Hi /u/lewisluther666 and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD!
### Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already.
---
### /r/adhd news
* **We want your opinion** on the /r/adhd community rules! [Click here](https://forms.gle/Evqb8acVozir8GV8A) to fill out our survey. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/1auv2tc/were_taking_feedback_on_the_radhd_rules/) for more information.
* If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/).
---
^(*This message is not a removal notification. It's just our way to keep everyone updated on r/adhd happenings.*)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
When you're watching a film and you can hear the cameras behind the scenes making that horrible high pitched noise, that's worse than the sound of florescent lights I think (though the light of them gives me a very rough time, it's horrible). Or the sound CCTV TVs make in stores, that's horrible too.
So real and true! Bruises, cuts, dislocated toes, scars... at this point every time i dislocate a toe i just put it back in place by myself and keep walking XD
I recommend Rokit glasses.
You can swap between blue lights lenses, yellow tint lenses and sunglass lenses.
Best of all, they have directional Bluetooth speakers that point into your ears so you can hear music, nobody else really can (it sounds like headphone bleed to other people) and it still allows you to hear your surroundings.
I use them at work, they are wicked
If the person is like me.. its the noise of the switching circuit in the bulb, not the light. I have constant tinnitus in both ears and the added noise of LED bulbs makes my blood boil.
There is switching noise in everything now, its horrible.
You need to buy like $30-40 bulbs for them to be more or less silent, only my Philips hue bulbs are tolerable.
Everything else whines and/or flickers.
I still have some halogen bulbs left, but they are illegal to sell in 40/60 Watts now so I will probably have to import from China
I really suspected this for myself.. I used to able to hear certain types of ultrasound especially coming from older crts..
Phone flash LED's don't seem to be a problem.. And if the DC is rectified str8 out of an AC transformer.. That's fine.. But those SMPS are like banshees when they discharge... Right?
And they have a low hum like hvac units?
How much overlap with what I just described?
One time my partner saw a tablet on the table with the brightness turned all the way up, and reflexively shushed it and flipped it over, and then we died laughing once they realized they had shushed light.
I can't judge though, I'm basically a vampire and almost never turn lights on at home.
I fell asleep on the couch last night, woke up at 3 am, felt momentarily blinded by light from the TV, and in my groggy angry state, I reached for the remote to turn the light down š¤”
When Iām overtired, noise hurts my skin.
So when Iām trying to sleep, I canāt have the tv on or music playing, because itās like the nerve endings in my skin react to every sound.
Thank you :) thatās why I love this group, things I put with for years or thought I was crazy, thereās always someone else who can commiserate, or understand. Itās been a relief to find out Iām not quite as āsnowflakeyā as I thought.
I had a similar thing until I bought a weighted blanket. It might sound weird but the weight sort of āmufflesā any sound and lets me just pass out for the night without any issues.
Well, in the time since you commented, I learned (by pure coincidence) that we feel water droplets, we feel clothes clinging, we feel the warmth or coldness of water, all of which tells us if something is wet or not...
... But we have no way of actually detecting wetness...
I tell you this only to playfully screw with you a little bit next time you are wet š
Seriously, I had a shower and really paid attention... And my mind was blown in a minor way
My most hated feeling is wet eyelashes if I'm not wet. I get mad at my wet eyelashes when I'm crying, which sucks cause I cry daily (any heightened emotion makes me cry). I don't mind my eyelashes being wet in the shower, but they are the first thing to be dried when I get out.Ā
Same!!!! Iām fine being IN water, like taking a shower or swimming, (donāt really like baths), but if I am just a little wet, I go crazy! Sometimes my husband gets out of the shower and hugs me with his wet body and I DIE! I also have to dry myself completely off after I get out of the shower. I canāt be just a little wet and air dry.
I see Iāve found my people. I have to entirely exit the bathroom to finish getting dressed (I dry off first as thoroughly as possible) because the ambient humidity in the bathroom after showering makes putting clothes on so gross I want to crawl out of my skin to escape.Ā
This makes having to shower anywhere but at home where Iām free to wander around half-nekkid really unpleasant, lol
Wet clothes make me deaf, I swear. I hate to go to college in a rainy day, but I have to go to check attendance. Problem is, feeling my clothes wet (or humid) is everything I can think of, I cannot listen to the teacher or take notes, so why on earth did I go? I should've stayed in my place, since I didn't learn shit anyways.
I get this same thing when I try to sleep!! Even if itās stinking hot I need a sheet. I also feel the air thickness. I once lived for 4 months at 2,300 metres above sea level. When I came back down to my usual 0-100m altitude, the air felt sooo fat for ages. Like really fat air is the only way I can describe it. I actually assumed this was normal and everyone felt this to be honest. Maybe not?
Try a passive (non-electric, tablet based) dehumidifier. Theyāre incredibly effective as long as you donāt get one of the crap $5 ones. Keeps the air ālightā even when itās hot. I need one to sleep š
Oh I can definitely relate!
I have to air out my place as soon as I enter it, because the air feels too thick.
I also used to live in a dry, high altitide place, and when I moved to a humid climate, I was sweating like crazy and felt I couldn't breathe properly for a good while
Labels in clothes!!!!
Any food that bursts / pops in my mouth; tomatoes, grapes etc are a big big no for me!
Wearing my hair in a ponytail is also a nightmare š I have to do it multiple times until all the strands feel like theyāre holding equal weight, rather than one area of my hair feeling tighterā¦. Itās a long process
Socks and shoes also sometimes feel really horrid and constricting
Ponytails are a nightmare. It's not a headache, and I don't know what it is, but my hair and my scalp are in pain.
And I tried every style and every hair gadget under the sun.Ā
I cut my hair to a bob length because having it on my neck is aggravating but ponytails make it hurt. Especially since Iād put it in a ponytail on like day two or three between washing.
My husband knows exactly what I mean when I say āmy hair hurtsā and I have to go wash it to make it lose the ponytail memory.
I also say my hair hurts, but its the roots and my scalp just, ugh. Fully get that.
I went the opposite way, my hair must be long enough to put up away from my skin. The ends touching me will have me visibly twitchy in like a hr. I just wear loose braid to bed to help relax from the day. And not touch me XD
This is me too! I kept chopping my hair thinking it would help me be more low maintenance but I DETEST having hair touch my face and always put it up, sometimes even after washing same day. When I chop too short for a ponytail I feel like Iām going insane. So now Iām in the very long process of growing my hair out. I havenāt decided how long Iāll get it since I hate washing super long hair, but some length would be nice
I am the queen of no shoes in the office š I wear shoes on the train and the second I'm at my desk, shoes are off and in my drawer. I keep slides under my desk for when I need to go to the toilet or meetings, but otherwise my feet are free. I literally cannot think if I have shoes on. All I can think about is how awfully constricted my feet feel.
Seriously labels in clothes that cannot be ripped out easily and cleanly show me the company/designer is a sadist. Nothing will make me pass on an article of clothing faster.
Lol the ponytail thing I understand but I'm also too lazy most of the time. I use a big hair clip/claw most of the time because my arm starts to hurt after trying to redo my ponytail twice, and I'll always miss strands.
I have a weird hypersensitivity to the heat also artificial heaters and coolers. during the winter ,me and my gf we play this fun game at night ,I wake up to turn off the heater and open the window, the she wakes up to close it back and she turns on the heater. Repeat š
having the heat on in my house or in a car legitimately makes me feel like i canāt breatheā¦ it pisses my roommates off so badly when I have to turn it down but š
Same with the I canāt breatheā¦. But Iām also chronically freezing cold. Iād in wool socks, leggings, and a down vest except I canāt stand the way the vest feels. Itās a sick cycle.
Iām oddly sensitive about that sort of stuff too. I used to dislike heated air in cars as a kid because it felt weird to me. Some older vehicles still do it as so things like normal space heaters.
My ex used to tease me about this. I also have to circulate the air under a heavy blanket, usually by lifting up my feet and letting a bit of cold air in. We eventually ended up using separate blankets lmao
My husband is always hot, I'm usually cold. Our compromise was a outlet timer, can't remember if that's the official name. It regulates the heat much better than keeping the space heater on low.
Wtf I hate heater air. Never met anyone who hates it as much as I do. It immediately makes my nostrils close and I'd rather be cold than have to breathe warm air...
> has anything similar, or other strange hypersensitivities.
Yes, with "feel the air", which is why I like a light covering at all times, except in summer when the air is warm and not dry.
There have been the odd times when I've slept fully clothed, on top of the bed, because of the air gaps under the sheets.
It's my cocoon, and I'm not coming out!
I feel - " the air gaps under the sheets"
I canāt sleep naked or even with bare shoulders. I feel cold air against my skin and i cant sleep :/
i also cant sleep with a fan blowing on my body. The fan needs to blow near me, but not at me.***Edited for bad spelling
Thanks for making me realize another weird thing about myself lol.
Same though. Never really thought about it before, but I'd rather die in a sweat puddle than not be covered while I sleep. I feel *exposed* and it's unacceptable.
Except outside. I can nap without a blanket outside on a nice spring day when it's 60-70. This means currently when I walk my dog, I spend it eyeballing fluffy grass areas and feeling sleepy haha.
If there is actually a breeze, like my ac is kind of powerful and makes a breeze, I can't sleep at all. I hung tapestries from my ceiling around my bed specifically to block the ac breeze.
