are very distracting (bowel movement) but others need to start to really go overboard to be even felt (like hunger cues).
I'm allistic and I have some auditory processing sensitivity ie I often cant follow or retain a conversation if there is any other noise. However most ppl I know don't even understand that alone, nevermindpolysensory issues in both directions.!, They just think I'm not paying attention.
Visual: mild (I don't like when people turn on the lights real bright but i thrive in visual clutter) Auditory: i think it can all be attributed to my Auditory Processing Disorder Olfactory: def on the HYPO side (i have 0 sense of smell, tho i am strongly bothered by cigarette smell) Gustatory: def on the HYPER side (i pick my food apart and i only eat a few meals i like everyday) Somatosensory: very complex (i check many things on both sides, one example is I'm weaker to sharp pain and stronger to blunt pain) Vestibular: def on the HYPO side (i love vestibular stims) Prioceptive: complex (i check things on both sides, all in all I'm incredibly clumsy)
Visual, red Auditory, red Olfactory, red, with slight blue tendencies Gustatory, red Somatosensory, red Vestibular, red Proprioceptive, red and blue both apply.
Completely agree with you on chewing - for me it has nothing to do with taste and it's all about relieving tention in jaw muscles or preventing that tention to build in the first place (alternative is me grinding my teeth all the time as a compensation to what bothers me)
Did you forget to add Hot and Cold to the list somewhere? Because I am super sensitive to cold. I shiver at 69 F indoors. Hate AC. But I love it hot! 100 F outside to me feels like a plesant 80 F day and perfect for a lovely walk. I do have low body fat and a low body temperature. I do think it should be domewhere on the list??
I had it under the thermoception part, but yeah we can be sometimes more or less sensitive… I believe it might be related to interoception differences too
Haha I'm a complete opposite. My body shuts down when it's hot, but I love colder weather (but hate AC!!!) and have trouble recognising I'm when I'm getting too cold
Visual: red with a little bit of blue. Auditory: red Olfactory: red Gustatory : slightly blue if anything. (My only real issue with food stems from the next category) Somatosensory: red just all the red! Vestibular: a mix of both due to also having dcd (Dyspraxia). Proprioceptive: fully both again due to also having dcd.
Did not know I could get so much new helpful information out of this video. Thank You a lot, Thomas!!! I´d like to have an added printable version ;-), but as You put it in those nice boxes I can go back and make one on my own. Will go and check out Your amazon list. Want such a ring, ordered one, but it was much to small, so actually looking for a better one. Edit: unfortunatly EVERYTHING I clicked on said "can´t be delivered to Your location" or something like that. Germany is not so far away... Seems we share A LOT of things we like (and I am a nearly 50 yo woman :-))), some are already on my wishlist, some I already have for years (before even knowing beeing also autistic (diagnosed around 30 with Ad(H)D after son, that time it was either or, but asked if I could be also autistic as I thaught so). I´d so much like to get a mangotaste toothpaste for example again, now have one for kids with bananataste, but at least it is not that horrible menth-taste. So next time I am in brittain I´d get them there and get some with me. Next to mini Hula-Hops-bags with vinegar and Alpro vanilla custard and.... Maybe it is a "EU" thing as brittain left it?
Interesting list. Not something I was ever really able to organize. Some of these are almost completely obvious for me. Others are a little mixed. I do find it amusing however that as far as auditory and visual sensitivity goes, I fall quite firmly on the "hyper" side of things, but I also prefer some auditory and visual stims that seem to completely contradict that.
I didn't realize motion sickness had to do with sensory sensitivity, I get motion sick so easily, I literally can't do anything while riding in a car (read, be on my phone, etc.) with out getting very carsick. Sometimes I can't even sit on my spinning desk chair without the slight wobble upsetting my stomach
I am hyposensitive to smells and the temperature. I have a lesser sense of smell than most. Most the time I don't notice the temperature and often people will talk/complain about the temperature in a room changing, and I wouldn't even notice anything, but as soon as the temperature passes the threshold and I can feel it, it upsets me and I'll complain so much lol
Visual sensitivity: In the middle Auditory sensitivity: Hypersensitive Olfactory (smell) sensitivity: Hypersensitive Gustatory (taste) sensitivity: In the middle Somatosensory (touch) sensitivity: Hypersensitive Vestibular (balance) sensitivity: In the middle Proprioceptive sensitivity: In the middle
I am L1 autistic and am on the higher end of the adhd spectrum. I have (sometimes extreme) sensory sensitivities on both the hypo and hyper sides of each type. That is common right?? I am also I highly-skilled, adult, female masker who was very late diagnosed, if that matters.
What else is interesting is that I don't recall very much repetition in play. However, when I think of my love for percussion! It's unfortunate I didn't have exposure to that when I was young because I think my life could have been different if I had been part of some community drumming type group. I've been told I have a "great sense of rhythm" and I can learn complex rhythms, but it doesn't matter, because I would never be able to remember that rhythm I just learned, to be able to practice it on command, which has always been a drag, for me. I would have loved to do anything with percussion. Clapping in patterns, with a group. This kind of stuff wasn't available as I grew up. We didn't have cable TV, or even videos, let alone You Tube.
When it comes to auditory sensitivity, I relate to both aspects. I'm very sensitive to sounds, but I'm also a sensory seeker, so I like to make loud music (metal, noise, dark ambient etc). But on the other hand, I can't stand cellphone speakers or laptop speakers, and construction work is very bothersome to me.
I'm hypersensitive in every area other than gustatory were I enjoy some overstimulating sensations sour candy and spicy food but my sense of taste is still pretty sharp. I seem to have hyposensitive traits in somatosensorial and propiosensorial categories which is perhaps the oddest thing for me is being simultaneously hyper and hyposensitive. I would say my vestibular sense is the most neutral I dislike theme park rides but I also don't have trouble with car rides.
I am literally ALWAYS playing with my mouth. I got metal bits installed to play with even! Mostly I play with my tongue and teeth. Stress makes me chew my lips and cheeks - or suck them in tightly to my teeth.
Sensory processing disorder is not yet recognized by the DSM or ICD. That’s why it’s considered sensory differences because research does not yet support it as pathological, although this is currently being researched and discussed.
Visual sensitivity - bright lights bother me yes, but not to an extreme. Sunlight on the other hand is different and my eyes will burn and water frequently on Bright Days. Clutter is visually appealing to me more than a very sparsely decorated space. Mess doesn't bother me as much as it does other people in my family, thus why my messy bedroom doesn't bother me dispite how chaotic of a disastrous mess it is😅. Without my glasses I can't really see clearly. I need an object to be like two inches from my face to see it clearly without my glasses on. I do have poor depth perception though. I think I and more on the red side than blue though. Auditory Sensitivity - I am very much in the red. Noise seems magnified for sure and can sound distorted at times too. Inability to cut out background noise, yes! Stress from being in noisey environments, yes! I do wear headphones basically 24/7 except for when I am at work because its not allowed. The only blye thing is that I enjoy making noise, singing or making random weird sounds when I am alone, and I do enjoy listening to my music loudly the majority of the time. Olgactory Sensitivity - Oh, its horrible! Smells really really bother me and often make me feel sick very quickly! I avoid people with strong perfumes or just who smell of anything in general, the urge to cover my mouth and gag is so bad sometimes I have to run away quickly so I don't accidentally do it on involuntarly. Some strong smells can be nice sometimes, like the smell of coffee, but other times the same smell will make me ill...its really based off of how already overstimulated or overwhelmed I had gotten that day. I don't know anyone who likes how hospital smell or cigarettes though, those are always such nasty smells🤢. Gustatory Sensitivity - so in the red for this one😅. I have always seperated my food into separate piles and then eat in each pile separately, going from my least favorite food to my favorite one. I do gravitate toward foods with similar favors. I am quite pucky eater so I guess that makes me have a restrictive diet. Sonatosensory Sensitivity - I dislike touching other people, especially skin to skin...it just feels icky and leaves a lasting crawling sensation on my skin a majority of the time. Yes, I have issues with sand/dirt, or just anything touching my skin, even water feels gross and uncomfortable at times. I don't have difficulty washing my hair since I take showers now, in the past I just hated washing myself because it meant baths and being both wet and cold, plus getting water and soap in my eyes trying to rinse my hair out😑. I do have issues with clothes and clothing tags. Clothes being too tight, the fabric being itchy, rubbing weirdly, elastic bands being too tight, stuff like that. I don't have a high pain tolerance, if anything I seem to feel pain much more easily than others. Someone can poke me and I will yelp. I also hate extreme heat or cold, as I am normally very cold and have to wear sweaters all the time if I am not moving around, yet a brisk walk I will start to sweat quite heavily...it reallt sucks! Vestibular Sensitivity - I am all the way in the blue here😅, all but the theme park rides, because a lot are just too much for me and not only scare me but the few I have been on also have hurt and made me sick as well. But the rest of blue is very true for me. I love rocking, swinging and spinning. I use to spin in circles all the time as a kid. I use to also swing on the swing for hours and hours. I do enjoy car rides/train rides😁. I lose my balance standing still sometimes, or knock into objects or trip over my own feet often, yet at the same time am like a cat in my agility ability...just a clumsy cat😅. Proprioceptive Sensitivity - this one I am in both. I like to sit and move myself into odd, but comfortable positions. I have butter fingers and often drop things because my grip was too loose. I also like to keep my diatance from people. I also always bump into things, I am covered in bruises all the time. I do have poor spatical awareness when it comes to my body and environment if I am not making that a prime focus. I do injure myself quite often and often forget how I did it😅...
