Do you have any sensory problems? Like for example I can't touch many everyday things, such as yarn, paper towels, certain clothing, cardboard (and construction paper and crayons), wooden pencils at the shaved portion, Q-tips unless they've been soaked in water, etc. With most carpets I can't walk across them barefoot because they feel so bad on against my feet that I have to get them wet and rub them against a smooth surface. Same with those things I can't touch; if I do I have to get the affected spot wet, sometimes so instantly that I use spit, and I need to touch something smooth. It's a foul feeling that I can't explain, but I also get the chills. I can feel what I touch in my mouth as well (when it causes a sensory overload they makes me freak out), and my mouth conforms and twists up because it just can't handle the sensation. I can't eat cereal with those marshmallow thingys like Lucky Charms because the marshmallow between my teeth makes such a bad sound and feels so yucky that my body tingles and gets chills, and again twists up. Certain touches and sounds go together, like wooden pencils and the sound they make when used. If I'm brave enough to use a wooden pencil, the feeling of the shaved part, plus the sound the pencil is making on paper, is sensory overload. I couldn't participate in wood shop in school because of this, or home economics. Back then I didn't know why I had these issues and I didn't tell my teachers because they seemed so far fetched and stupid to me that nobody would "get it", and so I failed those classes. Do you know that "scratchy" paint people sometimes use of their walls? Not the smooth good kind? My wife painted a room in scratchy paint day awhile back while I was at work. I came home and it looked nice. I touched one of the dried portions and had a meltdown, calling her horrible things and screaming like a child because how dare she paint my walls with that crap! Had it stayed I wouldn't have ever been able to touch a wall in that room again.
Light and sound sensory issues are much more mild. I don't like bright light - I have to wear sunglasses outside, and those bright white type of lights people use inside give me a headache after awhile. Loud sudden noises either scare me or make me lash out. I pick up on the smallest noises and conversations that nobody else picks up on. The most recent example of this that really describes what I mean is, when the grain elevators were still going in town (4 weeks ago maybe), I could hear them in the distance at night and it kept me up. To me it sounded like a jet engine outside of my house. To my wife she could barely hear it at all and didn't understand why I couldn't sleep.
