Sensory sensitivities are real. The harsh fluorescent lights overhead are causing your eyes to squint involuntarily. Your pony-tail is weighing down your scalp, making your head throb. Then you’re suddenly hyper-aware of the tag in the back of your t-shirt scratching incessantly against your neck like a spindly insect.
All of the ambient noise around you sounds as loud as the person standing next to you. She’s speaking clearly and directly to you, but you can’t seem to understand a word coming out of her mouth. There is a phone ringing, ringing, ringing.
No one else seems to notice, but the sound is causing your thoughts to derail and triggering an intense wave of emotion that feels overwhelming and disproportionate. Everything seems like too much and you can sense all rational thought slipping away.
This is a small glimpse of what it’s like to have sensory sensitivities. Sensory sensitivities are common in both autism and ADHD. The experience is often misunderstood or dismissed–especially in adults diagnosed later in life.
It’s even possible to be experiencing the effects of sensory overload without understanding where the confusion and internal dysregulation is coming from. You might just think you’re an angry person, or that you don’t know how to just relax and have fun like everyone else. You should just be able to “pull it together.”
You have no way to know that your experience of the world is vastly different from the majority of people around you. How could you? You’ve never known anything different. You’ve only ever existed in your own brain and body.
If this sounds familiar, you may be experiencing sensory sensitivities. This post will cover an overview of sensory sensitivities and how they can affect everyday life.
What Are Sensory Sensitivities?
Sensory processing differences include both hypersensitivity (over-responsiveness) and hyposensitivity (under-responsiveness). Many people with sensory processing differences experience both under and over responsiveness depending on various internal and external factors.
A person may also be under-responsive to a certain stimulus in one circumstance and over-responsive to the same stimulus in another circumstance. Sensory sensitivities can be highly variable and difficult for people who don’t experience them to understand.
People who experience sensory sensitivities may have sensory triggers, or environmental factors that can cause an intense or uncomfortable reaction because of the way their brain processes the input.
Common Sensory Triggers Include:
Sound (loud conversations, sirens)
Light ( fluorescent lighting, screen glare)
Touch (clothing textures, tags, temperature)
Smell and taste (strong perfumes, certain textures or flavors in food)
Movement/balance/vestibular and body awareness/proprioception (can look like a preference for sedentary activities/fear of movement, avoiding crowded places and unexpected touch)
Sensory sensitivities are not always about avoidance. Sometimes people with sensory differences will also seek out more of a certain stimulus. This could be because the person is under-responsive to the input or because the over-responsive reaction is pleasurable instead of painful.
Common Sensory Seeking Includes:
Sound (making loud noises, playing loud music)
Light (visually seeking out shiny objects, colorful or moving lights, bright or flashy screens)
Touch (seeking out interesting textures to touch,touching and picking up random objects )
Smell and taste (enjoying strong perfumes, scented candles, markers, or cleaning supplies, seeking out strong flavors like spicy or sour food)
Movement/balance/vestibular (craves jumping, swinging, and sliding), and body awareness/proprioception (having a hard time sitting still, craving rough play or contact sports. Chewing–like gum, or crunchy foods– also provides deep pressure/proprioceptive input to the jaw and mouth.)
What's the Big Deal?
How Sensory Sensitivities Affect Daily Life
Sensory Sensitivities can have an emotional and physical impact on daily life. It’s only natural to feel stress and anxiety if your nervous system could be overloaded at any moment. Just existing comfortably, in environments that most people tolerate without even thinking about it, becomes a chore.
This can lead to physical and mental reactions like meltdowns and shutdowns due to being flooded with intense and overwhelming sensations that can trigger strong emotions and feelings akin to pain. Sensory sensitivities can also cause trouble concentrating because the overwhelming stimulus is the only thing you can focus on.
Sensory Sensitivities can also make it more difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep. The nervous system can feel completely overwhelmed by things that many people wouldn’t even notice: a ticking clock, someone turning a light on or off in a hallway, the feeling of the bed sheets rubbing against your skin.
Social Consequences
There are also social consequences. It can be difficult to get together with friends when so many environmental factors have a strong impact on your ability to regulate your emotions, concentrate on what someone is saying, or to feel generally “well” in your body.