Is it possible to have aspects of both? I tend to prefer a bit less light than most people and to detail focus (hypersensitive), but I also have poor depth perception and love busy-looking environments (Hyposensitive). In fact, I am surprised to see detail focus and visual clutter on opposite sides - I like visual clutter, it offers a lot to detail focus on.
This is so weird. I was diagnosed as a kid but have been extremely high masking for pretty much all of my life and have been ignoring my sensory needs that whole time. The weird thing is that my sensory profile is entirely situational, and so sometime I am sensory seeking and complely unable to function at others because of over-stimulation. Like I resonated with both the red and blue side for pretty much all of these. I also have ADHD and dislexia which both have a corrolation with sensry stuff also, but it's almost like my ADHD is hypo-sensitive & my ASD is hyper sensitive. E.g., often need to listen to grindcore at full volume to feel adequetly stimulated but can't stand being in a room full of people because its too loud.
I don't know if they put down some flooring or carpet in the rental house next door, but I was driven inside, tonight, from some horrid toxic chemical smell permeating the air [other neighbors smelled it, though it may not have driven them indoors]. It immediately made me feel headachy and nauseous [that quickly abated once I went inside].
Can you be hyposensitive on some things and hyposenstive of others? For exemple for the somatosensory , i have high pain threshold , harmful stimming and love tight clothig and weighted blankets but struggled with clothing tags, some clothing material and when ppl brush me xd
I find that your (and that this is common otherwise also) definition of what makes something hyper and hypo is uneven. Sometimes it seems to be the intensity of the experience and abilty to either tune in or out the sensory input, but at other times it's defined by feeling an aversion or pleasure to it. And that being into a certain sensory input automatically means you're hyposensitive. In auditory, one example was "sound doesn't affect your concentration" to hypo, but then in hyper there wasn't something like "sound really affect my concetration" - wich in turn could be both used as an advantage like having certain sounds on when working or being unable to listen to music while doing a task. This way would be to define it by intensity of the imput. But in visual, being hypo is to enjoy clutter. Shouldn't hypo be like with auditory, that they would feel less affected by the amount of clutter? I take a bit of disdain when hypersensitivity is equated to aversion. And I don't use the terms seeking and avoiding at all. I would rather say sensory selective. I bet you're gonna recommend unscented hygene products to olifactory hypersensitive people as if the product itself doesn't have a smell that is just as hard to tune out as an added scent is. I'm somatosensory hypersensitive, and that's why I really like tight clothes and weighted blankets, shibari is one of my Big Stims. Hypo in this category seems to be defined by: "if I like x it means I can't feel anything unless x", but the examples are stuff that most people who I know that are hypersensitive love becasue they are hypersensitive. Also know a lot of hypersensitives to find light touches to be aversive. And again being hypersensitive here just means an aversion to something, also way to specific things in this category. I don't like accidental touches but it doesn't make me shiver, and why specifically barbers? I get that barbers is an example, but of what? (Going to a hair saloon would also fit into a other categories bc sound, smell, sitting in a certain position etc) In my experience with people who are hyposensitive, they are likely to: - Get bruises "out of nowhere" becasue they don't notice when they bumped on something. - Having dirt or food transfer to door handles and surfaces from their hands bc they didn't feel it. - Being bad at giving light touches and don't feel very much from recieving it. - Often slamming doors and drawers, or sometimes stomping when walking. I would even go so far to say that SH is more likely to be done by a hypersensitive person than a hyposensitve, because if you have a high tolerance to pain, doing pain on yourself isn't doing a lot. However the hypo who do SH, are probably likely to do more things with higher risk or needing to do a lot more to feel it. While a hyper with a low pain tolerance won't need to hurt themselfs as "bad". I really don't think SH itself should be an indicator of any of the categories.
Sorry if this come off as really critical, I don't know if it makes it better but I only critique things if I already find it well made and important, because otherwise I don't bother. I wrote a lot, but it mostly comes down to questioning the definintion.
I'm not autistic (at least I don't think so), but I have a lot of traits common on the spectrum to pathological levels, like my issues with taste, texture and smell. It's bad enough that I literally throw up bc of smells that aren't bothering anyone else. I can't eat at the same table that people are eating stuff I don't like, if they smell at all (even if it's not a "bad" smell), so it's quite awkward socially. Like at work, I can't eat at the cafeteira, and sometimes even passing by the door makes me nauseous, and I can't explain it, bc no one is bothered by the smell at all. Sometimes I just wish I had an autism diagnosis to explain it and many other issues, but I don't technically close the diagnosis, bc my issues are not affecting enough areas (nominally communication) to do so
I'm not entirely sure, but I think I remember reading somewhere that it's possible to have sensory processing disorder with or without autism, so in your case, maybe you have a hyper/hypo sensitivities profile without autism.
You know something that really autistically bothers me? When audio is ever so slightly desynced from the video. This is a great video that's very helpful but watching your mouth be so desynced made me age 3 years I have so many things going on. I can't stand noises but I love listening to loud music. Hearing no audio when there should be makes me crazy - the desynced thing me mentioned earlier is exactly that. The audio isn't coming out when the supposed to so it drives me crazy. I can't watch TV or play video games with muted audio. I can't handle strong smells. The smell of coffee wakes me up and gives me a huge headache. I can't have food touch each other unless they're meant to (gravy and mashed potatoes for example). I hate being touched really in any way.
I personally don’t agree with the hole neutral things cus for me it is debilitating and I can understand that some ppl who don’t have it as bad want to use sensory different. But I think it’s thinking to 1 sided
Ok so, im not diagnosed, and am not even sure i even count as autistic, i just relate to a lot of these things and watch videos on it out of curiosity. So im here and gonna tack this little "quiz" as if I was just for my own personal knowledge and a small test. Just keeping a tally here... Visual was neither, so I presume it to be average. Though i do have terrible depth perception, i believe its due to my right eye being significantly worse than my left. It was diagnosed as a lazy eye when i was 8 and i wore glasses until i was 11 when they broke. I havent gotten new ones, and have likely damaged the eye further with straining on dark screens during the day, bright screens at night, covering it with my hair during an emo phase, and many time scratching it out of irritation. I mean frankly depth perception is linked to how your brain interprets what you see, and if one eye is off center then the whole 3d stuff is messed up. Also helps me "see through" objects, which i as a kid thought was a super power. Its not, its just uneven eyes. Also have this like... tv screen pixelation wherever i look, even at my own hands or my closed eyelids. Everything is always filled with vibrant colors, always moving and never settling. Kinda hard to be hypo in that and im not bothered by it so im not hyper either. Its just there.... and its weird because no one seems to understand when is ask directly, but then they'll point it out in relateable posts on tumblr and other cites. Strange right? Auditory fell in the red side 100%. I wear headphones non-stop, regardless of playing music through them, they muffle others sounds just a bit and they add a nice sense of pressure to my head. I cant play music without headphones, or enjoy sounds without them very well due to it feeling, as I like to describe it, scratchy. Olfactory is 100% blue. Er its a tad embarrassing, I never know when I stink, nor do I recognize smells correctly. I might just have nose issues though, frankly i enjoy the scent of gasoline and the sharper smells, while being off put by overwhelmingly sweet perfumes. (mom wears a lot of perfume all the time, it gives me headaches so i dont like it. Though could be allergy related too idk...) if I were to put on perfume myself, I put way way way too much. I cant help it, i just cant smell it that well until its too much. So i dont wear it, and i end up annoying people with the bo smell that im also oblivious to. It stinks, pun intended. Gustatory is also 100% blue. I infact did "eat" non-edible things as a kid, it was not always for the flavor of the object though, rather the feeling of the texture on my tongue. Also ate various pet foods and plant leaves, just to try. I remember at age 7 having nearly finished an entire bottle of fish flakes, they tasted like weirdly salty chips. I do have comfort foods, but these arent out of not liking crazy texture/flavor mixtures (i enjoy a wide variety of foods, just never gooey stuff like fatty meats or eggs. They are the few food types that bother me), but rather for a consistent and reliable food when im feeling particularly down. Mac n cheese, tomato soup, and dino nuggies are great examples, and its funny you mentioned nuggies ^.^ Somatosensory... what the heck is going on here? I relate to both sides? How is that physically possible? You cant be both overwhelmed and deprived of physical touch right? I dont like mud, tight hugs, or tight clothes, those are the only wrong things about blue and everything else on that entire slide is relateable. How though? Ack... oh your mentioned that hehe. Ok so it must just be a situational or touch type difference, and not some weird amalgam of idek... Vestibular 100% blue. I dont know about amusement park rides as ive never tried the super large ones out of fear (i get really sick when im scared), but there was one water park ride that after i pushed through the fear i absolutely had the time of my life (rode it 5 times before my parents had to drag me away lmao). It was awesome! Proprioceptive 100% blue once more. Uh is this a bad thing? Im hyposensitive to lots of stuff. I wonder what causes that? Maybe it was my complete isolation in 2019-2021, but pretty sure it was there prior to that too... Ok nice vid! Guess I should mention my sister has a lot of hyper sensitivities, opposite of my hypo sensitivities! She is very picky with foods, often to the irritation of others unfortunately.