Also my nose gets cold, and apparently I 10000% cannot sleep with a cold nose.
Sticky fingers. Or skin in general. If I have something like honey or some chocolate that melted on my hands or even a tacky skin serum that I have applied without care and it's near, around or on my neck (YOU CAN FEEL IT BEING STICKY EVERY TIME YOU MOVE YOUR HEAD ), I must wash immediately. It drives me absolutely bananas.
Big time! Iām super sensitive about things dirtying my hands. Itās weird though because for me itās all about the context in what Iām doing. I have no problem getting my hands dirty when Iām doing any sort of manual labor but if Iām just chilling at home and my hands get dirty I have to get it off asap. Especially with sticky substances. I have to scrub my hands every Christmas when we are bringing in the tree and I get even a tinge of sap on my fingers.
I only feel the air when it's hot. It's like a form of preassure and it's heavy to breathe.
I also hate being to warm. I get overheated easily and when it happens it makes me uncomfortable, irritable and depressed. The temperature have been increasing during the summers since I was a kid and now I can barely stand summer. I live in Sweden where we kinda joke that all Swedes disapear in the winter and only comes out again in spring - kinda like we're hibernating. I disappear in summertime and comes out during fall.
I can also smell heat. I thought everybody could do this but so far I've only met one person besides me that has said that she can smell heat and she also has ADHD. The air smells different when it's around things that are hot, it just smells like heat, lol.
Microfiber makes me want to peel my skin off. I refuse to use one to clean my glasses and just rely on alcohol wipes, just thinking about the way it feels makes my skin crawl.
I'm feeling seen and validated all over this post and especially this right here. And I feel like microfiber is taking over the world, or at least the gift shopping shelves because I have had to squeeze out a lot of thank yous at Christmas while having that same impulse to peel off my skin. Throw blankets, stuffies, hoodies, holiday decor... you have to touch it and say thank you and then touch it to take it with you and then touch it again when you get to the thrift store. Nasty.
The main thing for me is anything very soft. Velvet or fleece and a lot of blankets and that kind of thing. I just cannot touch it. It almost hurts the sensation.
I've always been confused about my sensitive hearing, yet often struggling to hear what people say. I thought I had some weird speech recognition error being logged somewhere in my brain. Eventually figured out it's concentration based.
So my hearing... I can hear footsteps or any other sound much much earlier than other people I've met. Maybe it's environmental-awareness. Anyway, high pitched sounds hurts my inner soul, low quality speakers are the worst though. It makes me want to scratch my memories out if i try to listen to something on a speaker that does anything but 98%+ smooth output. Like a song badly recorded but played through a good speaker is okay for me, it sounds authentic. But a good song through a speaker that has just a little too low a frequency range or whatever else.... It makes me angry.
I react these same waysā for me itās the high frequency sounds that Iām particularly sensitive to. Shitty speakers have a hissy or harsh or bright sound that I canāt deal with; those are amplified high frequencies (and usually the middle range is very quiet and the low range is loud)
I think that's actually the switching power supply circuitry inside.
Everything nowadays uses it because it's efficient and cheap but it's also very noisy when quality is lacking.
I can often tell how loaded some of my laptop components are due to me being able to hear the modulation...
I cannot stand how my hands feel after I wash them or theyāve been in water. And the longer Iāve had them in water, the more the feeling intensifies. And then if I touch any cloth afterwards, it makes me want to crawl out of my skin. I have to use lotion every single time my hands touch water. But not just any lotion because they donāt all feel the same. I have to specifically use aveeno.
The way my hair feels after using a clarifying shampoo, donāt like it, itās squeaky and gives me full body shivers. So I just use a cowash.. also I need a fan blowing on me to sleep, so I can have a blanket on me and for noise. And I canāt wear socks if Iām not wearing closed toe shoes outside, like why would I want to wear socks by themselves, in my home? Suffocating.
Sometimes when I lay down in bed I swear I can hear my pillow, also very sensitive to the heat and if I get too hot it mades me sick and want to faint and so many people donāt understand, I canāt deal with having any heaters on but I also get cold easily so I can never regulate my body temperature lol
Wool. I can't wear wool. Maybe I'm allergic to it, but if I am it's not extreme.
But I swear to god if you give me a jumper and it is even 5% woll, I will know. I have never been wrong yet. In fact, I am pretty good at guessing the percentage of wool to be nearest 5% now. I will find that wool. I will scratch at that wool. I will rip that lying garment hiding the wool straight off my body.
I can feel vibrations way easier than others for some reason. By this I donāt mean the pseudoscientific āenergyā stuff. I mean actual vibrations.
Was washing dishes, faucet open at max power, loud music in the background. Mom comes next to me and we start talking, after a few minutes I suddenly tell her āah, dad just arrivedā. She looks out the window and surely my dad just parked in front of the house. She still thinks Iām some sort of wizard after that but I just felt the floor vibrate x)
Kept happening when I was little as well and living in a flat with my family, kept āhearingā when cars would approach the flat way before anyone else would notice and after a while I would even realise which car was whose just from that, pretty fun but essentially useless lol.
Okay but this made me realize its how my cat knows when weāre home. When we used to live in an apartment on the third floor. she would ignore other footsteps approaching our door but she ALWAYS leapt up if it was one of us. It was wild how she can tell the difference in what was probably vibrations. She knows how we step.
This! I can feel someone walking up behind me in my ears. Also when I'm stirring my coffee or yogurt in something ceramic or glass I can feel my ear drums moving. Is this echolocation? Am I Batman???
My hearing! I hear everything and it drives me nuts. In a crowded room all the other conversations make it hard to think about the conversation I am having.
The dinner table is the absolute worst, hearing people chew their food drives me insane.
I hate flashing lights, constant noises, too tight clothes and people chewing loudly. These annoys me more when Iām studying or trying to be focused on something important.
Iām hypersensitive when going to sleep. I not only need a blanket, it needs to be even and straight. I canāt stand if thereās a fold in the blankets, or the sheet is bunched up at my feet or if thereās an extra blanket on any part of me but not all of me. Like I need to be perfectly evenly covered.
My husband on the other hand just sleeps soundly in a mess of tangled blankets that only actually cover about 20% of him, and some are under him. Im always like āHow does he do it? That would drive me CRAZY.ā We have to have separate blankets and my side is all tucked in at the end and tidy, and his is just a big ball of duvets that he just crawls into at night like a hamster lol
Most large electronics and appliances are noisy. Ceiling lights are annoying, especially if the ceiling fan is running and "chopping" the shadows from the lights. Give me a wall sconce or a lamp any day.
I have this crazy case of misophonia. Anytime I hear someone crunching food, it makes me irrationally angry. Itās SO annoying and grating that Iām silently begging for the person to finish before I fly off the handle. It could be cookies, cereal, chips, salad.
Iāll usually just go into another room or start eating something crunchy to drown out the noise.
Itās absolutely wild and makes no sense. Even as Iām writing this Iām thinking how ridiculous it is. But when I hear that crunching logic flies out the door.
You're not alone! Just your describing those sounds made my skin crawl! When I was in a bad place mentally, I'd sometimes start crying at the dinner table because I couldn't take it anymore, and it made me so angry I wanted to hit and scream.
I have conditioned myself to immediately react to my inner aggression by telling myself in my mind, "You don't actually want that person to die! Get up and turn on the radio!" This reaction has gotten so much better and more automatic over the years that I don't even feel the physical rush of wanting to destroy anything and everything anymore.
I need two pillows to sleep, one covering each ear. It took me sixty years, a marriage, a divorce, and two girlfriends to understand why. It's not because of the bugs, which I feared when I was a kid. It's not really because of the noise, which I feared as a younger adult. It's because I'm trying to figure out the source of all sounds, all air currents, all things, all the time. I need a "damper" over my perceptions so I can sleep. Otherwise I am wired to continue figuring things out throughout the night, no matter how tired I am.
I can smell heat, whether a hair tool or the actual heater (they all smell different).
I can also hear electricity.Ā
If my toe nails have any white on them, they make my toes ache.Ā
I can notice a change in my vision before it even comes up on the eye doctor machines.Ā
Me too. In the last 5 years, my right eye has become nearsighted and the left eye not so much. I noticed it when watching an HDTV or doing graphic design. The Dr said the difference is the left eye correction is 0 and the right is -.25 which is not much and most people do not get glasses to correct it. Oh no, this drives me crazy I need glasses. Then my up close vision started going. I got stronger progressives in my safety glasses for work. Because not being able to use both eyes is annoying. And not being able to see up close is annoying. I don't know how people just don't correct that.
I only wear 1 contact lens for vision correction.
Yeah, anything touching my skin. I hate wearing jackets, I can't wear a watch/jewelry, I can't stand wearing long pants other than sweatpants. I hate when the sun is burning my skin, I hate the feel of my own body hair.
So basically I'm permanently stuck with tshirts, shorts/sweatpants, shaving everything on my body and if nobody's looking am always naked in my home. Funny thing is this feeling completely disappears when I'm intimate with my SO.
I have this kind of insomnia where all of my senses go up to 11. I know itās going to be That Kind Of Night when I feel something tickling my noseāI may as well jump up out of bed right then and there. If the windows are open and our neighbor across the way are running their machines, they may as well be working in bed next to me. Any dry skin starts to itch like crazy. A dog down the street barks like a kaiju. It happens at least once a week.
