Sensory modalities related to my hyper- and hypo-sensitivity:
Hypersensitive — Things that I'm overly sensitive to. Things that I'm repelled from, or have sensory defensiveness to.
Hyposensitive — Things that I'm under-sensitive to. Things that I'm attracted to, that I engage in sensory-seeking about.
| Somatic (touch, pain) | Hypersensitivity | I am overly sensitive to light touch. My personal space is three times bigger than anyone else's; I can't risk any possibility that someone will accidentally touch me. I am particularly sensitive to unexpected touch — being touched on my back is FAR worse than being touched on my front. Before I understood what was going on, I would unconsciously walk faster than everyone else, as a coping mechanism to avoid any possibility of being touched on my back.
At my current workplace, my boss reconfigured my cubicle so that I sit with my back towards a wall. Previously, I sat with my back towards other people, and that combined with the hearing sensitivity (which makes me want to wear earplugs with white noise playing all the time), meant that a lot of people tapped my shoulder to get my attention. That did NOT go well — being touched just once agitated me enough to not be able to get any work done for an hour or two. |
|---|---|---|
| Hyposensitivity | I am under-sensitive to heavy touch, and to pain. I enjoy masochism and extremely spicy food. | |
| Sound | Hypersensitivity | Loud sounds really bother me. I often carry earplugs everywhere I go. There are some stores that play music loud enough that I really don't want to shop there, but nobody else seems to notice how loud the music is, and the shopkeeper doesn't understand that they are driving at least one shopper away.
When I'm in elevators or cars, I have to ask others to speak softer because the noise bounces off of the close hard walls, and makes the noise harder to deal with. |
| Hyposensitivity | Once I fall asleep, there can be very loud music near me, and I won't wake up. My alarm clock is rated for 115dB, to make sure I can hear it. | |
| Vestibular | Hyposensitivity | I enjoy amateur car racing, doing BMX tricks, and riding a unicycle.
In middle school, I would sometimes do this stimming movement where I rocked my head and upper body around (to the point where my body was bent 90° to the side, and I was resting part of my weight on the floor via my arm), while sitting in my desk during class. |
| Proprioception | Hyposensitivity | I enjoy juggling.
However, I suspect this might have more to do with my touch-sensitivity. I can't stand to brush against anything whenever I move, so I take extreme care to make sure I know exactly where 1) my body is, and 2) where things near me are. I suspect that hightened awareness translates well into juggling skills. |