I am very sensitive to sound, and hear way over the normal range of human hearing. This isn't particularly a bad thing, since I have been a piano tuner almost my whole life. I am very easily upset by loud noises though. I also see way into the ultraviolet spectrum (which just looks violet to me). This has never caused any problems. If I wear UV filtered glasses, I lose a little depth perception. Luckily, I have no problems with texture, outside of hating octopus and gristly liver, but those things are Objectively Disgusting.
My mother complained bitterly about the holes I chewed in my clothing in elementary school; hey, that’s what happens when you make an undiagnosed, untreated AuDHD kid sit still! 🤷♀️
@misspatvandriverlady7555 I just loved the texture. The one I did not do it with was polyester, not nice on the tongue. I buy chew toys now really relaxes me
I’m blue list full stop until you get to messiness - which stresses my system on a somatic level but also visual (but visual is overlapped w somatic so maybe that is a known thing? Does anyone know?
I have ADHD and ASD and it feels like they are at war with each other in my mind. I have a very inconsistent and confusing mix of both hyper and hypo per category. I don't know where i fit in, in the world. I don't know how to deliver my identity into other people's heads.
One time I had a college professor tell me "you're not not special! I have to be fair to everyone" when I tried to advocate for myself and explained my disability accomodations to her. I also had another teacher not want to give me my accommodations because "I looked fine." Seriously, how ignorant can you be? How do you not even know that's illegal?
I’m struggling to watch your video as it’s coming across like your mouth isn’t moving in time with the sound and the boxes with the red/blue options keep jumping backwards and forwards. Can you work out the sensory profile just from listening to your videos without watching?
I really wanted to watch this video, as I'm on the autism spectrum and find the information very interesting. Unfortunately, the zooming in/out that keeps happening in the video triggered one of my visual sensitivities and now I'm too angry/frustrated to finish it. :(
I didn’t notice that the first time I watched the video. I was so focused on trying to watch the video whilst trying so hard to block out the neighbour over the road who was being so noisy doing boxing in his open garage 😡 …very hard when so noise sensitive… Now I realise that the changing is affecting my visual sensitivities BUT still very much welcome such informative videos from a wonderful channel, thank you Thomas!
@ThomasHenley Thank you!! I'm gonna try just listening to the video next time and see if I can get through all of it that way, because even the bit I did watch was very informative and I'd love to learn about the rest of what you discuss. :)
why are your text boxes changing in height and length all the time? This is something that bothers me a lot 🙈is it a test inside the test? (if there are grammar mistakes: Sorry, English is not my first language ^^)
I am older so I have been living with sensory issues a lot longer than you younger folks. I just wanted to weigh in and say some of the things that used to bother me don't anymore, and other things that didn't used to bother me do. An example is that I was a very picky eater. It was a flavor, texture and aroma sensitivity problem. As I got older I started to eat more and more things and there are very few things that I dislike strongly. I still prefer to eat the same things over and over, but I enjoy trying new things as well. On the other side of things summer used to be my favorite season. I loved hot weather. Now I cannot tolerate heat at all. The older I get the harder it is for me to tolerate a change in temperature. Most of the time older people hate air conditioning. I can't live without it. I consider myself hyposensitive in many ways. When I was a kid I would get bruises and not remember what I did to make them happen. My mom was really concerned about it because I looked like someone beat me with a stick all of the time. I am dyspraxic so I would constantly run into tables, trip, drop things, so I wouldn't remember the actions that led to getting bruises, but at the same time I could barely tolerate having my hair brushed when I was a kid, and socks drove me crazy. Sensory issues are extremely complicated, and you can be hyposensitive about one thing and hypersensitive about another.
Are you me?!🙋♀️
Same, on both food and temperature front.
Except for the heat and cold, thus far, I relate very much to that entire paragraph.
Yes, same. I'm an elder Millennial, but still noticing changes in tolerance. I think excessive trauma might have desensitized me as well.
On the other hand, I'm finding that using gloves for dishes, something that I didn't think bothered me anymore, has actually helped significantly in my patience/tolerance in other areas.
I'm a gen x person and I relate A LOT to most of what you wrote above. Yes re heat. Yes re socks. Yes re brushing hair. Most of it. I also was the same re hypo and bruising and unknown origin injuries. I picked my toes a lot as a child too, would have stubs on top of stubs coz I wasn't that good at walking as a child.
Wow laying on the floor as a stim. Yes. That explains that. Senior year in high school was so stressful, and I slept on my bedroom floor that whole year because that’s what felt cozy. I love a hard floor. If it’s cold, even better.
Same, only it was all of high school.
Watching this video on my floor.
Same 😂. As a kid I always slept on my floor and always thought how strange it was. But it was because my soft bed made me feel uneasy and uncomfortable. It’s not that soft is bad, it’s just it caused me anxiety which i don’t really understand even today.
I don't sleep on the floor but when I was younger I was always lying on the floor. I still sit on the floor a lot and lie down on my porch occasionally.
Used to love that as a kid. Mil as well maybe I should do more of it this summer!
Sensory processing differences include hyper or hypo sensitivity to changes in a sensory input. For example, you may prefer gradually increasing sound or light level but not sudden change.
It’s also possible to be hyper and hypo sensitive to specific inputs to the same sense, for example seeking and enjoying certain strong smells but not being able to tolerate other strong smells.
Thank you! Yes, that seems to be the case.
great video~ i'm an experimental audio/visual artist who reached 40 before getting an autism diagnosis.... it's been pretty wild looking back at my long desire for creating abrasive sounds and visuals while at the same time rarely am comfortable with loud or abrasive sounds and visual things if its not happening at my hands lol
That’s so cool!! I’m at uni at the moment and found myself drawn to making experimental video and audio! I’d always play and make music but the sensory joy I get from creating soundscapes and visuals is INTENSE! ☺️
@@MrBlobbysLover love that. i can kinda now see how it's been one of my main areas for stimming the whole time, really can't imagine a world without that outlet
Wow, my senses really ARE all over the place! I’m visually sensitive, but I enjoy visual input that is interesting as long as it isn’t overwhelming. Think lava lamps, kaleidoscopes, slowing color-shifting or spinning lights; it seems the key is that the lights overall are dim and the changes are slow! 😌
Yes :)
same for me !
It seems like I am both hyper and hyposensitive to all of these categories.
Same
In my country, people cannot fire you for asking for accommodations but are required by law to help out, and if you do get fired, it will be on the employer to prove that the issue which got you fired couldn't have been mitigated / fixed if accommodations were met.
When I was younger, I remember coming home after hanging out with a guy I absolutely adored and the situation went like this:
-Oh, mum! We talked about music, videogames, marcial arts! He's perfect!
-That's so nice, dear! So, are you going to see him again?
-No. He uses incense in his house. I can't date somebody who does that. He must be insane.
He and I became good friends with time and we had a good laugh when I told him about it. Getting my sensory profile helped me notice there was a reason behind all these situations and find peace in it.
For anyone who gets a lot of joy from intense visual, and auditory stimulation (mainly music), and is hypo in vestibular, if you ever get the chance, you should give Beat Saber on a VR device a go. I find myself full on bawling because it just hits so good. It's pure joy for me, and with the 360 levels, it's amazing!
If you want to take it to the next level, add a haptic vest, and 🤯!
Doesn't hurt that it's some wicked cardio too!
Thanks for that suggestion!
Beat Saber makes my heart go pitter patter… with the beat! Love that game; I’ll get so invested, I end up playing til I can’t catch my breath!
Don’t have a haptic vest, though😔
Man I want to have beatsaber so bad, but my pc is too shitty to support vr and oculus doesn't even ship to my country :|
This is interesting. Even though I consider myself very sensitive to light and sound, I find myself attracted to many sensory stimuli toys. I hate to have music playing when I am trying to focus, unless it is very boring sort of music. "Normal" noise drives me nuts and I hate the constant drone of a TV going. Yet, I am attracted to singing, chanting, working with singing bowls, chimes. But blowers, mowers, car noise, just noise in general can send me over the edge. Even though I am sensitive to light, I cannot see worth a darn in the dark. I am on the hypo end when it comes to vestibular and proprioception.