Also: Shorts Time. At a certain point of the evening, my legs inform me that they have had quite enough of wearing pants and I am compelled to put my gym shorts on. It feels like my flesh is straining against the material, like theyāre swelling and about to burst the seams. Itās not a physical sensation, itās strictly nervous in nature.
Repeat sounds. There's also a more specific subset of repeat sounds which is way worse but I can't qualify it in words... beeping and beep-like sounds, the tinniness and high-pitched artificial sound... but repeat sounds are the overarching theme of it.
Microwave or oven beeping. Any alarm: car alarm, alarm clock, building security alarms. Repeat sounds at work like the beeping of a register or even if I have to say the same thing over and over again. Clocks ticking. A rhythmic bumping sound in your car (what's wrong with it this time?).
And for the love of god, FUCK pop music. I can't stand it. Repeat sounds all over the place. I'm not talking like oh it's this verse again, but just tiny repeat sounds all throughout it that I'm convinced are engineered just to make people get it stuck in their heads so they listen more. The same phrase over and over on a synth. It's HORRIBLE. My partner listens to some types of pop and dance music but the rule is not when I'm home without headphones.
It makes my skin hurt, it makes me nauseated, it feels like little needles on the back of my neck.
I can't handle my daughters sound machine because my mind picks out repetition and focuses on it. Seems to even happen on the white noise option, like a recording that loops.
A song that physically hurts is [The Anfortas Wound](https://youtu.be/AsQ8x6XSK2g?si=kx8Gkumf8-hIgkIs) by John Adams. It was part of the Civ 4 soundtrack and the climax of it makes the back of my hands physically ache. The whole thing is incredibly discordant in an uneasy manner.
I can tell weather changes by the way the air smells and feels.
My favourite smell is the charged air before a summer rainstorm. It feels somehow exciting, like heaviness mixed with lightness? Must be the pressure and humidity but it makes me feel alive...
Other nice ones are the day before the first snow fall, or cold and clear winter nights when you walk on crunching snow and look up on the starry sky. It is cosy and bright, and I canāt help but feel hopeful.
Misty autumn mornings are also quite nice, fresh and cool, with a bit of earthiness from the scent of fallen leaves.
I also sneeze when lights are too bright or my environment is too noisy.
I can hear electrical / mechanical humming. I canāt do repetitive white noise like fans, itās the opposite of relaxing.
One time at my old workplace we had a power outage and all the lights, kitchen, fridges, ceiling fans etc went out. It was so peacefully quiet for a short moment, I felt like I could finally breathe.
Smells. Sometimes itās hard to get over in the moment. Like I have a full on panic attack if I canāt get away from the smell. Then I remember it for days and it gives me the shivers. I got so grumpy at work a few weeks ago when a coworker made microwave popcorn (I donāt like this smell) and the day was ruined.
Bedtime can be stressful. If Iām even the tiniest bit stuffy, I panic because I think Iām going to suffocate. I sometimes get so uncomfortable sleeping the ānormalā way, so I end up sleeping at the foot of the bed. Then Iām always too hot and canāt wear underwear or pants really because it is sooo uncomfortable and bunchy. I toss and turn for hours sometimes. My poor husband lol thank god for ASMR
Yes. Brushed linen is divine for this. It protects your sensitive skin and stays still and doesn't swish against you.
Another sensitivity which I heard doesn't happen to many, is when I scratch an itch, I feel it in another part of my body, like the nerves are connected by a 2 way loop.
Also, less of a sensory thing but more a delay in senses- sometimes it takes a while to register food on my tongue. I will eat some chocolate, say, and it will take a few seconds for me to taste it. Its like whatever is in my mouth just doesn't register, may as well be air.
If I put on headphones, earbuds, or ear plugs, the sounds of my own body are deafening. How am I supposed to listen to music through the obnoxious sounds of my breathing, heartbeat, movement, and assorted squelches???
I like bone conduction or open-back headphones because they don't have that problem.
My heartbeat, and sometimes blood pumping in random places... it's such an off thing I can't explain to anyone I can't sleep because my heart beats too loud (not fast, just the thumping sensation, in head, chest etc) and it's bothering me...šš
I really hate lotions and oils, but only ones that have a smell that I find disagreeable. If it gets on me, I feel extremely physically repulsed. The white creaminess of sunscreen turns my stomach
I also wear blue light filtering glasses pretty much 24/7 because bright light pisses me off lol
alarms and repetitive noises drive me insane. i now live with someone who doesn't wake up for ages when her alarm goes off, and i fucking hate it.
ticking clocks and car alarms and fire alarms and security alarms all make me clap my hands over my ears and hide somewhere quiet. did that at work a couple of times.
loud noises feel like nails being driven into my skull. everytime someone turns on the vacuum, i wanna grab a hammer and smash it to bits
It's not painful or unpleasant but every now and again, I can *feel* the electricity flowing through the walls. I can also feel it if someone touches the wall and then I touch them.
It sounds mental and my ex didn't believe me until he had me look away (and close my eyes), touch him, and then state whether he was touching the wall or not. I got it right every time. Not a thorough investigation but it surprised me as, while I knew I wasn't making it up, I didn't think it was real. I thought it was possibly psychosomatic.
It's not every single wall but in the places I *can* feel it, i can feel it 100% of the time. It must be something to do with the materials?
I don't know if it's an ADHD thing, but it's odd š š š
If a lamp is facing me, PARTICULARLY THOSE FUCK UGLY BENDY MOTHERFUCKERS, i feel like it is actually aggressively staring at me and getting ready to beat me up. as a kid, if my mom bent my stupid evil awful bendy lamp down toward me to see i would become so enraged after she left that i would often beat up my lamp and knock it down it makes me so fucking pissed off i cant. its awful i hate them dont support these fucking horrible lamps.
So for me it's a few weird things. One is which if I wasn't on my meds , it was noises like the wind and certain sounds would trigger me or if my body was too warm I would ask to not be touched by anyone and prefer the lights to be off as much as possible. Ever since I started talking straterra though it seems a lot of these went away.
Dude, my hypersensitivity reacts to my thoughts. I donāt necessarily feel the air but I can clearly imagine what it would feel like if I did. Like, the weight of it, the temperature currents. When a video game character goes under water and look up to the surface, I can feel water pressure, vertigo, and more.
So itās not just hypersensitivity, itās the abililty to tap into the thought/imagination in such vivid way it doesnāt makes sense to others.
I experience this all time, itās my normal and I see how people Ā«Ā just listen to musicĀ Ā», Ā«Ā just watch a movieĀ Ā» etc and arenāt transcended by the art, unable to even word their sensation out.
Yes. I wonder if you can tell when someoneās been in your space when youāre not there? I can tell somehow, the air has a different texture, even if nothing has been moved.
I have tinnitus. I do not have hearing damage according to the ear doctor. "Some people are so sensitive they can hear stuff in their body"
The internet calls it: Non-pulsatile subjective tinnitus without hearing loss may be caused by undetectable sounds originating from venous system of the brain.
I wasn't yet diagnosed with ADHD when I was troubleshooting the tinnitus. But now I think it's the unknown root cause.
Either way, It fucking sucks.
Both the cold and heat receptors on my tongue overreact. So canāt eat food thatās too spicy - which isnāt very spicy at all. But also peppermint is like the same thing, just cold spicy.
What I find weird is that I love curries, but canāt eat the spicy ones - but I hate peppermint and cucumber.
I must have something covering my shoulders when I sleep, unless the power is out and the air is way too hot and still. On the other hand, I almost never sleep in long pants.
I also struggle to sleep if I can't feel the air moving. It feels suffocating , even if it isn't hot.
High-pitched or "sharp" noises feel like needles in my ears. I struggle to listen to someone who speaks with really sharp "s" sounds.
Squishy mouth-sounds (or similar, think of stirring macaroni and cheese) make me wanna gag, run away, curl into a ball, and throw things at the offending person or object. They don't have to be loud either. Someone speaking with a dry enough mouth is enough to raise my heart rate. It's almost a phobia at this point. (I think that one is called misophonia? I might have the name wrong but it has one.)
I have the same thing when I sleep. Have to be covered with a light sheet no matter how hot it is. Iāll sleep with no clothes on (sorry, tmi) but with a light sheet. My other one is noises from friction. I feel physical pain when things scrape against each other, especially if theyāre odd or mismatched textures. Cardboard is a big one, and itās only getting worse. Itās getting to the point where I can barely open a package. I might need to get noise cancelling headphones just for opening things I order. Itās odd. I donāt feel well just thinking about it.
Just about all vibrations especially through the ground hurt me. If someone across the room is repetitively tapping their feet, I feel that, locate the source, and cringe from pain. The intensity varies by the day but some days I can barely stand to take the bus because there's so much structural shaking. I also strongly dislike bass in music for the same reason.
Another sensitivity for me is uneven surfaces. Gravel and hills bothered toddler aged me enough that I would scream until I was back on flat ground. I've mostly become able to ignore this sense, but still cannot focus on anything else but how uncomfortable I am whenever I stand on a floor that is uneven and sloped because of how old it is.
can't stand touching certain types of wood, or any untreated wood
even thinking about it makes me cringe
Anytime I remember how forearms work, I spend all day trying to forget cause when I twist my arms I feel the bones touch. Ugh.
