Sensory issues

Thanks. Yes indeed. 

Dawn, some things you said resonate with me. I've been exploring the correlation between when my stress levels rise and when sensory issues increase. There is a really obvious correlation between those two in me.

I've also noticed links - so a very particular sensation can link very strongly to stressful, even traumatic, events of the past, especially if that sensation was occurring around that time. Before realising I was on the spectrum I had been successfully exploring these links and I have eliminated some specific ones. Still exploring some others.

These patterns are likely unique to everyone. One thing I have studied (in formal, academic studies) is the big change in hormones post-birth - I wonder if there is a link here. For a species to survive, it makes sense that a mother could focus on caring for her baby, rather than be incapacitated by pain. Maybe this is related to hormones unique to that time such as the oxytocin surge? But how this would work in an autistic brain, I don't know, and then how it would work in each individual... I definitely wouldn't like to guess! I share these ideas in case they're useful for you like they have been for me in understanding myself better.

I don't think my sensory issues have worsened with age, but my willingness to endure them for the sake of appearances has definitely lessened. I suspect it is part of a general phenomenon, where people become less self-conscious, less inhibited and more assertive with advancing years. Pre-Covid, in heavy rain when people have thoughtlessly spaced themselves out in a bus queue under a shelter, so that others are out in the downpour unnecessarily, I have assertively asked/ordered them to close up. I cannot imagine my younger self possessing the temerity to do such a thing.

animalrant,

I don't experience oversensitivity so I can't have a say on that, but I can say you are not alone on anything your autism makes you struggle with, they will always be others on The Autism Spectrum who share the same struggles as you with everyone having a different combination of challenges.

Ahhh, see my below. I wonder whether stress/shock has something to do with it. Some event from trauma to minor unpleasant thing suddenly delivering a neurological shock which ramps up the intensity of one or more of the senses?

Thank you for this post and I'll be watching the replies. The issue of change interests me a lot as I struggle to work this out. My mother seems to suggest that certain issues had a sudden switch on point for me.. 

For instance, apparently having refused to be bottle fed milk and weaned at a couple of weeks old, I apparently ate anything put in front of me until I went to school. Thereafter, I had HUGE issues with food. I can remember my first school dinner - Ugggggg! I put a piece of meat in my mouth and it felt and smelt disgusting. Thereafter any cooked food just about felt and smelt gross. My diet was severely restricted as a child and although that eased significantly as I hit my later teens, there are still some foods I just cannot eat.

I'm having a lot of sensory issues now which seemed to switch on over night when they extracted my teeth. I suddenly could no longer tolerate my husband touching me among other things.  My mother says I refused to be hugged or kissed from tiny baby hood, but most of my adult life this hasn't been an issue, and suddenly it is again.

I'd certainly say sensitivity to light has gotten progressively worse over the years.

Oh and my ability to feel pain swings between extremes. After the extractions I felt zero pain. Neither was I on any pain whatsoever 24 hour hours after my c-section. Yet, I've jumped through the roof in agony over minor stuff that wouldn't bother others.

yes and no ----  i am more aware of my sensory issues and let them be .... I not getting hung up on them anymore   but i also use sunglasses and headphones way more that before.   

I have more control at moment when working from home so I am generally less stressed  my issues really happen in the office where i have no control of the light or heat. 

I think as I got older, I'm just more aware and accepting of my sensory issues. When I was younger, pre-diagnosis, I would force myself to just get on with it, and over-exhaust/over-stimulate myself. My sensory issues vary day by day, some days they're worse, on bad days I just take it easy.

I seem to have got worse, but I have no idea why. I am 34 now, and it has really been over the last 3 years that I have become increasingly intolerant of sounds and smells and touch.

I don't know if it's becoming set in my ways or less willing to put up with things that make me uncomfortable or stressed, or if it's somehow possible for autism to get worse with age.

I did also have digestive issues and problems with my microbiome over the same time period, which I know has been implicated with autism, but I thought that autism is a childhood developmental disease rather than something that can change during adulthood.

I think lockdown has also changed things for me. Yesterday I took public transport into the city centre and I found the whole ordeal unbearable. I can't believe that I used to commute every day to work, and I genuinely do not think I would be capable of it now. On the other hand, I was suffering from very serious burnout back then and wanting to kill myself, so perhaps I wasn't dealing with it very well, I was just forced into doing it.

I do feel I've become more sensitive with lower sensory tolerance as I've got older. Yet, I know I'm also choosing quieter environments on purpose, so I'm much less used to the noisier places.

The lockdowns have really highlighted this for me. My local shops are small village shops and that was fine for me in the past to visit, but since the lockdowns, I've noticed my sensory issues are more pronounced. 

Like others have said, when I was younger I could tolerate clubbing and even loved it! I always found shopping malls difficult, but somehow the lower lights of clubs helped. The music was so loud that I often didn't need to worry about picking up individual sounds or variations, it was a constant loud. Lower lights = can worry less about literally being seen, which helped with social worries. I can kinda see how I managed it... way back when...!! (Had no clue I was on the spectrum at that time, either.)

On the flip side, I'm not sure I want to get used to more stimulating environments again! I want to be able to tolerate more, but also lack the motivation to put myself through the process of getting used to it!!

Our brains definitely do change with age, though - partly development, partly life experiences, environment, nutrition, etc. So it wouldn't be surprising to notice many differences over time.

thank you all for your comments, i’m glad it isn’t just

me that experiences this, i know under times of severe stress i stop even being able to function because my sensory issues become worse and obviously as you get older there’s added stress and anxiety so it makes sense for us to be unable to tolerate things as much 

i am thinking like Nichemarket,,,, I am not sure if I have become more sensitive or becoming more defensive. But I do know that as u get older autism can get worse for many people.

Me and a friend have been pondering this. Are we more sensitive, or just less willing to put up with stuff?

An example is that I would be able to eat at friends houses with the music on, albeit i'd turn it down. Now it does my head in. But is it just i'm older, know myself and more willing to assert myself or express myself, or does it do my head in more? The more you know how good something can be, the less you're willing to accept second or third best.