I'm also sensitive to light but have poor night vision. Glad to know I'm not alone. :)
This is very interesting, however, I seem to be very sensitive to how the box keeps changing size. Each time it changes, I have to restart reading because the change in font size makes it difficult for me to process the information. We are all neurodivergent at our house and it has been challenging to navigate our varying sensory challenges.
I will keep that in mind! I do that as it’s better for engagement, but I’ll see if I can find a new way to do that :)
Pause the video , read the information, take what notes you want, and then listen.
I'm hypersensitive to most stuff, but I loooove spicy stuff. I don't think I have a super high tolerance but I love the feeling of really spicy food. I have a high pain threshold in some things, like I gave birth without any pain meds and I was just fine. It hurt, but quite tolerable. Migraines will ruin my day though, my whole body hurts all the time because of stress. I guess it depends. Maybe it just doesn't bother me if the pain is worth it.
I like tight consensual hugs and touching different textures. I don't like weighted blankets for sleeping, but I like it when sitting up in my recliner.
In proprioception I have all the red side going on and more than half of the blue. I drop and break mugs constantly but I find myself slamming doors on accident a lot. I NEED my space, I run into walls and large objects or people a lot.
I'm great with a chef knife somehow. A true miracle 😂
Maybe like you - I love spicy things and really strong flavours. The weird thing is - if I take a bite out of fruit or lick something sweet my taste buds flinch hard. Whole body shuddering scrunches, caused by something as innocuous and otherwise delicious as a grape, have almost had me get run over before. I'm fine (usually enjoying it) after about the third taste - but the first one is always serious. I'm fearful of being pestered, by well intentioned people, into 'Just have a taste - it's delicious!' as it can happen next to busy roads, cliff edges or canals. I have to remember to be firm despite the weird contortions that the interaction might perform ('she's saying 'no thank you' just to be polite' etc.).
Thank you for this! As a late diagnosed adult, I have been struggling to figure out what my sensitivities are (hyper or hypo). I even tried enlisting help from a doctor, who ended up telling me, "You already know everything you need." This video has given me more insight than I could've imagined! I look forward to part 2! :)
I am diagnosed AuADHD, recently diagnosed 57 year old woman. Going along with your video I am both hypo/hyper it seems. For example lots of people in a room and loud voices, noises, etc bothers me alot. But I enjoy going to concerts that I like and I like to listen to music alot. I can relate to some of both the red and blue categories in all areas.
For most categories I've got a mixture of hyper and hypo sensitivity
I'm just about to turn 54 and I just got a Sensory Processing Disorder diagnosis. I am in the 2.5% range. I hear, see, and what other people don't or can't.
Interesting. Can I ask where you are from? We don't have that as a potential diagnosis here yet, in the US, but I would definitely have that! I would imagine most of us on the spectrum would (?).
@@sharonaumani8827 actually I do live in the United States started out when I was talking to my general practitioner about being classy all my life and how pediatricians every time I see you when we just be totally dismissive and say oh you're just growing fast and so along with my diagnosis dyslexia I suspected I had dyspraxia that diagnosis quickly turned into a sensory processing disorder to which I am in many ways off the charts.
Thanks so much for this. Very helpful and especially can’t wait for part 2.
Idk if I’m autistic, but I’ve been looking into the topic for a month and I might be; anyway I used to worm walk when I was little, but I got really into balance, agility and dexterity because I wanted to be like my favorite fictional characters and used to practice walking like I was on a tightrope and balancing on one foot and doing basically parkour stuff.
this was insanely introspective!! thank you so much! I ended up creating a pdf of my own sensory profile thanks to this video
I’m in my forties and on the unending waiting list to get on the waiting list for diagnosis. Basically I’ll never get to the top of it.
But I’m also firmly convinced that you’ve been secretly spying on me because you basically just recited my entire life story in this one video.
When you got to stims, I thought it would fall apart, because I had always seen examples given as things like fidget spinners which make my skin crawl. But no, you again listed immediately everything that makes my life possible. Including laying on the floor. So much of this I would never have identified as a stim but it’s how I have had to live my life and been called weird for.
Are you living in my ceiling?
I'm hyper-sensitive to some things and under-sensitive to others in the same sensory areas.
I've also learned not to react to some things, because I'm used to it being a problem to me, (sound wise mostly) combined with delayed processing sometimes, and a learning of overreaction= bad, I've swung to the under-reacting side despite being overstimulated.
Totally fixated on the slide getting bigger and smaller 🧐😂❤
i find this extremely irritating - i actually minimized my browser and just listened to the vid
@lairx it's crazy how much this happens in every day life. I never actually realised before how intense my fixations were, to the point I couldn't hear what he was talking about because I was waiting for the transition and it made me jump every time it happened 😅
I'm sensitive to the way certain makeup and sunscreen feels on my skin (especially the greasy feeling) , and some moisturisers makes my eyes sting and feel too greasy. I pretty much try to avoid sunscreen growing up as a child. Smells are also a big thing for me. I have this habit I developed growing up in a city where everytime I walk past a smoker I would hold my breath as long as I can, and that developed into me taking a deep breath and slowly releasing it out to avoid running out of breath
Same here. I can only tolerate makeup if it's part of a costume, and even then, it drives me crazy, and I can't wait to wash it off. I wear hats and/or use a 'sunbrella' (umbrella) because I can't do sunscreen on my face. I've tried, and it's so uncomfortable that I can't really function. (Edit: + pollen, dust, etc. sticks to my face if/when I wear makeup or sunscreen, which doesn't help my seasonal allergies any.) The only moisturizers I can tolerate are the aloe vera based ones that feel as light and non-greasy as possible. On the other hand, I love oil based cleansers, massaging the oil into my face and then washing it off with hot water followed by cold water.
I can get more "accustomed" to wearing makeup regularly after a few weeks if im diligent about doing it like, 8 out of every 10 days, but the BIGGEST help was actually just using different products from what's usually recommended for "beginners" or daily wear. Mascara is horrible and feels like grainy sandpaper when washing it off, so whenever i want better lashes, i wear false ones (strip or cluster asian beauty has some great subtle ones so it doesn't have to be dramatic) or, for that sticky/greasy feeling on the skin, i use an asian sunscreen with alcohol in the formula (so it dries fast and pretty thoroughly) and i either wear powder foundation, something that self-sets completely, or I bake with powder even when not reccomended for my skin type. Though those solutions all introduce other sensory stimuli (weight on eyes, heaviness on skin) it's ones i can personally handle better.
I hate sunscreen and lotion.
I didn't know I had a diminished sense of smell until I had to deal with my drunk sister. She had borrowed my car and got it stuck, so I used my mom's car to rescue her. Mom specifically asked me to notice if she smelled of alcohol. When I picked her up, my sister gave me a hug, and I couldn't smell anything on her. When we arrived back home, Mom said that she could smell the alcohol as soon as she entered the room. Definitely an eye-opener for me
The touch sensitivity is an interesting thing, for me. I cannot stand to wear anything binding [the whole clingy, legging fashion boom has been a real drag for me, and one I have been slow to take to]. I don't do tight! I don't like scratchy. The odd thing is, I actually love intentional light touch or stimulation, or "body brushing", as well as deep massage. But I cannot tolerate the bangs on my forehead [no matter how much better it might appear, as opposed to parting it in the middle and tucking it behind my ears, where it usually ends up when I am working]. Feeling something lightly touching non-intended, unexpected, is a whole different thing. I will embarrassingly overreact if I suddenly feel like something is crawling on me.
I am high on the visual sensitivity, but I also have poor depth perception and, like you Thomas, I love the stimulation through various lighting, colors, many pleasurable stim's.
got ur video on my feed (bc ive been watching autistic content creators a lot recently) after a 2h therapy session talking about autism that got me rlly worked up and ur video really regulated me, u have a very calming voice and overall vibe while staying very interesting and not boring at all despite the calm, thank u for this 😊
will deffo watch it again and do the homework 👀 and to anybody reading this, take care ✌️
3:00 I can vouch for it not having to do with taste myself, I don’t have a great sense of taste at all since the first time I got Covid in 2020 and yet I still need to chew SO OFTEN. I struggle with eating too much (I’ve been able to lose and then maintain my weight for almost a year now and I’m so happy I’ve gotten somewhat control over it) and I’ve found chewing gum really helps when I feel like I want to eat, but I know I’m not hungry. I know some people even get stim toys for chewing as well and I think it’s awesome
So I did the list.
Oddly enough I have great vision in low light.
For sound I have all 4 of them. All sounds are magnified and I have incredible hearing. Cannot stand loud music or even worst is annoying sounds created by other people (like a neighbor playing too loud music or music that hits high pitch notes). I have to use a white noise machine to drown out the neighbors unwanted sounds or else it drives me mad. Neighbor does this after 10 pm.
Got the smells too. I cannot go in any restaurants or coffee shops. And I have to totally avoid all manmade smells like perfume, air freshners, paint, ink, etc. I dont even OWN any perfume! And yes I get horribly sick. It starts out with burning eyes, itching and joint pain but can quickly go to breathing isdues. I have celiac, corn allergy × MCAS.