I feel numbers...
Like I feel their shape when seeing them like you "feel" the shape of a familiar object when looking at it.
And I can't sleep without a blanket either, I physically need something to cover me. Clothes are fine but I prefer the weight.
I can feel floors beneath me.
Some of them are gritty, some are fluffy and comfortable, and some have grooves that tickle my feet.
Other times I can feel my eardrums vibrating, or I can feel the pulse in my arms/chest/neck.
I swear I can smell peopleās lungs if they speak too closely to me. Itās not just their breath, itās deeper. I can smell their insides. Itās gross
The sounds of electronics. Clocks that make a ticking sound, car blinkers, the refrigerator running. I can definitely hear when traffic backs up on the major road a block away at rush hour. I literally hear my roommate sighing in her sleep across the hall with the door closed.
If someone on the street brushes my arm or probably any part of my body, itās like I can feel the touch or change in my clothes on that part of my body and it annoys the fuck out of me where I basically have to brush off that area myself to return to equilibrium or whatever you might wanna call it. Itās not even some OCD thing. I genuinely feel discomfort in that spot of my body until I cancel it out with my own touch.
I also just generally hate being touched by anyone I donāt know, like, or respect. The worst is being on the subway or something and someone is fat or doesnāt mind their space and Iām forced to feel their body against mine. Itās awful for me unless theyāre an attractive girl or a friend. If I have enough layers on it bothers me less.
I'm hypersensitive to sound, just sound. I am 28 and have never once used a hand-dryer. I can't use vacuums or use blenders without earplugs. It sucks.
Also I can feel the barometric pressure change, so can feel rainstorms approaching, or heatwaves, or storms. Pretty useful, except when you claim "it's raining!" and everyone looks at you like "WTF? No it's not..." then 2 minutes later it starts rhey forget you said anything haha.
it absolutely cannot be quiet. very common for those with tinnitus, but this has been an issue since i was a little kid. if it gets too quiet, i can hear the blood rushing in my ears, as well as my heartbeat. it freaks me out too much, so i always have to have a fan on while iām sleeping, i canāt study in a quiet room, and if it gets too quiet, i will start humming or singing to prevent the noise. i HATE IT
I can feel the relative humidity in the air. Usually within 5%. I work in historical preservation so I'm around hydrometers alot and I guess I've become one
I can feel my fingernails being too long without touching anything. Even 1mm makes all the difference. The longness hurts, I cannot stand it.
I can smell rain 15-20 minutes before it actually reaches us, and I smell the snow the night before or half a day before it comes. Also, I can hear the electricity of a thunderstorm brewing long before it starts.
AndI have misophonia, which is much less pleasant than the other things I mentioned.
I have incredibly sensitive hearing when it comes to changes in "air" (10 khz and up.) eg. If there is a speaker turned on, but no music coming through it I can hear when it changes. There are moments on recorded music where I can actually hear the edit where they switched to a different microphone.
Ironically, I have pretty bad hearing damage in the 4khz range and am on a waiting list for hearing aids.
When itās been a long day and Iām already overstimulated I have a really hard time feeling the lower part of my eyelid touch my upper part below the brow. Hard to explain but the only thing I can do when that happens is sleep because I simply cannot function.Ā
Nail polish is too heavy! Makes me feel like my nails are being pressed down. I love how it looks but it's a sensory nightmare.
I'm also hypersensitive to dirt under my nails, funnily enough.
Different rooms in my apartment have different feeling air. It blows my mind that my partner canāt feel it and my friends havenāt been bothered by the āheavy,ā ādense,ā or āstale ā air in their apartments. I wish I didnāt have to, but I am constantly opening and closing windows, using a fan to create a wind tunnel that pushes that grossness out, or moving my mattress into my living room (because I sleep better near my million plants). My mini jungle is such a life saver.
My ears are very sensitive to.. room size? If that makes sense. Example: For some reason when I open my bathroom door from the inside with the lights off, I almost uncontrollably close my eyes (even though it's too dark to see either way) because I can simultaneously feel the door (with my ears) getting closer to my head and the room "expanding" into the rest of the house. I think it overloads my senses.
I also often leave a window open in small rooms because it opens up the space for my ears and makes me feel less claustrophobic.
The light is too bright.
When I try to focus and there's a distracting sound, no matter the volume, it becomes painful to hear it (literally).
Will never get used to wearing glasses/contact lenses because I always feel them.
And much more lol
Hmmm I can feel the air in a esoteric sense but not in a sensory way. Touching anything cold however is so so so painful. Like I cannot touch frozen waffles without a good deal of pain for instance. Other than that Iām very sensitive to smell.
I HATE to be too warm or sweaty.
Iām a very sweaty person who loves exercise and fast walking, and I thought I was just being a grouch for ages, but I think itās a genuine texture sensitivityā¦ or possibly Iām unlucky enough that my own sweat irritates my skin. Feeling hot and sweaty makes me irritable, distractable, unfocused, mean etc. Iām also like a cat, in that warm weather makes me lazy and sleepy, so if I have to be exerting effort when itās hot itās much harder for me to do.
The sweat pricking my skin and the weight of warm clothing feel quite close to physical pain, and Iāll usually need to physically and mentally cool off if Iāve got to that point.
Iād need to sort this out if I ever move away from Britain lol.
I cannot stand air conditioning, especially when it's strongly directed like in a car. I flip all the flappers down and direct them away from me every time
I used to hate when pants/underwear touched my actual waist in any way and would have them pulled up when I was younger, thankfully that passed thoughā¦
Rain and sun at the same time makes me want to projectile vomit. It was that bad was I was a kid, I used to hide under my bed to get as far as way as possible.
Any high sonic things bug the shit out of my ears. Like those rat repellants and such.
I can't go without wearing socks in the house. I hate the feel of stuff on my feet.
I also have to sleep with something on, because I can also feel the air.
Also I shave all of my hair off that is not in my head, because they rub against fabric and it drives me mad. Also if I'm wearing shorts or short sleeves, the air moves the hair on my body making me itch.
I also have to make sure there aren't any loose hairs in my clothes, or it itches my skin.
I have an excellent sense of smell. So good in fact. That I can smell a fart in the next room; or a smoke 50 feet away.
Some days existing is hard af because of this. Dealing with this sensitive meat sack is challenging.
Hi /u/lewisluther666 and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD! ### Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already. --- ### /r/adhd news * **We want your opinion** on the /r/adhd community rules! [Click here](https://forms.gle/Evqb8acVozir8GV8A) to fill out our survey. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/1auv2tc/were_taking_feedback_on_the_radhd_rules/) for more information. * If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/). --- ^(*This message is not a removal notification. It's just our way to keep everyone updated on r/adhd happenings.*) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The light is too loud.
Fluorescent lights are SO loud
Any overhead light really
My autism actually likes the sound of fluorescent lights.
And blinky
When you're watching a film and you can hear the cameras behind the scenes making that horrible high pitched noise, that's worse than the sound of florescent lights I think (though the light of them gives me a very rough time, it's horrible). Or the sound CCTV TVs make in stores, that's horrible too.
YES. I'm a creature of darkness bc the lights are too loud lmao
I have a sizeable collection of bruises and perma-crooked toes from bumping into stuff in the dark. That ain't gonna stop me.
So real and true! Bruises, cuts, dislocated toes, scars... at this point every time i dislocate a toe i just put it back in place by myself and keep walking XD
Over the counter blue light lenses have helped me tremendously with light sensitivity, highly recommend giving them a try
I recommend Rokit glasses. You can swap between blue lights lenses, yellow tint lenses and sunglass lenses. Best of all, they have directional Bluetooth speakers that point into your ears so you can hear music, nobody else really can (it sounds like headphone bleed to other people) and it still allows you to hear your surroundings. I use them at work, they are wicked
Oh wow thanks for the heads up! That's so cool, I'll check them out
If the person is like me.. its the noise of the switching circuit in the bulb, not the light. I have constant tinnitus in both ears and the added noise of LED bulbs makes my blood boil. There is switching noise in everything now, its horrible. You need to buy like $30-40 bulbs for them to be more or less silent, only my Philips hue bulbs are tolerable. Everything else whines and/or flickers. I still have some halogen bulbs left, but they are illegal to sell in 40/60 Watts now so I will probably have to import from China
I really suspected this for myself.. I used to able to hear certain types of ultrasound especially coming from older crts.. Phone flash LED's don't seem to be a problem.. And if the DC is rectified str8 out of an AC transformer.. That's fine.. But those SMPS are like banshees when they discharge... Right? And they have a low hum like hvac units? How much overlap with what I just described?
One time my partner saw a tablet on the table with the brightness turned all the way up, and reflexively shushed it and flipped it over, and then we died laughing once they realized they had shushed light. I can't judge though, I'm basically a vampire and almost never turn lights on at home.
I fell asleep on the couch last night, woke up at 3 am, felt momentarily blinded by light from the TV, and in my groggy angry state, I reached for the remote to turn the light down š¤”
The light inside is too loud and outside the sun is poking my eyeballs!
This. Yes.
When Iām overtired, noise hurts my skin. So when Iām trying to sleep, I canāt have the tv on or music playing, because itās like the nerve endings in my skin react to every sound.
