Published on 12, July, 2020
If an autistic individual struggles with one of their senses being ‘overly’ sensitive, is it reasonable/common to have another sense be ‘under’ sensitive?
For example, I am very sensitive to noise- to a painful level. This is something, by reading on here, that I know a lot of us struggle with. I also know that others recognise sensitivities in their other senses. I would argue that my sense of smell is pretty sensitive, as is my sense of taste. My vision not so much. I can spot tiny details, but often miss larger things right in front of me. But the sense I really find lacking is that of my ability to detect when I’m cold or have hurt myself. My pain threshold is pretty high as a result. I detest being hot and I also don’t like being touched, except with warning from a select few people, but I really struggle to pick up on when I’ve hurt myself. A few months ago I walked in from a satisfying time in the garage of cleaning, organising and finishing a project, went to talk to my wife who immediately asked what I’d done. She looked a bit concerned, but I didn’t really know what she was worried about until she’d told me. I had a really deep cut on my leg and was bleeding to a reasonable level. I just didn’t feel it or recognise that I’d done it. It wasn’t anything bad, just required a bit of looking after it and now have an oddly shaped scar. But this sort of thing happens quite a lot to me.
It might not be a thing, but it was a question I’ve been wondering about. It would be great to hear your thoughts/ experiences. Perhaps it’s just something linked to me, but equally, I’d be interested to see if other people have comparable instances or to see if it is something linked to autism or not.
Being autistic means we are neurologically different, so our interoception is affected too. Interoception is the ability to describe and respond the internal state of our body. Everything you describe in your post is a part of being autistic.
https://www.authenticallyemily.uk/blog/interoceptive-awareness-in-autism-and-adhd
This article might be useful for you.
This made for interesting reading, thank you. Change having an impact was certainly worth reading and explains a lot.
Cool, your hand tools will be perfectly organised. A very logical idea.
Thank you. I am working on creating a tool wall for my hand tools. Having everything there and ready to grab will help with my future projects. What is satisfying about this project is that everything will have its exact place, outlined on the wall, which will have the added benefit of making tidy ups easier and knowing what is missing when something isn’t there.
Oakling said:I hope so too. It’s always beneficial to learn something new and, if useful, apply it to life. I hope to do that with this new information.
Knowledge is power.
What are working on this time? You seem to have a very methodical approach for completing your projects.
I hope so too. It’s always beneficial to learn something new and, if useful, apply it to life. I hope to do that with this new information.
I did finish the project, but have since started again on a much larger scale. It’s been hard, but I’ve actually broken this down into much smaller chunks. When I’ve finished the bit I’m working on for that day, I don’t start the next if it isn’t scheduled, that way there is a ‘completion point’ each session that I’m happy to stop at (so it doesn’t feel unfinished). It was a bit of an attempt to mitigate the difficulties I faced last time.
Yes the hyper focus does explain the lack of eating and drinking when engaging in something too. Everything else outside of your current interest or your mission is kind of forgotten about when in a flow state.
Did you finish your project though?
Now you know more about interoception hopefully you will be able to reduce the number of instances like the one in your initial post.
That all makes a great deal of sense. The time needed to adjust is significant and therefore explains the delay.
I do generally have a higher pain threshold, and have a number of instances like the one I mentioned as a result of this. However, I do believe I was hyper focused in that instance, as probably in the other examples too. I was on a bit of a mission that day. I didn’t really drink or eat in the way that I should have too, which once again, is explained in the article you linked to.
You are very welcome. I am glad the article was useful reading for you.
Oakling said: Change having an impact was certainly worth reading and explains a lot.
This makes a lot of sense really because if your external environment changes your internal environment (interoception) will need sufficient time to acclimatise and process everything. This need is heightened probably for us as autistic people because our nervous is highly sensitive and we are consciously processing much more information than other neurotypical people.
My pain threshold is quite high too, but it must be frustrating to not even know when you have hurt yourself badly.
Were you hyper focusing on a task when you injured yourself? If so, the autistic monotropic neurology means that anything outside of that current single attention tunnel would have been missed.