I have a very restrictive diet. I mainly do ketpvore. Mainly eat meat (grass fed beef × lamb) plus eggs, liver. Eat a little safe fruit. Its that corn allergy, celiac + the MCAS. i really dont like foods mixed together. Like years ago when I had a wider diet I would eat each thing seperatly. Like eat boiled carrots with carrots. Then eat the beef. Etc.
I HATE sand in my toes!! I hate it if it gets in my shoes!! 😡 clothing tags can bug me too but that sand drives me nuts and I will get angry about it too!! ... On the other hand I do have a high pain threshold (but I read the more athletic you are the higher threshold you get plus I have hEDS). One time I got bit by my cat and the hand got swollen with angry red infection and I had 0 pain! I do like blankets on me. I also love leggings or tshirts that hug me. But I HATE tight socks! They drive me nuts!
I do think the no pain with the cat bite is the hEDS.
I do have incredible balance. I have great balance on a horse and while walking on ice too. One time the other year I walked like 4 or 5 miles on icy sidewalks without slipping. I am also the only one they trust to lead a horse over ice ground at the ranch! BUT... My balance can get unsteady if I try to balance on something like a balance beam due to my fear of heights. Then the fear takes over. I do like theme park rides but its forever since I was on any.
I can have weak grasp on some things do to the hEDS..i cannot carry flat boxes very far as they just fall out of my hands constantly. But no problems carring a box that is folded into a box. Or pencils, etc.. Sometimes I do have issues with fine motor skills. I feel my fingers are big + clumsy so very bad at stuff like knots. Or doing fine detail work that involves twisting things or holding tiny stuff. But I can draw + color stuff in no problems. Just dont ask me to do beadwork or knot tying or making jewelry! That is all very fine work.. But I can do pen + ink, coloring, watercolors, grooming horses, putting the tact on horses, drawing, hoof picking... Tying a knot in a lead rope it OK or in the shoestrings but if you want a knot on the very tip of some string I cannot do that - the knot will end up in the wrong spot - like 1/4 from the end with a bunch of "extra" string poking out!
The day after I first learnt about sensory issues I was thinking about how that doesn't apply to me. I can handle crowded situations etc.
While I was thinking about this a colleague asked me if the morning delivery truck had arrived yet. I looked at him confused and he looked back at me confused by my confusion.
The truck was backing in to our yard audibly beeping as it did so.
I said "The morning delivery truck is backing in right now"
He listened for a moment and said "oh yeah"
Thank you Thomas - for so much insight and openness. This is really helpful stuff, especially as i am just rediscovering myself. Two remarks in addition you might want to follow up on: 1.) Emotion (both hyper and hypo - where as I wouldn't be sure what the difference is between hypo and alexithymia). Isn't emotion comparable to sensory input, just internal instead of external? I mean, you can listen to/feel your gut, can't you? And 2.) Cycling (not sports or anything competitive). This helps me regulate sensory issues in so many ways, (provided of course there is adequate infrastructure installed), I sorely missed you mention that.
I'm glad I watched this, I didn't really understand the hypersensitivity stuff other people were talking about, like I do flap my hands and rock sometimes but i didn't think I was stimming all that much. I have an app on my phone where i can make pretty liquid colours that move around i whip out sometimes and I sing a lot, have nice coloured lights, currently have an essential oil diffuser going beside me. When was young I used to eat all the sour candy I could find,. I only eat salt and vinegar chips and I always have some flavoured carbonated water in my fridge I also love sweet and spicy flavour combination and people look at me weird when I put hot sauce on my pancakes. I used to pick my hair when i was really young, I remember I gave myself a bald spot on top of my head in grade 2 and when we went to the park i would stay on the spinny thing the whole time.
Martial arts is so good for learning to control your body, increase spatial awareness and physical sensitivity. I used to run into tings and people all the time,. knock cups over instead of grabbing them - stuff like that. 20 years of Aikido has made an incredible difference in training sensory perception, awareness and physical control. I love heaviness and the uniform is quite heavy, the pants alone are made of 6 yards of heavy duck fabric. Tight hugs are amazing and kind of rare!
I struggle my whole life with hyper sensory issues. Worst issues I have with noise.
But listening to soothing music helps me a lot.
There are very many foods that I just can't eat.
You see, that's a tricky thing.
On the Auditory Sensitivity, I identified with all of the Red/Left side, but I also enjoy making noise and/or playing loud music.
this is such a super helpful video full of helpful information!!!! thank you!!!
I also want to mention that as far as the term "sensory defensiveness" goes, for me the important difference usually lies in whether or not I have control over stopping or regulating the volume of the input. (Rather than in whether or not I myself am switching it on or whether I wanted it.)
Control is a big factor. For me, it can be more than just volume. Sometimes the vibration of noise is even worse.
Ptsd plays a big part of the sensory profile for me. I love hugs, but all school&health care trauma has made me intensely fear a human hug.
Can't live with humans, can't live without them...
Long live cats❤.
Just wanted to note that while I have extremely hypersensitive hearing, listening to music at high volumes through my headphones(particularly with a heavy amount of bass) is almost always extremely effective at helping me regulate. One reason for this is that it temporarily reduces my level of sensitivity to noise, and has been an invaluable strategy for me at work. I work at a grocery store, and times when I have to work a shift as a checker during a rush, this strategy has helped me avoid public meltdowns. I don't know what I would do without my skullcandies(skull crushers with the manual bass adjuster and the little 3" subs... I highly recommend them). Probably use my backup headphones(beats solo3... don't waste your money on these.... they are not even close to as good as the skullcandies.)
One thing I would add for visual sensitivity is the motion aspect. Continually changing visual environments bevause of sensitivity to detail is stressful
Great video Thomas, cheers 😊
Thank you!
thank you so much you are a blessing, your videos are helping me so much
lately I've been watching videos of household deep cleaning or landscaping for pleasing visual stims 😊
@@rycheesoda Carpet deep cleans scratch an itch in my brain. Eminem's new Houdini song has lots of stuff in the background that also scratch too.
I definitely lean toward hyposensitivity in most things. I never heard of eating non-edible things as a kid being part of it but it definitely fits- as a little kid I ate lotion, paper, my mom’s cigarettes, once I ate a fish straight from the lake(a minnow), I also ate rat poisoning once too😅. I don’t really remember much of this tho….
that was great! is the second part online already?
Thanks for this, Thomas Henley.
That explains why I loved gymnastics and acrobatics, as a kid, when I had the brief opportunity, and while I could still do some of that without killing myself, ha. I also appreciated, to some extent, that feeling of working out with free weights, but ultimately, it seemed to make my back muscles always more tense & sore, than less, so I gave that up. I love to work in the garden [between my ADHD and autism] and could be there for hours, even though I may grumble about it when I get started. I got rid of the weedy grass and nature-scaped my whole yard when I purchased my home over a decade ago. It is clearly grounding, but also a dangerous place for someone with poor proprioception and attention, with a tendency to dissociate into their own thoughts. I have walked backwards into things, as I would be watering or working, geez. All of my acute accidents have been connected to my garden hobbies, ha.
My psych mentioned a sensory processing thingy-after I had my eyes tested for astigmatism. I don’t have, Infact eyesight perfect-It’s the bright lights. Always worn glasses and yellow ones for driving.
I also love and do this daily if I can-is stick noise cancelling headphones on, so I can adjust bass settings-then hula hoop to psytance-to burn off restless energy, or zone out while moving, or plan things in my mind.
Can’t have stuff touch me from below knee in bed, has to be cold and have a fan and open window. Live in N Scotland, so it can get chilly! But I hate being hot, I completely shut down in heat.
I am diagnosed with ADHD but have family members with autism and I think I might be on the edge of an autism diagnosis but sensory issues has always been a MAJOR part of my life. I'm really sensitive to light but am also an artist and find I use a lot of visual stims, I have bad balance and poor spacial awareness so I'm always bumping into things and people.
In terms of oral sensations I'm definitely very hypersensitive and I was quite a picky eater as a kid, it took a lot for me to kind of get over it (at least for the most part).
I think especially physically and pain wise i'm perhaps somewhat hyposensitive because I'm always looking for strong physical sensations, I love scratches or being squeezed, I enjoy certain pain sensations but when I have a migraine attack all of a sudden I'm hypersensitive and even the slightest touch can cause me intense shooting pain.
I'm not sure if the last thing is more related to some nerve issues too.
It is pretty validating to see the lists of stims and to realize that a fair few of them are things I do all the time, and my little brother is always walking around with headphones on, he's always been rather sensitive to sound, my older brother appear to be hypersensitive to touch and I remember when he was younger that he actually had a period of time when he'd avoid anything or anyone touching his head, he'd avoid showering because the sensation was too much for him, avoid brushing his hair and he'd get angry if we touched his head. With age we're all becoming a bit more tolerant of certain stimuli but it can definitely still be very overwhelming. I personally hate being outside in the city because there are way too many auditory and visual stimuli for me.