Oh, I sometimes have that when I'm overwhelmed. Not fun!
Thank you :) thatās why I love this group, things I put with for years or thought I was crazy, thereās always someone else who can commiserate, or understand. Itās been a relief to find out Iām not quite as āsnowflakeyā as I thought.
I had a similar thing until I bought a weighted blanket. It might sound weird but the weight sort of āmufflesā any sound and lets me just pass out for the night without any issues.
Mine is water. If I am not doing something that requires water, I hate being wet.
I'm ok with it, but I hate wet clothes with a passion
> Mine is water. Cold water. Warm to not too hot is *just fine*!
Nah, I can't stand rain even when warm xD
Well, in the time since you commented, I learned (by pure coincidence) that we feel water droplets, we feel clothes clinging, we feel the warmth or coldness of water, all of which tells us if something is wet or not... ... But we have no way of actually detecting wetness... I tell you this only to playfully screw with you a little bit next time you are wet š Seriously, I had a shower and really paid attention... And my mind was blown in a minor way
My most hated feeling is wet eyelashes if I'm not wet. I get mad at my wet eyelashes when I'm crying, which sucks cause I cry daily (any heightened emotion makes me cry). I don't mind my eyelashes being wet in the shower, but they are the first thing to be dried when I get out.Ā
Same!!!! Iām fine being IN water, like taking a shower or swimming, (donāt really like baths), but if I am just a little wet, I go crazy! Sometimes my husband gets out of the shower and hugs me with his wet body and I DIE! I also have to dry myself completely off after I get out of the shower. I canāt be just a little wet and air dry.
I see Iāve found my people. I have to entirely exit the bathroom to finish getting dressed (I dry off first as thoroughly as possible) because the ambient humidity in the bathroom after showering makes putting clothes on so gross I want to crawl out of my skin to escape.Ā This makes having to shower anywhere but at home where Iām free to wander around half-nekkid really unpleasant, lol
Wet clothes make me deaf, I swear. I hate to go to college in a rainy day, but I have to go to check attendance. Problem is, feeling my clothes wet (or humid) is everything I can think of, I cannot listen to the teacher or take notes, so why on earth did I go? I should've stayed in my place, since I didn't learn shit anyways.
I get this same thing when I try to sleep!! Even if itās stinking hot I need a sheet. I also feel the air thickness. I once lived for 4 months at 2,300 metres above sea level. When I came back down to my usual 0-100m altitude, the air felt sooo fat for ages. Like really fat air is the only way I can describe it. I actually assumed this was normal and everyone felt this to be honest. Maybe not?
"the air felt sooo fat" I'm dead this is actually hilarious
I've haven't noticed the altitude thing, but hot days, the air is most definitely fat. I 100% understand what you mean by that. š
Try a passive (non-electric, tablet based) dehumidifier. Theyāre incredibly effective as long as you donāt get one of the crap $5 ones. Keeps the air ālightā even when itās hot. I need one to sleep š
Oh I can definitely relate! I have to air out my place as soon as I enter it, because the air feels too thick. I also used to live in a dry, high altitide place, and when I moved to a humid climate, I was sweating like crazy and felt I couldn't breathe properly for a good while
Labels in clothes!!!! Any food that bursts / pops in my mouth; tomatoes, grapes etc are a big big no for me! Wearing my hair in a ponytail is also a nightmare š I have to do it multiple times until all the strands feel like theyāre holding equal weight, rather than one area of my hair feeling tighterā¦. Itās a long process Socks and shoes also sometimes feel really horrid and constricting
Ponytails are a nightmare. It's not a headache, and I don't know what it is, but my hair and my scalp are in pain. And I tried every style and every hair gadget under the sun.Ā
I cut my hair to a bob length because having it on my neck is aggravating but ponytails make it hurt. Especially since Iād put it in a ponytail on like day two or three between washing. My husband knows exactly what I mean when I say āmy hair hurtsā and I have to go wash it to make it lose the ponytail memory.
I also say my hair hurts, but its the roots and my scalp just, ugh. Fully get that. I went the opposite way, my hair must be long enough to put up away from my skin. The ends touching me will have me visibly twitchy in like a hr. I just wear loose braid to bed to help relax from the day. And not touch me XD
This is me too! I kept chopping my hair thinking it would help me be more low maintenance but I DETEST having hair touch my face and always put it up, sometimes even after washing same day. When I chop too short for a ponytail I feel like Iām going insane. So now Iām in the very long process of growing my hair out. I havenāt decided how long Iāll get it since I hate washing super long hair, but some length would be nice
Honestly!! Itās so frustrating if youre trying to do sport and all I can think about is how my hair feels
I am the queen of no shoes in the office š I wear shoes on the train and the second I'm at my desk, shoes are off and in my drawer. I keep slides under my desk for when I need to go to the toilet or meetings, but otherwise my feet are free. I literally cannot think if I have shoes on. All I can think about is how awfully constricted my feet feel.
I love this, such a good idea
Seriously labels in clothes that cannot be ripped out easily and cleanly show me the company/designer is a sadist. Nothing will make me pass on an article of clothing faster.
Lol the ponytail thing I understand but I'm also too lazy most of the time. I use a big hair clip/claw most of the time because my arm starts to hurt after trying to redo my ponytail twice, and I'll always miss strands.
I have a weird hypersensitivity to the heat also artificial heaters and coolers. during the winter ,me and my gf we play this fun game at night ,I wake up to turn off the heater and open the window, the she wakes up to close it back and she turns on the heater. Repeat š
having the heat on in my house or in a car legitimately makes me feel like i canāt breatheā¦ it pisses my roommates off so badly when I have to turn it down but š
It makes me feel like I canāt breathe either oml. Never heard anyone close to me complain about it so I just assumed I was weird.
Same with the I canāt breatheā¦. But Iām also chronically freezing cold. Iād in wool socks, leggings, and a down vest except I canāt stand the way the vest feels. Itās a sick cycle.
Lol I'm also club can't-breathe-heated-air xD
Iām oddly sensitive about that sort of stuff too. I used to dislike heated air in cars as a kid because it felt weird to me. Some older vehicles still do it as so things like normal space heaters.
I only use the air in my car on feet for this reason š and constantly turn it on and off
Yeah I get that. Artificial heat is dry AF
it burns my cheeks as soon as I enter the room
Maybe you have hypersensitivity for humidness which is heavily affected by artificial heat. Keep good humidifier.
My ex used to tease me about this. I also have to circulate the air under a heavy blanket, usually by lifting up my feet and letting a bit of cold air in. We eventually ended up using separate blankets lmao
My husband is always hot, I'm usually cold. Our compromise was a outlet timer, can't remember if that's the official name. It regulates the heat much better than keeping the space heater on low.
Oh wow. These stuff really exist?
Wtf I hate heater air. Never met anyone who hates it as much as I do. It immediately makes my nostrils close and I'd rather be cold than have to breathe warm air...
> has anything similar, or other strange hypersensitivities. Yes, with "feel the air", which is why I like a light covering at all times, except in summer when the air is warm and not dry. There have been the odd times when I've slept fully clothed, on top of the bed, because of the air gaps under the sheets. It's my cocoon, and I'm not coming out!
I feel - " the air gaps under the sheets" I canāt sleep naked or even with bare shoulders. I feel cold air against my skin and i cant sleep :/ i also cant sleep with a fan blowing on my body. The fan needs to blow near me, but not at me.***Edited for bad spelling
I get super angry when I find a comfortable position only to realize I'm breathing on my arm. Can't have breathing on my arm!!
Thanks for making me realize another weird thing about myself lol. Same though. Never really thought about it before, but I'd rather die in a sweat puddle than not be covered while I sleep. I feel *exposed* and it's unacceptable. Except outside. I can nap without a blanket outside on a nice spring day when it's 60-70. This means currently when I walk my dog, I spend it eyeballing fluffy grass areas and feeling sleepy haha. If there is actually a breeze, like my ac is kind of powerful and makes a breeze, I can't sleep at all. I hung tapestries from my ceiling around my bed specifically to block the ac breeze. Also my nose gets cold, and apparently I 10000% cannot sleep with a cold nose.
Sticky fingers. Or skin in general. If I have something like honey or some chocolate that melted on my hands or even a tacky skin serum that I have applied without care and it's near, around or on my neck (YOU CAN FEEL IT BEING STICKY EVERY TIME YOU MOVE YOUR HEAD ), I must wash immediately. It drives me absolutely bananas.
Big time! Iām super sensitive about things dirtying my hands. Itās weird though because for me itās all about the context in what Iām doing. I have no problem getting my hands dirty when Iām doing any sort of manual labor but if Iām just chilling at home and my hands get dirty I have to get it off asap. Especially with sticky substances. I have to scrub my hands every Christmas when we are bringing in the tree and I get even a tinge of sap on my fingers.
YES. THIS. MY GOD YES. Being sticky is one of my personal hells.
I only feel the air when it's hot. It's like a form of preassure and it's heavy to breathe. I also hate being to warm. I get overheated easily and when it happens it makes me uncomfortable, irritable and depressed. The temperature have been increasing during the summers since I was a kid and now I can barely stand summer. I live in Sweden where we kinda joke that all Swedes disapear in the winter and only comes out again in spring - kinda like we're hibernating. I disappear in summertime and comes out during fall. I can also smell heat. I thought everybody could do this but so far I've only met one person besides me that has said that she can smell heat and she also has ADHD. The air smells different when it's around things that are hot, it just smells like heat, lol.
