Sensory senses

It has taken me a while to get my head around the sensory issues thing. It is not like I am OVERALL hyper sensitive. But in certain areas I am. Perhaps it would be easier to understand if it was an overall thing.

I don't wear perfume. I find perfume nauseating. It has such a strong sweet smell I can't breathe. I feel the same way about other people wearing perfume. Luckily I don't sweat a lot, but I sometimes think that I smell sweaty. If I have apologized to people around me, they have assured me that I didn't smell at all. Maybe they lied and I didn't get it... Generally, though, I often smell things that others don't, but almost as often it's the other way around. People ask me: what is that weird smell and I don't smell anything.

I am not fussy with food. I like hot food, and bitter food, savoury food and salt food. I like sweet things too, but mostly as sweets though. I prefer tastes separately but I don't mind mixing them up. There's a few food items that I think taste like plastic: cauliflower and earl grey tea. I really don't like that. I tend to loop a bit on nutrition, and I despise poor quality fast food because it is poor quality. That said, I would eat a MacD burger if it was served. So generally, food is not surrounded with any sensory issues.

I am always cold. I freeze almost all year. I wear gloves and hat outside from early September to early May. I sleep with skiing socks during the same period. And I take very warm showers. But if the bedroom isn't well below 18 degrees Celsius, I can't sleep. If the room (any room) is too warm, I can't breathe. I am just never content with the temperature.

Light is too bright. I love summer, I love being in the sun, I love watching the blue summer sky. I feel claustrophobic if I can't see the sky (whichever colour it may have) from a window. But the bright light still hurts my eye. I need complete darkness to sleep, I prefer to read with a dim light on, and I avoid fluorescent lamps. I don't want lamps in my home that have frosted glass or plastic-looking-like-frosted-glass shades.

Lots of aspies have issues with high sounds. I don't really think I do. But I really really love silence....

The final sensory issue, which in fact has its own question in the Aspie quiz, relates to those washing instruction marks in clothes. My question has always been: why are they there when they are so irritating? I know the answer now: Because NT people don't mind them. Apparently only Aspies are annoyed with them so why bother coming up with a clever alternative? In fact, 95 percent of washable clothes follow these simple guidelines: non-cotton clothes: 30 degrees C, cotton clothes: 40 degrees C, bed linen, towels, underwear, socks etc: 60 degrees C. So: can I please cut off the marks on clothes that follow the guidelines? I promise to maintain the rest!