I've read lately that hipersensitivites are rooted in fact that input from particular "sense" is re-routed through area of brain that is responsible for processing pain, that's why it's so bad.
With somatosensory category I also feel it's incomplete and it really should be broken into more categories so I did XD.
Pain (nociception): I have idiotic pain thereshold, I won't react when poked with needles (dysautonomia and chronic pain combo). I can chew on my nails until they bleed if I don't control it and have tendence to scratching myself and popping pimples until they start to bleed. Love spicy food. Spicy is not taste, it's controlled pain reaction and also linked to thermosensitivity(hot). Menthol also gives controlled pain through thermosensitivity(cold). So hypo to pain.
Touch (tactile) - there are places on my body that can't be touched at all without activating defense reaction, but other places need stimulation, so I like touch lot of fabrics. I'm ok with rough textures. But I don't like wet and slimey and avoid those. If fabric is sticky it can send me into meltdown in seconds. I hate hairs and strings on skin, especially wet, but sand and dirt is pleasurable. Food texture is crucial. So more hipo/hiper blend.
Pressure: It is nice, but in moderation. Too much and I feel squished (hard to tell it to my cats who think that purring blanket that weight 1/4 of me is good idea - it's nice but for limited time...) and unable to breath, but not enouch and I start to snuggle to everything that won't evacuate fast enough (cats again aren't very happy). So also hipo/hiper blend.
Temperature (thermo): scorching hot is non-issue. I like hot drinks, hot weather, hot bath etc. Cold is bad. Cold is painful. Unless we talk about my feets or hands, because they are so beaten by life (bad circulation, high pain thereshold, numerous burns and frostbites combo) that I won't feel hot or cold on them. Rest of body - big problem. So again hipo/hiper blend.
Vibrations are absolute nightmare. I feel it in my bones and teeth, they are growing stiff hairs and spikes with every second I feel this. Vibrating phone on the other side of apartment is so painful that I need to wake up and make it stop. Half of electric toothbrushes are evil. Too much bass? Kill me. Someone's leg shaking in a manner that it makes floor to vibrate? Floor is lava! So def hipersensitive here.
Categories from vid:
Visual: mostly hiper, but mixed overall - bright lights are bad, blinking lights are sure way to trigger migraine, but not enough light and I'm switching to echolocation. Also slow moving colorful lights are great stim!
Auditory: very hipersensitive
Olfactory: very senstitive, but very specific and also lately less so (after effects of covid two years ago, but it's wearing out)
Gustatory: very hiposensitive, but with preferences - I love complex tastes, so things that are one taste dominant are read as... kind of bland. So yes, it can be to sweet or too bitter. There's not enough of complexity so it goes "bland" at this point!
Vestibular: I need movement, I love swings and spinning and theme parks... if my chronic pain is not stoping me I'm moving all the time. But I hate car journeys - they are nauseating. But put me on the train or on the ship and I'm fine. I mean if 10 in Beaufort scale wasn't enough to stop me from eating... Hiposensitive.
Proprioceptive: Very high on both ends. I hate chew hard things now, as my EDS is flaring up, but in childhood loved to (it ended somewhere around high school) to feel this muscle tension of jaw. Also I'm drawing I'm very good at fine motor skills that way, but I have weak grasp too, so very inconsistent. I prefer to keep distance, but with my balance I bump into people a lot XD. Part that linkes to Internal (interoceptive) - feeling proceses inside my body, like peristaltic movements of the intestines or menstrual cramps etc. is part where I'm also inconsistent. Some things are very distracting (bowel movement) but others need to start to really go overboard to be even felt (like hunger cues).
Do allistics not have these sensitivities? For every one of these I have either hyper or hypo sensitivity, and 1 or 2 are mixed.
I'm allistic and I have some auditory processing sensitivity ie I often cant follow or retain a conversation if there is any other noise.
However most ppl I know don't even understand that alone, nevermindpolysensory issues in both directions.!, They just think I'm not paying attention.
@@rickwrites2612 thank you for answering
Amazing explanation, helped a lot! Thank you ❤
No problem! Glad it helped :)
Visual: mild (I don't like when people turn on the lights real bright but i thrive in visual clutter)
Auditory: i think it can all be attributed to my Auditory Processing Disorder
Olfactory: def on the HYPO side (i have 0 sense of smell, tho i am strongly bothered by cigarette smell)
Gustatory: def on the HYPER side (i pick my food apart and i only eat a few meals i like everyday)
Somatosensory: very complex (i check many things on both sides, one example is I'm weaker to sharp pain and stronger to blunt pain)
Vestibular: def on the HYPO side (i love vestibular stims)
Prioceptive: complex (i check things on both sides, all in all I'm incredibly clumsy)
I have most of these sensors, especially noise and smell
Visual, red
Auditory, red
Olfactory, red, with slight blue tendencies
Gustatory, red
Somatosensory, red
Vestibular, red
Proprioceptive, red and blue both apply.
Completely agree with you on chewing - for me it has nothing to do with taste and it's all about relieving tention in jaw muscles or preventing that tention to build in the first place (alternative is me grinding my teeth all the time as a compensation to what bothers me)
Did you forget to add Hot and Cold to the list somewhere? Because I am super sensitive to cold. I shiver at 69 F indoors. Hate AC. But I love it hot! 100 F outside to me feels like a plesant 80 F day and perfect for a lovely walk. I do have low body fat and a low body temperature. I do think it should be domewhere on the list??
I had it under the thermoception part, but yeah we can be sometimes more or less sensitive… I believe it might be related to interoception differences too
Haha I'm a complete opposite. My body shuts down when it's hot, but I love colder weather (but hate AC!!!) and have trouble recognising I'm when I'm getting too cold
Visual: red with a little bit of blue.
Auditory: red
Olfactory: red
Gustatory : slightly blue if anything. (My only real issue with food stems from the next category)
Somatosensory: red just all the red!
Vestibular: a mix of both due to also having dcd (Dyspraxia).
Proprioceptive: fully both again due to also having dcd.
Did not know I could get so much new helpful information out of this video.
Thank You a lot, Thomas!!!
I´d like to have an added printable version ;-), but as You put it in those nice boxes I can go back and make one on my own.
Will go and check out Your amazon list. Want such a ring, ordered one, but it was much to small, so actually looking for a better one.
Edit: unfortunatly EVERYTHING I clicked on said "can´t be delivered to Your location" or something like that. Germany is not so far away... Seems we share A LOT of things we like (and I am a nearly 50 yo woman :-))), some are already on my wishlist, some I already have for years (before even knowing beeing also autistic (diagnosed around 30 with Ad(H)D after son, that time it was either or, but asked if I could be also autistic as I thaught so). I´d so much like to get a mangotaste toothpaste for example again, now have one for kids with bananataste, but at least it is not that horrible menth-taste. So next time I am in brittain I´d get them there and get some with me. Next to mini Hula-Hops-bags with vinegar and Alpro vanilla custard and.... Maybe it is a "EU" thing as brittain left it?
Interesting list. Not something I was ever really able to organize.
Some of these are almost completely obvious for me. Others are a little mixed.
I do find it amusing however that as far as auditory and visual sensitivity goes, I fall quite firmly on the "hyper" side of things, but I also prefer some auditory and visual stims that seem to completely contradict that.
I didn't realize motion sickness had to do with sensory sensitivity, I get motion sick so easily, I literally can't do anything while riding in a car (read, be on my phone, etc.) with out getting very carsick. Sometimes I can't even sit on my spinning desk chair without the slight wobble upsetting my stomach
I am hyposensitive to smells and the temperature. I have a lesser sense of smell than most. Most the time I don't notice the temperature and often people will talk/complain about the temperature in a room changing, and I wouldn't even notice anything, but as soon as the temperature passes the threshold and I can feel it, it upsets me and I'll complain so much lol
Visual sensitivity: In the middle
Auditory sensitivity: Hypersensitive
Olfactory (smell) sensitivity: Hypersensitive
Gustatory (taste) sensitivity: In the middle
Somatosensory (touch) sensitivity: Hypersensitive
Vestibular (balance) sensitivity: In the middle
Proprioceptive sensitivity: In the middle
light both, sound hyper, smell mixed (might just be parsing it out), taste hyper, touch mixed, touch hypo mostly, balance hypo, idk for the last one
I have to bang on the spice funnel to get anything through it. The sound frequency is just right to trigger a migraine.
I am L1 autistic and am on the higher end of the adhd spectrum. I have (sometimes extreme) sensory sensitivities on both the hypo and hyper sides of each type. That is common right?? I am also I highly-skilled, adult, female masker who was very late diagnosed, if that matters.