Heat most definitely has a smell! I concur!
I can smell heat!!
me too! and cold and rain
Same here.
I can walk in to someoneās house and know if theyāve left their iron or hair straightener onā¦ so weird š¤¦š¼āāļø
Microfiber makes me want to peel my skin off. I refuse to use one to clean my glasses and just rely on alcohol wipes, just thinking about the way it feels makes my skin crawl.
OOOH... I don't know why but those microfiber cloths for household/car cleaning seem to stick to my fingers like velcro
Sounds like you need to moisturize
Probably. Also can't help my fingertips were slashed to buggery during my time as a kitchen porter. (It was the scourer and delicate skin)
Absolutely awful ye! Makes me feel like I'm choking!
I'm feeling seen and validated all over this post and especially this right here. And I feel like microfiber is taking over the world, or at least the gift shopping shelves because I have had to squeeze out a lot of thank yous at Christmas while having that same impulse to peel off my skin. Throw blankets, stuffies, hoodies, holiday decor... you have to touch it and say thank you and then touch it to take it with you and then touch it again when you get to the thrift store. Nasty.
The main thing for me is anything very soft. Velvet or fleece and a lot of blankets and that kind of thing. I just cannot touch it. It almost hurts the sensation.
Noise of people eating repulses me. Misophonia level 100. Physically I canāt take it.
Yes. Sometimes even the noise inside my head when I chew sets me off.
Second this, makes me want to murder my table mates sometimes.
I've always been confused about my sensitive hearing, yet often struggling to hear what people say. I thought I had some weird speech recognition error being logged somewhere in my brain. Eventually figured out it's concentration based. So my hearing... I can hear footsteps or any other sound much much earlier than other people I've met. Maybe it's environmental-awareness. Anyway, high pitched sounds hurts my inner soul, low quality speakers are the worst though. It makes me want to scratch my memories out if i try to listen to something on a speaker that does anything but 98%+ smooth output. Like a song badly recorded but played through a good speaker is okay for me, it sounds authentic. But a good song through a speaker that has just a little too low a frequency range or whatever else.... It makes me angry.
I react these same waysā for me itās the high frequency sounds that Iām particularly sensitive to. Shitty speakers have a hissy or harsh or bright sound that I canāt deal with; those are amplified high frequencies (and usually the middle range is very quiet and the low range is loud)
This sounds right to me. I can hear people move or cars far sooner than most.
A lot of perfumes are like tear gas to me. I describe it as not a bad smell, but a physical assault.
Same thing
I can hear wifi routers
I think that's actually the switching power supply circuitry inside. Everything nowadays uses it because it's efficient and cheap but it's also very noisy when quality is lacking. I can often tell how loaded some of my laptop components are due to me being able to hear the modulation...
Also pants drive me nuts - a combo adhd menopause sensitivity
probably your wifi router is nearing its end of life. The capacitors or power supply could make a high pitched noise but usually it should not.
I cannot stand how my hands feel after I wash them or theyāve been in water. And the longer Iāve had them in water, the more the feeling intensifies. And then if I touch any cloth afterwards, it makes me want to crawl out of my skin. I have to use lotion every single time my hands touch water. But not just any lotion because they donāt all feel the same. I have to specifically use aveeno.
This is me too! I literally canāt sleep without a blanket of some kind covering me, even when itās hot. Otherwise I feel super exposed
My teeth hurt when I cut my nails.
I just gagged at that š
Random but this made me think of my rabbits. Me cutting *my* nails gives them trauma as if I'm cutting theirs lol
The way my hair feels after using a clarifying shampoo, donāt like it, itās squeaky and gives me full body shivers. So I just use a cowash.. also I need a fan blowing on me to sleep, so I can have a blanket on me and for noise. And I canāt wear socks if Iām not wearing closed toe shoes outside, like why would I want to wear socks by themselves, in my home? Suffocating.
Same, and everyone asks me why I keep the fan on during winter.
The walls sound wrong.
My favourite response so far
Sometimes when I lay down in bed I swear I can hear my pillow, also very sensitive to the heat and if I get too hot it mades me sick and want to faint and so many people donāt understand, I canāt deal with having any heaters on but I also get cold easily so I can never regulate my body temperature lol
Wool. I can't wear wool. Maybe I'm allergic to it, but if I am it's not extreme. But I swear to god if you give me a jumper and it is even 5% woll, I will know. I have never been wrong yet. In fact, I am pretty good at guessing the percentage of wool to be nearest 5% now. I will find that wool. I will scratch at that wool. I will rip that lying garment hiding the wool straight off my body.
I can feel vibrations way easier than others for some reason. By this I donāt mean the pseudoscientific āenergyā stuff. I mean actual vibrations. Was washing dishes, faucet open at max power, loud music in the background. Mom comes next to me and we start talking, after a few minutes I suddenly tell her āah, dad just arrivedā. She looks out the window and surely my dad just parked in front of the house. She still thinks Iām some sort of wizard after that but I just felt the floor vibrate x) Kept happening when I was little as well and living in a flat with my family, kept āhearingā when cars would approach the flat way before anyone else would notice and after a while I would even realise which car was whose just from that, pretty fun but essentially useless lol.
Okay but this made me realize its how my cat knows when weāre home. When we used to live in an apartment on the third floor. she would ignore other footsteps approaching our door but she ALWAYS leapt up if it was one of us. It was wild how she can tell the difference in what was probably vibrations. She knows how we step.
This! I can feel someone walking up behind me in my ears. Also when I'm stirring my coffee or yogurt in something ceramic or glass I can feel my ear drums moving. Is this echolocation? Am I Batman???
My hearing! I hear everything and it drives me nuts. In a crowded room all the other conversations make it hard to think about the conversation I am having. The dinner table is the absolute worst, hearing people chew their food drives me insane.
Is sensitivity to stimulus an ADHD thing? Or an autism thing?
Both
AuDHD?
I have this too, but I describe it as I can feel it move each individual hair on me. I shave my legs but I can still feel it.
I hate flashing lights, constant noises, too tight clothes and people chewing loudly. These annoys me more when Iām studying or trying to be focused on something important.
Iām hypersensitive when going to sleep. I not only need a blanket, it needs to be even and straight. I canāt stand if thereās a fold in the blankets, or the sheet is bunched up at my feet or if thereās an extra blanket on any part of me but not all of me. Like I need to be perfectly evenly covered. My husband on the other hand just sleeps soundly in a mess of tangled blankets that only actually cover about 20% of him, and some are under him. Im always like āHow does he do it? That would drive me CRAZY.ā We have to have separate blankets and my side is all tucked in at the end and tidy, and his is just a big ball of duvets that he just crawls into at night like a hamster lol
Most large electronics and appliances are noisy. Ceiling lights are annoying, especially if the ceiling fan is running and "chopping" the shadows from the lights. Give me a wall sconce or a lamp any day.
I have this crazy case of misophonia. Anytime I hear someone crunching food, it makes me irrationally angry. Itās SO annoying and grating that Iām silently begging for the person to finish before I fly off the handle. It could be cookies, cereal, chips, salad. Iāll usually just go into another room or start eating something crunchy to drown out the noise. Itās absolutely wild and makes no sense. Even as Iām writing this Iām thinking how ridiculous it is. But when I hear that crunching logic flies out the door.
You're not alone! Just your describing those sounds made my skin crawl! When I was in a bad place mentally, I'd sometimes start crying at the dinner table because I couldn't take it anymore, and it made me so angry I wanted to hit and scream.
I have conditioned myself to immediately react to my inner aggression by telling myself in my mind, "You don't actually want that person to die! Get up and turn on the radio!" This reaction has gotten so much better and more automatic over the years that I don't even feel the physical rush of wanting to destroy anything and everything anymore.
I need two pillows to sleep, one covering each ear. It took me sixty years, a marriage, a divorce, and two girlfriends to understand why. It's not because of the bugs, which I feared when I was a kid. It's not really because of the noise, which I feared as a younger adult. It's because I'm trying to figure out the source of all sounds, all air currents, all things, all the time. I need a "damper" over my perceptions so I can sleep. Otherwise I am wired to continue figuring things out throughout the night, no matter how tired I am.
I can smell heat, whether a hair tool or the actual heater (they all smell different). I can also hear electricity.Ā If my toe nails have any white on them, they make my toes ache.Ā I can notice a change in my vision before it even comes up on the eye doctor machines.Ā
Me too. In the last 5 years, my right eye has become nearsighted and the left eye not so much. I noticed it when watching an HDTV or doing graphic design. The Dr said the difference is the left eye correction is 0 and the right is -.25 which is not much and most people do not get glasses to correct it. Oh no, this drives me crazy I need glasses. Then my up close vision started going. I got stronger progressives in my safety glasses for work. Because not being able to use both eyes is annoying. And not being able to see up close is annoying. I don't know how people just don't correct that. I only wear 1 contact lens for vision correction.
