Sensory issues

My sensory issues are mostly with clothes bothering my skin. Like I wear shorts over long pants whenever I can, even in the cold weather. If it gets below freezing, I will wear either sweat pants or smooth trousers/dockers. I cannot and do not wear jeans. The feeling of jeans bothers my skin as does wearing long pants when it is above 40 degrees Farenight (Im from the states)

Luckily my office job is lax and im allowed to wear shorts to work. My old job wasnt, so i would always come in in the morning wearing shorts and then change to long trousers, then end of day, change back to shorts. But my new office job allows shorts so I am lucky. I often thought it was unfair that women are allowed to wear short skirts with bare legs even in an office or to formal event, while men are stuck with long pants. Fashion wise no option for men other than long pants. But I care about comfort not fashion.

Also I wear shorts at socially inappropirate settings like a funeral, I do not dress like a slob, I wear a nice black collared shirt and black kakhi shorts, but still stick out. And others do not understand its my autism tactile issues, they assume I am just being rude. 

Silicone ear plugs. When I lived on a main road, these changed my life. They caused a sort of pressure in my head when I wore them, but I also knew that in that pressure lived complete silence.

I really recommend finding some ear plugs that work for you

I've used a white noise generator for years when going to bed and if I ever forget to turn it on I straight away feel uncomfortable and stressed. It's not so much to mask specific noises but any POTENTIAL, unexpected noises that I worry about. I had a lot of problems at work when they decided to change my work environment to a much noisier one that I had been used to for literally decades! Thank God I'm retired now.

Thank you so much, the loop ear plugs sound like a good one to try out. 

Also the sensory circuit sounds good too, I managed to speak with a link worker from the assessment sentry and she's also advised a sensory box for whenni get overwhelmed. Stuff that will calm me, mbe like popping bubble wrap etc. All good advice thank you  

Hi Slater1, that's great!

I'm glad you're going to get yourself a pair. They are really handy and a huge help. You can just put them on when things get too much as well and that will block out everything around you. I do that a lot and it's so soothing.

This community is fab. Everyone is so kind and supportive, I'm so glad I found it all those months ago. I'm glad you find the same.

Take care.

Hi Slater1, sounds like some have already suggested various earplugs and/or noise cancelling headphones. About a month or two ago I started using Loop earplugs (the Quiet ones) every night as I was being woken up with that same ill/angry feeling by my housemate and other noises, and also I had for a long time been using an eye mask but still felt like it was too bright. Interestingly, since using the Loop earplugs, I don't mind or notice the brightness so much either. Which is weird but really helpful! Maybe I was getting my senses mixed up!

Anyway, I did find the earplugs a little uncomfortable to start with as I don't really like wearing stuff or things touching me around my face if I can help it. And they caused a bit of pain on one part of my ear, but within a week that went and now they are comfortable and I've been sleeping well every night. Obviously, you may be more sensitive to sound than me, but might be worth a try. I found an online voucher for mine and got them for only £11!

Another thing that might be worth trying (and I haven't got any experience of this yet) is doing like a sensory circuit before bed or at particularly stressed times. I also work in a school with autistic students and I've been researching and planning some sensory circuits for us to use next year - they effectively do, for example, 2 alerting activities (jumping, bouncing, energy-using) then 2 organising activities (climbing, blowing a paper ball to a target, balancing) and then 1 calming activity (pushing against a wall, using a weighted blanket)... These are just examples and there are lots of ideas on the internet, but it may be that by addressing the overall sensory overload might reduce some of the sound-specific sensory problems. If you do try it, I'd be interested to know how it goes and once I've tried it with my students I can let you know what they think too!

I’m waiting for an assessment too but sounds are a real problem for me and always have been. I moved a few years ago to try and rectify this, to a nice quiet house, then my neighbours had 2 children one after the other. Now all I can hear all day is screaming children paired with a mother that talks extremely loudly and whistles and coughs all day and will sometimes randomly shout ‘Rahhhh’ really loudly, literally driving me crazy and I get so angry. I bought some loop earplugs a few months ago which does help but I’ve found I had to try and get used to being able to hear the amplified noises of my breathing, swallowing etc. 

So many noises cause me issue though, not only loud noises like chainsaws, Road diggers, people slamming doors (car doors too). But if I’m sitting somewhere quiet and someone is fidgety and I can hear their clothes rustling or the sound of skin moving against skin, my water tank filling up when I’m trying to sleep as my daughter has a shower before bed, my dogs licking and cleaning themselves for ages, dogs panting loudly etc. Thenlistbis so long :( 

it's two sides of the coin:

it gets more sensitive, passing annoyance threshold

because of that increase brain is getting more precise data and is identifying things with higher accuracy

calibration of how brain interprets signals from senses, it's messed up for us in childhood, it looks like it finally happens after 40 :P

I could not tell notes apart unless they were half of an octave away from each other

now I recognise classical music pieces I like after I hear first 5 notes sometimes

it's another of my hypothesis

Yes I have some of the other sensory issues you mention but nowhere near as bad as my sensitivity to noise.

I'm sure it's getting worse as I get older (I'm in my early 50s). I think I read somewhere that people do get less tolerant of noise as they age. For autistic people that's going to have a lot more impact, as we're very intolerant to start with.

I don't recall a time in my life where noise has bothered me so much since primary school, where I used to get extremely distressed from the noise of the other children screaming and squealing in the playground.

I carry them too, to put it when it's to noisy, to many noises, e.g. in a supermarket. I like it that it's possible to have a conversation while wearing them, I suppose I'm lucky I'm not overly sound sensitive, my issues are with smells, lights and many things touching my skin or possibility of it

Yes I have these ones and I always take some when I go out.