What else is interesting is that I don't recall very much repetition in play. However, when I think of my love for percussion! It's unfortunate I didn't have exposure to that when I was young because I think my life could have been different if I had been part of some community drumming type group. I've been told I have a "great sense of rhythm" and I can learn complex rhythms, but it doesn't matter, because I would never be able to remember that rhythm I just learned, to be able to practice it on command, which has always been a drag, for me. I would have loved to do anything with percussion. Clapping in patterns, with a group. This kind of stuff wasn't available as I grew up. We didn't have cable TV, or even videos, let alone You Tube.
In my city they have drum circles where you just get together and drum.
@@Catlily5 That's nice. What city? I haven't been to one in so long.
@@sharonaumani8827 Albuquerque, USA
When it comes to auditory sensitivity, I relate to both aspects. I'm very sensitive to sounds, but I'm also a sensory seeker, so I like to make loud music (metal, noise, dark ambient etc). But on the other hand, I can't stand cellphone speakers or laptop speakers, and construction work is very bothersome to me.
I'm hypersensitive in every area other than gustatory were I enjoy some overstimulating sensations sour candy and spicy food but my sense of taste is still pretty sharp. I seem to have hyposensitive traits in somatosensorial and propiosensorial categories which is perhaps the oddest thing for me is being simultaneously hyper and hyposensitive. I would say my vestibular sense is the most neutral I dislike theme park rides but I also don't have trouble with car rides.
I am literally ALWAYS playing with my mouth. I got metal bits installed to play with even! Mostly I play with my tongue and teeth. Stress makes me chew my lips and cheeks - or suck them in tightly to my teeth.
Sensory processing disorder is not yet recognized by the DSM or ICD. That’s why it’s considered sensory differences because research does not yet support it as pathological, although this is currently being researched and discussed.
Visual sensitivity - bright lights bother me yes, but not to an extreme. Sunlight on the other hand is different and my eyes will burn and water frequently on Bright Days. Clutter is visually appealing to me more than a very sparsely decorated space. Mess doesn't bother me as much as it does other people in my family, thus why my messy bedroom doesn't bother me dispite how chaotic of a disastrous mess it is😅. Without my glasses I can't really see clearly. I need an object to be like two inches from my face to see it clearly without my glasses on. I do have poor depth perception though. I think I and more on the red side than blue though.
Auditory Sensitivity - I am very much in the red. Noise seems magnified for sure and can sound distorted at times too. Inability to cut out background noise, yes! Stress from being in noisey environments, yes! I do wear headphones basically 24/7 except for when I am at work because its not allowed. The only blye thing is that I enjoy making noise, singing or making random weird sounds when I am alone, and I do enjoy listening to my music loudly the majority of the time.
Olgactory Sensitivity - Oh, its horrible! Smells really really bother me and often make me feel sick very quickly! I avoid people with strong perfumes or just who smell of anything in general, the urge to cover my mouth and gag is so bad sometimes I have to run away quickly so I don't accidentally do it on involuntarly. Some strong smells can be nice sometimes, like the smell of coffee, but other times the same smell will make me ill...its really based off of how already overstimulated or overwhelmed I had gotten that day. I don't know anyone who likes how hospital smell or cigarettes though, those are always such nasty smells🤢.
Gustatory Sensitivity - so in the red for this one😅. I have always seperated my food into separate piles and then eat in each pile separately, going from my least favorite food to my favorite one. I do gravitate toward foods with similar favors. I am quite pucky eater so I guess that makes me have a restrictive diet.
Sonatosensory Sensitivity - I dislike touching other people, especially skin to skin...it just feels icky and leaves a lasting crawling sensation on my skin a majority of the time. Yes, I have issues with sand/dirt, or just anything touching my skin, even water feels gross and uncomfortable at times. I don't have difficulty washing my hair since I take showers now, in the past I just hated washing myself because it meant baths and being both wet and cold, plus getting water and soap in my eyes trying to rinse my hair out😑. I do have issues with clothes and clothing tags. Clothes being too tight, the fabric being itchy, rubbing weirdly, elastic bands being too tight, stuff like that. I don't have a high pain tolerance, if anything I seem to feel pain much more easily than others. Someone can poke me and I will yelp. I also hate extreme heat or cold, as I am normally very cold and have to wear sweaters all the time if I am not moving around, yet a brisk walk I will start to sweat quite heavily...it reallt sucks!
Vestibular Sensitivity - I am all the way in the blue here😅, all but the theme park rides, because a lot are just too much for me and not only scare me but the few I have been on also have hurt and made me sick as well. But the rest of blue is very true for me. I love rocking, swinging and spinning. I use to spin in circles all the time as a kid. I use to also swing on the swing for hours and hours. I do enjoy car rides/train rides😁. I lose my balance standing still sometimes, or knock into objects or trip over my own feet often, yet at the same time am like a cat in my agility ability...just a clumsy cat😅.
Proprioceptive Sensitivity - this one I am in both. I like to sit and move myself into odd, but comfortable positions. I have butter fingers and often drop things because my grip was too loose. I also like to keep my diatance from people. I also always bump into things, I am covered in bruises all the time. I do have poor spatical awareness when it comes to my body and environment if I am not making that a prime focus. I do injure myself quite often and often forget how I did it😅...
Is it possible to have aspects of both? I tend to prefer a bit less light than most people and to detail focus (hypersensitive), but I also have poor depth perception and love busy-looking environments (Hyposensitive).
In fact, I am surprised to see detail focus and visual clutter on opposite sides - I like visual clutter, it offers a lot to detail focus on.
Sound lvls, certain high pitched noises and certain fabrics.
This is so weird. I was diagnosed as a kid but have been extremely high masking for pretty much all of my life and have been ignoring my sensory needs that whole time. The weird thing is that my sensory profile is entirely situational, and so sometime I am sensory seeking and complely unable to function at others because of over-stimulation. Like I resonated with both the red and blue side for pretty much all of these. I also have ADHD and dislexia which both have a corrolation with sensry stuff also, but it's almost like my ADHD is hypo-sensitive & my ASD is hyper sensitive. E.g., often need to listen to grindcore at full volume to feel adequetly stimulated but can't stand being in a room full of people because its too loud.
I don't know if they put down some flooring or carpet in the rental house next door, but I was driven inside, tonight, from some horrid toxic chemical smell permeating the air [other neighbors smelled it, though it may not have driven them indoors]. It immediately made me feel headachy and nauseous [that quickly abated once I went inside].
The blissful and validation has caused more suppression. Especially if you've been hospitalized
Can you be hyposensitive on some things and hyposenstive of others? For exemple for the somatosensory , i have high pain threshold , harmful stimming and love tight clothig and weighted blankets but struggled with clothing tags, some clothing material and when ppl brush me xd
I find that your (and that this is common otherwise also) definition of what makes something hyper and hypo is uneven. Sometimes it seems to be the intensity of the experience and abilty to either tune in or out the sensory input, but at other times it's defined by feeling an aversion or pleasure to it. And that being into a certain sensory input automatically means you're hyposensitive.
In auditory, one example was "sound doesn't affect your concentration" to hypo, but then in hyper there wasn't something like "sound really affect my concetration" - wich in turn could be both used as an advantage like having certain sounds on when working or being unable to listen to music while doing a task. This way would be to define it by intensity of the imput.
But in visual, being hypo is to enjoy clutter. Shouldn't hypo be like with auditory, that they would feel less affected by the amount of clutter?
I take a bit of disdain when hypersensitivity is equated to aversion. And I don't use the terms seeking and avoiding at all. I would rather say sensory selective. I bet you're gonna recommend unscented hygene products to olifactory hypersensitive people as if the product itself doesn't have a smell that is just as hard to tune out as an added scent is.
I'm somatosensory hypersensitive, and that's why I really like tight clothes and weighted blankets, shibari is one of my Big Stims.
Hypo in this category seems to be defined by: "if I like x it means I can't feel anything unless x", but the examples are stuff that most people who I know that are hypersensitive love becasue they are hypersensitive. Also know a lot of hypersensitives to find light touches to be aversive. And again being hypersensitive here just means an aversion to something, also way to specific things in this category. I don't like accidental touches but it doesn't make me shiver, and why specifically barbers? I get that barbers is an example, but of what? (Going to a hair saloon would also fit into a other categories bc sound, smell, sitting in a certain position etc)
In my experience with people who are hyposensitive, they are likely to:
- Get bruises "out of nowhere" becasue they don't notice when they bumped on something.
- Having dirt or food transfer to door handles and surfaces from their hands bc they didn't feel it.
- Being bad at giving light touches and don't feel very much from recieving it.
- Often slamming doors and drawers, or sometimes stomping when walking.
I would even go so far to say that SH is more likely to be done by a hypersensitive person than a hyposensitve, because if you have a high tolerance to pain, doing pain on yourself isn't doing a lot. However the hypo who do SH, are probably likely to do more things with higher risk or needing to do a lot more to feel it. While a hyper with a low pain tolerance won't need to hurt themselfs as "bad". I really don't think SH itself should be an indicator of any of the categories.
Sorry if this come off as really critical, I don't know if it makes it better but I only critique things if I already find it well made and important, because otherwise I don't bother. I wrote a lot, but it mostly comes down to questioning the definintion.