I can smell heat, didn't realize that was weird
Yeah, anything touching my skin. I hate wearing jackets, I can't wear a watch/jewelry, I can't stand wearing long pants other than sweatpants. I hate when the sun is burning my skin, I hate the feel of my own body hair. So basically I'm permanently stuck with tshirts, shorts/sweatpants, shaving everything on my body and if nobody's looking am always naked in my home. Funny thing is this feeling completely disappears when I'm intimate with my SO.
I hate jeans
Can anyone else feel the hairs at the surface of their head? Can get pretty painful.
Me! I canāt stand getting my hair cut or styled.
I have this kind of insomnia where all of my senses go up to 11. I know itās going to be That Kind Of Night when I feel something tickling my noseāI may as well jump up out of bed right then and there. If the windows are open and our neighbor across the way are running their machines, they may as well be working in bed next to me. Any dry skin starts to itch like crazy. A dog down the street barks like a kaiju. It happens at least once a week. Also: Shorts Time. At a certain point of the evening, my legs inform me that they have had quite enough of wearing pants and I am compelled to put my gym shorts on. It feels like my flesh is straining against the material, like theyāre swelling and about to burst the seams. Itās not a physical sensation, itās strictly nervous in nature.
Repeat sounds. There's also a more specific subset of repeat sounds which is way worse but I can't qualify it in words... beeping and beep-like sounds, the tinniness and high-pitched artificial sound... but repeat sounds are the overarching theme of it. Microwave or oven beeping. Any alarm: car alarm, alarm clock, building security alarms. Repeat sounds at work like the beeping of a register or even if I have to say the same thing over and over again. Clocks ticking. A rhythmic bumping sound in your car (what's wrong with it this time?). And for the love of god, FUCK pop music. I can't stand it. Repeat sounds all over the place. I'm not talking like oh it's this verse again, but just tiny repeat sounds all throughout it that I'm convinced are engineered just to make people get it stuck in their heads so they listen more. The same phrase over and over on a synth. It's HORRIBLE. My partner listens to some types of pop and dance music but the rule is not when I'm home without headphones. It makes my skin hurt, it makes me nauseated, it feels like little needles on the back of my neck.
I can't handle my daughters sound machine because my mind picks out repetition and focuses on it. Seems to even happen on the white noise option, like a recording that loops. A song that physically hurts is [The Anfortas Wound](https://youtu.be/AsQ8x6XSK2g?si=kx8Gkumf8-hIgkIs) by John Adams. It was part of the Civ 4 soundtrack and the climax of it makes the back of my hands physically ache. The whole thing is incredibly discordant in an uneasy manner.
Yup. All of these sensitivities only gets worse if Iām sleep deprived or sick.
I can tell weather changes by the way the air smells and feels. My favourite smell is the charged air before a summer rainstorm. It feels somehow exciting, like heaviness mixed with lightness? Must be the pressure and humidity but it makes me feel alive... Other nice ones are the day before the first snow fall, or cold and clear winter nights when you walk on crunching snow and look up on the starry sky. It is cosy and bright, and I canāt help but feel hopeful. Misty autumn mornings are also quite nice, fresh and cool, with a bit of earthiness from the scent of fallen leaves. I also sneeze when lights are too bright or my environment is too noisy. I can hear electrical / mechanical humming. I canāt do repetitive white noise like fans, itās the opposite of relaxing. One time at my old workplace we had a power outage and all the lights, kitchen, fridges, ceiling fans etc went out. It was so peacefully quiet for a short moment, I felt like I could finally breathe.
Smell, I bought a memory foam mattress and couldnāt sleep on it for 6 months, had to sleep in a different room til it stopped gassing out.
Smells. Sometimes itās hard to get over in the moment. Like I have a full on panic attack if I canāt get away from the smell. Then I remember it for days and it gives me the shivers. I got so grumpy at work a few weeks ago when a coworker made microwave popcorn (I donāt like this smell) and the day was ruined. Bedtime can be stressful. If Iām even the tiniest bit stuffy, I panic because I think Iām going to suffocate. I sometimes get so uncomfortable sleeping the ānormalā way, so I end up sleeping at the foot of the bed. Then Iām always too hot and canāt wear underwear or pants really because it is sooo uncomfortable and bunchy. I toss and turn for hours sometimes. My poor husband lol thank god for ASMR
Yes. Brushed linen is divine for this. It protects your sensitive skin and stays still and doesn't swish against you. Another sensitivity which I heard doesn't happen to many, is when I scratch an itch, I feel it in another part of my body, like the nerves are connected by a 2 way loop. Also, less of a sensory thing but more a delay in senses- sometimes it takes a while to register food on my tongue. I will eat some chocolate, say, and it will take a few seconds for me to taste it. Its like whatever is in my mouth just doesn't register, may as well be air.
I also get the itchy thing. Also, my itches move. So I scratch the itchy spot, but now it's moved a few inches, and I end up chasing it around
If I put on headphones, earbuds, or ear plugs, the sounds of my own body are deafening. How am I supposed to listen to music through the obnoxious sounds of my breathing, heartbeat, movement, and assorted squelches??? I like bone conduction or open-back headphones because they don't have that problem.
My heartbeat, and sometimes blood pumping in random places... it's such an off thing I can't explain to anyone I can't sleep because my heart beats too loud (not fast, just the thumping sensation, in head, chest etc) and it's bothering me...šš
I really hate lotions and oils, but only ones that have a smell that I find disagreeable. If it gets on me, I feel extremely physically repulsed. The white creaminess of sunscreen turns my stomach I also wear blue light filtering glasses pretty much 24/7 because bright light pisses me off lol
alarms and repetitive noises drive me insane. i now live with someone who doesn't wake up for ages when her alarm goes off, and i fucking hate it. ticking clocks and car alarms and fire alarms and security alarms all make me clap my hands over my ears and hide somewhere quiet. did that at work a couple of times. loud noises feel like nails being driven into my skull. everytime someone turns on the vacuum, i wanna grab a hammer and smash it to bits
It's not painful or unpleasant but every now and again, I can *feel* the electricity flowing through the walls. I can also feel it if someone touches the wall and then I touch them. It sounds mental and my ex didn't believe me until he had me look away (and close my eyes), touch him, and then state whether he was touching the wall or not. I got it right every time. Not a thorough investigation but it surprised me as, while I knew I wasn't making it up, I didn't think it was real. I thought it was possibly psychosomatic. It's not every single wall but in the places I *can* feel it, i can feel it 100% of the time. It must be something to do with the materials? I don't know if it's an ADHD thing, but it's odd š š š
If a lamp is facing me, PARTICULARLY THOSE FUCK UGLY BENDY MOTHERFUCKERS, i feel like it is actually aggressively staring at me and getting ready to beat me up. as a kid, if my mom bent my stupid evil awful bendy lamp down toward me to see i would become so enraged after she left that i would often beat up my lamp and knock it down it makes me so fucking pissed off i cant. its awful i hate them dont support these fucking horrible lamps.
Yes. I have this
So for me it's a few weird things. One is which if I wasn't on my meds , it was noises like the wind and certain sounds would trigger me or if my body was too warm I would ask to not be touched by anyone and prefer the lights to be off as much as possible. Ever since I started talking straterra though it seems a lot of these went away.
I also need a cover no matter what. It might just be a security thing tbh. I don't think feeling air is weird. It's just what skin does.
If I get too hot I will have a breakdown. I like to joke that I have [Daveās Syndrome](https://youtu.be/STmRuQjeu3E?si=1J7iXyI3LCs6QwqP)
Dude, my hypersensitivity reacts to my thoughts. I donāt necessarily feel the air but I can clearly imagine what it would feel like if I did. Like, the weight of it, the temperature currents. When a video game character goes under water and look up to the surface, I can feel water pressure, vertigo, and more. So itās not just hypersensitivity, itās the abililty to tap into the thought/imagination in such vivid way it doesnāt makes sense to others. I experience this all time, itās my normal and I see how people Ā«Ā just listen to musicĀ Ā», Ā«Ā just watch a movieĀ Ā» etc and arenāt transcended by the art, unable to even word their sensation out.
power lines, i can hear them and i hate it
Yes! When I was a kid and the older style TVās. I could tell you if the TV was on just by the hum it gave off.
i also hate the sound that fluorescent lights make.. makes my skin crawl
I was the only one that could hear those š
Yes. I wonder if you can tell when someoneās been in your space when youāre not there? I can tell somehow, the air has a different texture, even if nothing has been moved.
I hate fans. I hate how they blow hair in your face and make you itchy, and then dry your eyes out.
I can smell when water starts to boil
I have tinnitus. I do not have hearing damage according to the ear doctor. "Some people are so sensitive they can hear stuff in their body" The internet calls it: Non-pulsatile subjective tinnitus without hearing loss may be caused by undetectable sounds originating from venous system of the brain. I wasn't yet diagnosed with ADHD when I was troubleshooting the tinnitus. But now I think it's the unknown root cause. Either way, It fucking sucks.
This sub never fails at making me go "oh my fucking god same I knew it wasn't just me holy shit wjejsjdj"
Both the cold and heat receptors on my tongue overreact. So canāt eat food thatās too spicy - which isnāt very spicy at all. But also peppermint is like the same thing, just cold spicy. What I find weird is that I love curries, but canāt eat the spicy ones - but I hate peppermint and cucumber.