I like that they are really quick to put in when needed. However they don't dampen the noise anywhere near as much as I would like and I still seem to get the reaction.

Have you tried corded earplugs? they dampen everything farther than 2m, if it is closer you can hear it normally, muffled a bit 

I can relate to what so many of you have said and I am being driven crazy by certain sounds. It is no exaggeration to say that it is controlling my life and it's good that there are people here who understand.

With me it is mainly the more high pitched sounds that really get to me. Like those yappy dogs already mentioned, also screaming children and those reversing bleepers that seem to be on constantly around building sites. They trigger an instant angry and anxious response in me and have resulted in some epic meltdowns recently. It's like the more I'm exposed to a particular noise the worse my reaction gets the next time it happens.

It is a constantly struggle for me and at this time of year especially it is having a severe negative impact upon my quality of life. Every time I leave or enter my house or get a delivery it seems to set at least one of the local dogs off. The more dogs and children are outside the more I retreat and stay inside. Even then I cannot block out the noise completely and I hate having to keep my doors and windows shut to try and block it out. I am regularly awoken by the dog barking and that heightens my anger and anxiety, to the extent that I cannot calm down all day. As others have said I also become angry at myself for reacting so extremely.

I have tried Samsung earbuds and some cheaper noise cancelling headphones, but I did not find the noise cancelling effect of either to have much impact on the dog yapping. I've also tried various earplugs and ear defenders or even both together. The best I've achieved so far is a dampening of the noise. However it is still enough to invoke an instantaneous anger / anxiety response in me. Then what happens is the headphones or ear defenders seem to amplify internally my own heart pounding and the noise of the blood rushing inside my head. I experience further sensory overload from that and have to take them off.

I'm going to invest in a pair of top of the range noise cancelling headphones and hope that they work better. If anyone has any recommendations that would be appreciated.

It's got to the stage where I'm going to have to move for my own sanity and wellbeing. The trouble is where can I go that there won't be any of the things that upset me so much? More and more people seem to be getting those yappy rat dogs since the pandemic. Even the ones who had them before are now leaving them out in their gardens more, as they are working from home all day. Every house I view seems to have one of those giant trampolines in the neighbouring garden, guaranteeing hours of noise from screaming children. Unfortunately I don't think there is much demand for lighthouse keepers these days.

Maybe the autistic community should inhabit our own village in the middle of nowhere. We could set the rules and not allow any yappy dogs, screaming children, motorbikes, vehicles with reversing bleepers, etc

I did buy 2 months ago BLXBuds for £58 including delivery

I'm actually positively surprised

bluetooth (walking through city centre with many overlapping wi-fis doesn't get any interference like cheap bluetooth plugs),  bass in earbuds (I like mandalorian theme, and there is lot's of bass in it), quality sound in general is amazing (I listened to one of recorded Vivaldi's concertos and I could hear someone from public cough), waterproof (not checked yet), I listen on average 15h per week at work and I charge the dock once every 2 weeks,(it drops from 4 to 3 bars on indicator during that time charging buds)

only con is, if you have to bent, turn and be very active,at some point when your head is parralel to floor, they like to fall out of my ear, but I always struggled to fit plugs. my ears are a bit deformed, but fall from 1,5m height doesn't damage them

Hi, I bought Soundcore Q20 earphones from Amazon. £49 at the moment plus a 15% off voucher. Found them really good and they have good write ups, some by autistic people! You can go over £200 for Bose or Sony but I don’t have that budget. I use mine on flights or especially at night when I can’t sleep, which is most of the time. I can’t concentrate long enough to read a book, I just read the same paragraph over and over. Audiobooks have been a godsend, if I fall asleep I can just go back a chapter.

Oh gosh Roy it sounds like we're in a similar boat. I have a couple of neighbours with similar dogs and it really switches me zero to crazy in point 5 secs! It's awful. It definitely sounds like I need some noise cancelling ear phones I'm going to look into them. I'm hoping to find something suitable for sleep too as when I'm not sleeping it's impacting my tolerance the day after. 

Hi, I’m  waiting for an assessment at the moment and in my 50’s. Sound is something I’ve really been struggling with. Things like a radio and tv being on together can just make me start getting angry. My wife is a morning person and loves to put the radio on and then whistle to it. I find whistling can send me from zero to mental in only a few seconds. I really don’t know where the anger comes from, I’m a really placid person. My neighbour has just bought a little rat dog which has a high pitched yap, it yapping is also driving my insane at the moment.

I have bought some noise cancelling earphones, they really help. I can switch myself off from the outside world, I have tinnitus and can put white noise through them, audiobooks or just have them on noise cancelling.

Hi Emmy. 

Thank you for your reply. Its warming to know that others understand how I feel. A few have mentioned the noise cancelling headphones and said they are a god send, I think I'm definitely going to get myself a good pair. I will keep in touch, I'm sure I'll have lots more questions on here and everyone seems so welcoming and friendly, I'm so glad I found it. 

Hi coffee Guyz I totally get you, cars are my absolute nemesis too, especially those boy racer ones *covers eyes and sighs* the pain I feel! I wish we didn't have to try and adapt for normal life, I think that's what throws me off, because it's just normal life sounds I struggle to think of how to help myself with them. Here's to hoping in 2 years I can get some good advice.

I've always felt like i was a horrible person, I've even had people say I'm weird, due to my senses, it's so upsetting and no one truly understands unless they feel these things. Like you, I'm pleased to know there are others who understand.