I'm not autistic (at least I don't think so), but I have a lot of traits common on the spectrum to pathological levels, like my issues with taste, texture and smell. It's bad enough that I literally throw up bc of smells that aren't bothering anyone else. I can't eat at the same table that people are eating stuff I don't like, if they smell at all (even if it's not a "bad" smell), so it's quite awkward socially. Like at work, I can't eat at the cafeteira, and sometimes even passing by the door makes me nauseous, and I can't explain it, bc no one is bothered by the smell at all.
Sometimes I just wish I had an autism diagnosis to explain it and many other issues, but I don't technically close the diagnosis, bc my issues are not affecting enough areas (nominally communication) to do so
I'm not entirely sure, but I think I remember reading somewhere that it's possible to have sensory processing disorder with or without autism, so in your case, maybe you have a hyper/hypo sensitivities profile without autism.
You know something that really autistically bothers me? When audio is ever so slightly desynced from the video. This is a great video that's very helpful but watching your mouth be so desynced made me age 3 years
I have so many things going on. I can't stand noises but I love listening to loud music. Hearing no audio when there should be makes me crazy - the desynced thing me mentioned earlier is exactly that. The audio isn't coming out when the supposed to so it drives me crazy. I can't watch TV or play video games with muted audio. I can't handle strong smells. The smell of coffee wakes me up and gives me a huge headache. I can't have food touch each other unless they're meant to (gravy and mashed potatoes for example). I hate being touched really in any way.
I personally don’t agree with the hole neutral things cus for me it is debilitating and I can understand that some ppl who don’t have it as bad want to use sensory different. But I think it’s thinking to 1 sided
I have always known I was more hyposensitive than hypersensitive in a lot of things.
I somehow feel like I’m both hypo and hyper sensitive for touch, for example I hate hugs yet I also crave them.
Ok so, im not diagnosed, and am not even sure i even count as autistic, i just relate to a lot of these things and watch videos on it out of curiosity. So im here and gonna tack this little "quiz" as if I was just for my own personal knowledge and a small test.
Just keeping a tally here...
Visual was neither, so I presume it to be average. Though i do have terrible depth perception, i believe its due to my right eye being significantly worse than my left. It was diagnosed as a lazy eye when i was 8 and i wore glasses until i was 11 when they broke. I havent gotten new ones, and have likely damaged the eye further with straining on dark screens during the day, bright screens at night, covering it with my hair during an emo phase, and many time scratching it out of irritation. I mean frankly depth perception is linked to how your brain interprets what you see, and if one eye is off center then the whole 3d stuff is messed up. Also helps me "see through" objects, which i as a kid thought was a super power. Its not, its just uneven eyes. Also have this like... tv screen pixelation wherever i look, even at my own hands or my closed eyelids. Everything is always filled with vibrant colors, always moving and never settling. Kinda hard to be hypo in that and im not bothered by it so im not hyper either. Its just there.... and its weird because no one seems to understand when is ask directly, but then they'll point it out in relateable posts on tumblr and other cites. Strange right?
Auditory fell in the red side 100%. I wear headphones non-stop, regardless of playing music through them, they muffle others sounds just a bit and they add a nice sense of pressure to my head. I cant play music without headphones, or enjoy sounds without them very well due to it feeling, as I like to describe it, scratchy.
Olfactory is 100% blue. Er its a tad embarrassing, I never know when I stink, nor do I recognize smells correctly. I might just have nose issues though, frankly i enjoy the scent of gasoline and the sharper smells, while being off put by overwhelmingly sweet perfumes. (mom wears a lot of perfume all the time, it gives me headaches so i dont like it. Though could be allergy related too idk...) if I were to put on perfume myself, I put way way way too much. I cant help it, i just cant smell it that well until its too much. So i dont wear it, and i end up annoying people with the bo smell that im also oblivious to. It stinks, pun intended.
Gustatory is also 100% blue. I infact did "eat" non-edible things as a kid, it was not always for the flavor of the object though, rather the feeling of the texture on my tongue. Also ate various pet foods and plant leaves, just to try. I remember at age 7 having nearly finished an entire bottle of fish flakes, they tasted like weirdly salty chips. I do have comfort foods, but these arent out of not liking crazy texture/flavor mixtures (i enjoy a wide variety of foods, just never gooey stuff like fatty meats or eggs. They are the few food types that bother me), but rather for a consistent and reliable food when im feeling particularly down. Mac n cheese, tomato soup, and dino nuggies are great examples, and its funny you mentioned nuggies ^.^
Somatosensory... what the heck is going on here? I relate to both sides? How is that physically possible? You cant be both overwhelmed and deprived of physical touch right? I dont like mud, tight hugs, or tight clothes, those are the only wrong things about blue and everything else on that entire slide is relateable. How though? Ack... oh your mentioned that hehe. Ok so it must just be a situational or touch type difference, and not some weird amalgam of idek...
Vestibular 100% blue. I dont know about amusement park rides as ive never tried the super large ones out of fear (i get really sick when im scared), but there was one water park ride that after i pushed through the fear i absolutely had the time of my life (rode it 5 times before my parents had to drag me away lmao). It was awesome!
Proprioceptive 100% blue once more. Uh is this a bad thing? Im hyposensitive to lots of stuff. I wonder what causes that? Maybe it was my complete isolation in 2019-2021, but pretty sure it was there prior to that too...
Ok nice vid! Guess I should mention my sister has a lot of hyper sensitivities, opposite of my hypo sensitivities! She is very picky with foods, often to the irritation of others unfortunately.
I am very sensitive to sound, and hear way over the normal range of human hearing. This isn't particularly a bad thing, since I have been a piano tuner almost my whole life. I am very easily upset by loud noises though. I also see way into the ultraviolet spectrum (which just looks violet to me). This has never caused any problems. If I wear UV filtered glasses, I lose a little depth perception. Luckily, I have no problems with texture, outside of hating octopus and gristly liver, but those things are Objectively Disgusting.
I like my chewing. My parents hated it. I would make bigger holes in my cloaths than a moth infestation could ever do
My mother complained bitterly about the holes I chewed in my clothing in elementary school; hey, that’s what happens when you make an undiagnosed, untreated AuDHD kid sit still! 🤷♀️
@misspatvandriverlady7555 I just loved the texture. The one I did not do it with was polyester, not nice on the tongue. I buy chew toys now really relaxes me
All my shirts have thumb holes. They didn't all start out that way 😅
I used to chew holes in my cotton sheets as a little kid, too young to understand why my mum had such a problem with it!
Chewing gum to the rescue 😁 well at least in my case
So... what does it mean if im saying yes to all but 1 or 2 things on both sides, in all catagories?
I’m blue list full stop until you get to messiness - which stresses my system on a somatic level but also visual (but visual is overlapped w somatic so maybe that is a known thing? Does anyone know?
I have ADHD and ASD and it feels like they are at war with each other in my mind. I have a very inconsistent and confusing mix of both hyper and hypo per category. I don't know where i fit in, in the world. I don't know how to deliver my identity into other people's heads.
One time I had a college professor tell me "you're not not special! I have to be fair to everyone" when I tried to advocate for myself and explained my disability accomodations to her. I also had another teacher not want to give me my accommodations because "I looked fine." Seriously, how ignorant can you be? How do you not even know that's illegal?
Visual is Hyper. Auditory is Hyper. Olfactory is Hypo. Gustory is Hypo. Touch is Hyper. The rest isn't much to either side.
Vision stim for girls: paint your nails with sparkly iridescent nail polish.
Why the constant zooming in and out? Very distracting and hard to watch/read the info. Please choose one and stick to it.
I’m struggling to watch your video as it’s coming across like your mouth isn’t moving in time with the sound and the boxes with the red/blue options keep jumping backwards and forwards.
Can you work out the sensory profile just from listening to your videos without watching?
I really wanted to watch this video, as I'm on the autism spectrum and find the information very interesting. Unfortunately, the zooming in/out that keeps happening in the video triggered one of my visual sensitivities and now I'm too angry/frustrated to finish it. :(
Sorry to hear that Abigail! Defo going to keep that in mind for future videos as it’s a common issue that’s come up
I didn’t notice that the first time I watched the video. I was so focused on trying to watch the video whilst trying so hard to block out the neighbour over the road who was being so noisy doing boxing in his open garage 😡 …very hard when so noise sensitive…
Now I realise that the changing is affecting my visual sensitivities BUT still very much welcome such informative videos from a wonderful channel, thank you Thomas!
@ThomasHenley Thank you!! I'm gonna try just listening to the video next time and see if I can get through all of it that way, because even the bit I did watch was very informative and I'd love to learn about the rest of what you discuss. :)
why are your text boxes changing in height and length all the time? This is something that bothers me a lot 🙈is it a test inside the test?
(if there are grammar mistakes: Sorry, English is not my first language ^^)
Omg I’m sensory defensive for music!!!
My boyfriend says I want him to hug me too tight. He says he is scared that he will make me throw up.