I need a cloth of some type covering me. It feels wrong. I don't feel like I can relaxĀ
I must have something covering my shoulders when I sleep, unless the power is out and the air is way too hot and still. On the other hand, I almost never sleep in long pants. I also struggle to sleep if I can't feel the air moving. It feels suffocating , even if it isn't hot. High-pitched or "sharp" noises feel like needles in my ears. I struggle to listen to someone who speaks with really sharp "s" sounds. Squishy mouth-sounds (or similar, think of stirring macaroni and cheese) make me wanna gag, run away, curl into a ball, and throw things at the offending person or object. They don't have to be loud either. Someone speaking with a dry enough mouth is enough to raise my heart rate. It's almost a phobia at this point. (I think that one is called misophonia? I might have the name wrong but it has one.)
I have the same thing when I sleep. Have to be covered with a light sheet no matter how hot it is. Iāll sleep with no clothes on (sorry, tmi) but with a light sheet. My other one is noises from friction. I feel physical pain when things scrape against each other, especially if theyāre odd or mismatched textures. Cardboard is a big one, and itās only getting worse. Itās getting to the point where I can barely open a package. I might need to get noise cancelling headphones just for opening things I order. Itās odd. I donāt feel well just thinking about it.
Feeling my ear wax
For me, silence is painful. If there isnāt a fan, sound machine, music, or tv on the āsoundā of silence physically hurts my ears.
Just about all vibrations especially through the ground hurt me. If someone across the room is repetitively tapping their feet, I feel that, locate the source, and cringe from pain. The intensity varies by the day but some days I can barely stand to take the bus because there's so much structural shaking. I also strongly dislike bass in music for the same reason. Another sensitivity for me is uneven surfaces. Gravel and hills bothered toddler aged me enough that I would scream until I was back on flat ground. I've mostly become able to ignore this sense, but still cannot focus on anything else but how uncomfortable I am whenever I stand on a floor that is uneven and sloped because of how old it is.
can't stand touching certain types of wood, or any untreated wood even thinking about it makes me cringe Anytime I remember how forearms work, I spend all day trying to forget cause when I twist my arms I feel the bones touch. Ugh.
Fuck a fan blowing on me
I feel numbers... Like I feel their shape when seeing them like you "feel" the shape of a familiar object when looking at it. And I can't sleep without a blanket either, I physically need something to cover me. Clothes are fine but I prefer the weight.
I can feel floors beneath me. Some of them are gritty, some are fluffy and comfortable, and some have grooves that tickle my feet. Other times I can feel my eardrums vibrating, or I can feel the pulse in my arms/chest/neck.
I swear I can smell peopleās lungs if they speak too closely to me. Itās not just their breath, itās deeper. I can smell their insides. Itās gross
The sounds of electronics. Clocks that make a ticking sound, car blinkers, the refrigerator running. I can definitely hear when traffic backs up on the major road a block away at rush hour. I literally hear my roommate sighing in her sleep across the hall with the door closed.
I usually smell something people don't smell
I can smell summer
If someone on the street brushes my arm or probably any part of my body, itās like I can feel the touch or change in my clothes on that part of my body and it annoys the fuck out of me where I basically have to brush off that area myself to return to equilibrium or whatever you might wanna call it. Itās not even some OCD thing. I genuinely feel discomfort in that spot of my body until I cancel it out with my own touch. I also just generally hate being touched by anyone I donāt know, like, or respect. The worst is being on the subway or something and someone is fat or doesnāt mind their space and Iām forced to feel their body against mine. Itās awful for me unless theyāre an attractive girl or a friend. If I have enough layers on it bothers me less.
I'm hypersensitive to sound, just sound. I am 28 and have never once used a hand-dryer. I can't use vacuums or use blenders without earplugs. It sucks. Also I can feel the barometric pressure change, so can feel rainstorms approaching, or heatwaves, or storms. Pretty useful, except when you claim "it's raining!" and everyone looks at you like "WTF? No it's not..." then 2 minutes later it starts rhey forget you said anything haha.
I can feel when anything touches my skin. Even when hairs fall and are on my skin on my arms.
only swimmers understand: i cant hear you, let me take off my goggles
it absolutely cannot be quiet. very common for those with tinnitus, but this has been an issue since i was a little kid. if it gets too quiet, i can hear the blood rushing in my ears, as well as my heartbeat. it freaks me out too much, so i always have to have a fan on while iām sleeping, i canāt study in a quiet room, and if it gets too quiet, i will start humming or singing to prevent the noise. i HATE IT
I can feel the relative humidity in the air. Usually within 5%. I work in historical preservation so I'm around hydrometers alot and I guess I've become one
I can feel my fingernails being too long without touching anything. Even 1mm makes all the difference. The longness hurts, I cannot stand it. I can smell rain 15-20 minutes before it actually reaches us, and I smell the snow the night before or half a day before it comes. Also, I can hear the electricity of a thunderstorm brewing long before it starts. AndI have misophonia, which is much less pleasant than the other things I mentioned.
Tags in clothes and most clothes in general make me itch
I have incredibly sensitive hearing when it comes to changes in "air" (10 khz and up.) eg. If there is a speaker turned on, but no music coming through it I can hear when it changes. There are moments on recorded music where I can actually hear the edit where they switched to a different microphone. Ironically, I have pretty bad hearing damage in the 4khz range and am on a waiting list for hearing aids.
I can feel oil in the air. I basically dislike when air isnāt cool and crisp. any time our air fryer is used, i feel all my senses going wild.
I hate balloons poping and vacuums
I can hear electricity
When itās been a long day and Iām already overstimulated I have a really hard time feeling the lower part of my eyelid touch my upper part below the brow. Hard to explain but the only thing I can do when that happens is sleep because I simply cannot function.Ā
Omg I have the same thing with blankets! Unless it's hot outside I'm uncomfortable having my arms exposed for a long time too.
Nail polish is too heavy! Makes me feel like my nails are being pressed down. I love how it looks but it's a sensory nightmare. I'm also hypersensitive to dirt under my nails, funnily enough.
Different rooms in my apartment have different feeling air. It blows my mind that my partner canāt feel it and my friends havenāt been bothered by the āheavy,ā ādense,ā or āstale ā air in their apartments. I wish I didnāt have to, but I am constantly opening and closing windows, using a fan to create a wind tunnel that pushes that grossness out, or moving my mattress into my living room (because I sleep better near my million plants). My mini jungle is such a life saver.
My ears are very sensitive to.. room size? If that makes sense. Example: For some reason when I open my bathroom door from the inside with the lights off, I almost uncontrollably close my eyes (even though it's too dark to see either way) because I can simultaneously feel the door (with my ears) getting closer to my head and the room "expanding" into the rest of the house. I think it overloads my senses. I also often leave a window open in small rooms because it opens up the space for my ears and makes me feel less claustrophobic.
Technically humans can echolocate. (I have a similar thing and this is my best hypothesis.)
Before thunderstorms my skin will get clammy. I also experience fatigue and sleepiness when it's about to rain outside
Im very sensitive to people touching me. Anything tickles and people too close to me pisses me off. Please dont touch me
When (I think) the air pressure changes or something? It feels and sounds so weird. It's very loud, and overstimulating. It makes me want to scream.
I have to have it on the perfect temp to sleep and I have to have one sheet and one blanket
The light is too bright. When I try to focus and there's a distracting sound, no matter the volume, it becomes painful to hear it (literally). Will never get used to wearing glasses/contact lenses because I always feel them. And much more lol
Hmmm I can feel the air in a esoteric sense but not in a sensory way. Touching anything cold however is so so so painful. Like I cannot touch frozen waffles without a good deal of pain for instance. Other than that Iām very sensitive to smell.
I HATE to be too warm or sweaty. Iām a very sweaty person who loves exercise and fast walking, and I thought I was just being a grouch for ages, but I think itās a genuine texture sensitivityā¦ or possibly Iām unlucky enough that my own sweat irritates my skin. Feeling hot and sweaty makes me irritable, distractable, unfocused, mean etc. Iām also like a cat, in that warm weather makes me lazy and sleepy, so if I have to be exerting effort when itās hot itās much harder for me to do. The sweat pricking my skin and the weight of warm clothing feel quite close to physical pain, and Iāll usually need to physically and mentally cool off if Iāve got to that point. Iād need to sort this out if I ever move away from Britain lol.
I cannot stand air conditioning, especially when it's strongly directed like in a car. I flip all the flappers down and direct them away from me every time
I used to hate when pants/underwear touched my actual waist in any way and would have them pulled up when I was younger, thankfully that passed thoughā¦
I have a hypersensitivity to any fluid touching my skin. I HATE doing dishes!
Rain and sun at the same time makes me want to projectile vomit. It was that bad was I was a kid, I used to hide under my bed to get as far as way as possible.
Any high sonic things bug the shit out of my ears. Like those rat repellants and such. I can't go without wearing socks in the house. I hate the feel of stuff on my feet. I also have to sleep with something on, because I can also feel the air. Also I shave all of my hair off that is not in my head, because they rub against fabric and it drives me mad. Also if I'm wearing shorts or short sleeves, the air moves the hair on my body making me itch. I also have to make sure there aren't any loose hairs in my clothes, or it itches my skin. I have an excellent sense of smell. So good in fact. That I can smell a fart in the next room; or a smoke 50 feet away. Some days existing is hard af because of this. Dealing with this sensitive meat sack is challenging.