Bright sunshine

Sunglasses, different types, even for driving at night, the right sunglasses for this are better than those night time driving glasses you get. As another poster has said hoods too are good as are brimmed hats.

I wear mine all the time, even in places with artificial light as bright artificial light especially can make me feel very ill as can bright natural sunshine/light. What I find interesting though is I can also get overstimulated by light to the point it's like I've drunk countless mugs of coffee AND been injected with some kind of stimulant, I've sometimes put bright lights on at night if I've had something really boring but none the less important to try to do but then felt really awful the next day. I go between either a complete drain of energy and feeling ill or the 'hyper- overstimulated' state. One of the ASD 'paradoxes' I suppose.

However, I do try to get some sunlight in my eyes each day as it's meant to be improtant for the circadian rythm of the body and I would agree with that in my experience. I try to maintain a balance through a 'sensory diet' by not overdoing it and wearing them even when I think I may not need to, I often wonder if there is any connection between this and depression in those with sensory issues as it is well documented the impact light has on our mood as well as our eyes being our main recpetors for the production of vitamin D.

I like to walk in the woods especially with my glasses off if I can,  there is also much less other 'negative' sensory input going on, as the acuteness of what I see is really quite beautiful.

So grateful to you for writing this. I feel less of a freak. I had to be at a work symposium all yesterday afternoon and two minutes in to the first talk I was finding the overhead lighting - bright squares all the way along the ceiling - overpowering and distracting beyond belief. Everyone else seemed fine. Ten minutes into the first talk I thought ‘No’ and made myself get up, leave the room, get sunglasses from my car, and return to my seat. I sat there with those shades on for the next three hours. I had flare noise filters in my ears to take the edge of the room buzz. And I decided to go for the hat trick and just let my hands stim away in various random ways - in my lap - I think unnoticed - which seemed to partly mitigate the normal buildup of intense pain in my core that I’d normally experience over a two to three hour event requiring being in a full room, sitting In attempted focussed attention, wracked with self consciousness and the  comparative inadequacy of any ability to take in what was being said. I ended the evening knowing I may have looked like a prat but that I’d harmed nobody in doing so and helped myself considerably. It was the least physical pain and mental exhaustion I’ve ever had at/after such a thing. So I’ll do it every time now. I still feel like I wasn’t taking the words and nuances of each presentation in with the effortless ease others seem to naturally possess. But I was brought as close to that capability as I could be - like being met half way for the first time ever.

One funny moment (personally) was when after several presentations they brought four experts together at the front of the room as a panel. The guy coordinating that for some reason said ‘shall we take the lights down for this?’ I was thinking ‘hooray’ and sure enough someone turns the lights right off (no dimmer it seemed -fine by me) so I take my sunglasses off. This blissful state last for about five seconds and then ‘oh no, too dark, let’s have them on again’ I couldn’t help muttering ‘ffs’ as I put my shades straight back on again. Ah well. 

I wouldn't worry about looking like a freak Shardovan, my friend tells me I look like The Invisible Man when I'm out, the noise cancelling headphones are missing and it's a buff I wear but once I got the joke and saw the resemblance I think it's very funny, it could be an Avatar for me.

I wouldn't worry about looking like a freak Shardovan, my friend tells me I look like The Invisible Man when I'm out, the noise cancelling headphones are missing and it's a buff I wear but once I got the joke and saw the resemblance I think it's very funny, it could be an Avatar for me.

Thanks! That’s a funny image. I think I look like a stereotyped ‘hacker’ when I have the hoodie up and dark glasses on. Even though I wouldn’t have the first clue about that sort of malarkey 

And I commend you for surviving that environment for 3 hours.