Published on 12, July, 2020
For as long as I can remember, I've had issues with light sensitivity and have been told it's not due to some serious underlying medical disorder (I have other disabilities too) and nothing to worry about. At some point, I was also sensitive to noise; which has started again.
Both make going out in public difficult. Can manage with people just talking; but not full on shouting. Can't deal with lamposts, headlights, etc. - espeically in the dark.
How do people manage with either or, or both? Do know someone whose noise sensitivity is much worse and she needs to wear ear plugs / defenders and can't listen to music.
The main textbook on this, as far as I'm aware, is Olga Bogdashina's book Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism and Asperger Syndrome: Different Sensory Experiences, Different Perceptual Worlds 2003 Jessica Kingsley Publishers, but it is quite technical. Even so it doesn't say much at all about light sensitivity except that it is something observed in diagnosis (there are mentions on just three pages).
In other words its one of the many day-to-day living issues the scientists studying autistic spectrum disorders don't seem to worry about. Yet it is something I hear about from others on the spectrum and is certainly a problem for me. Headlights especially at night or when it is raining and complex traffic movement and noise make me very uncomfortable, but if in proximity to this I find taking a rest facing the source of light and noise helps.
I wonder therefore if it is do do with mismatches between hearing, seeing, and positional sensing, similar to travel sickness.
I suspect the loud conservations young people have these days (unless its just I'm too old) is because they are always listening to loud music on earplugs/headphones, and it must be affecting theuir hearing sensitivity. It recalls data on shopworkers in the Hi-Fi sector, who have to have the demonstration music on louder as their hearing deteriorates.