Imagine your peer group loves to go to a certain restaurant, but the crowds and background chatter, the music playing, and the dishes clanking, make it difficult to participate in the conversation because the noise drowns out the words of the people at your table.
The multiple TVs flashing on the walls showing sports games or music videos give you a headache, the smell of garlic coming from the kitchen makes you feel nauseous, and every menu item has too strong of a flavor for your pallet. The constant movement and bustle of people around you adds a vague sense of dizziness.
You feel closed in. If you could unzip your skin and crawl out of it, you would. Your body is practically screaming at you to get up and move, but space is tight. You’re squished on a bench in a booth between two friends and staff is bustling back and forth in the aisle with trays of hot food.
So instead of moving to ease the sensation, you subconsciously “white knuckle” your way through it, tensing every muscle in your body. Your neck and shoulders are hard as a rock, and even your toes are curled up in your shoes.
Mind you, absolutely no one else seems the least bit bothered. Everyone else is smiling, laughing, relaxing, enjoying each other’s company. But you feel like it’s almost impossible to manage it.
And because everyone else is having a great time, your reactions can be seen as you just being difficult, your requests to go somewhere else can feel controlling or selfish, your irritable demeanor can look like a character flaw or the “party pooper”, and your lack of social engagement can come off as aloofness.
The awareness of how others perceive you can lead to masking your pain. It’s more than acting pleasant and polite when you feel a bit moody. It’s ignoring strong physical reactions and pushing way past what is healthy for your mind and body.
You ignore and repress the discomfort, smile and laugh with everyone else (even if you have no idea what was said). You force yourself to eat something, even if you feel dizzy, headachy, and nauseous. You stay out late and “participate” even though you feel completely physically drained and your thoughts are swimming through mental sludge.
This can feel worth it, to some degree. You want to have friends and a social life. You want to be accepted and well liked. When you’re feeling your best, masking may be easier. But pushing through long term could degrade your physical and mental stamina, making it impossible to continue masking.
Health and Wellbeing
Taxing your nervous system like this can have serious consequences. It can cause a person to be in bed for an entire day (or more) after the fact. If it continues regularly, chronic stress caused by constant sensory overwhelm can also lower immune function and lead to depression and anxiety, chronic fatigue, and constant muscle pain.
It can also be a contributing factor in neurodivergent burnout, which can cause serious skill regression and decline in functioning. This can last anywhere from a few months to several years. Burnout can make it difficult to hold down a job and perform the tasks of daily living like self-care and running a household. Some people never regain previous abilities.
And sensory overstimulation does not only occur in “optional” social situations. It can occur anywhere, making it difficult to work in certain environments, travel, go shopping, maintain healthy relationships, and keep important medical appointments..
Sensory Sensitivities Aren't All Bad
Although having sensory differences can make daily life difficult, it’s also possible to feel a greater sense of joy and “being alive” from things that some people might see as trivial. You may be able to tap into a deeper sense of appreciation for sensory experiences due to intense feelings of enjoyment.
You may feel overwhelming pleasure from “simple” things like the sound of rain, the taste of your favorite food, the smell of flowers, the colorful movement of a lava lamp, the sunset over the ocean, the texture of your favorite blanket, or the feeling of the bass line of your favorite song reverberating through your body.
Pleasant sensory input can be an intense full body experience causing all consuming feelings like warmth, tingling, goosebumps, chills, spontaneous joyful movement, or tears of delight.
Sometimes inducing this type of reaction can make it easier to reach a type of flow-state that brings much needed stress relief and relaxation. You may be familiar with the popular videos on You-Tube that cause this type of ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) in some people.
People who identify their sensory sensitivities later in life may feel self-conscious or weird about the experiences that bring them sensory joy. But allowing yourself to indulge in these types of sensory pleasures can help you to feel more balanced and grounded, and enhance your quality of life.
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Sensory Needs Are Valid
Sensory needs are real and valid. It is possible to find ways to live more comfortably and manage sensory needs. With understanding and the right tools and accommodations, improved happiness and well-being is possible.
For more information, consider reading my article about practical solutions for a sensory-friendly life.
What is your sensory experience like? Share in the comments below.
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If you enjoyed this post, you might also like 👉 Sensory Sensitivities: Practical Solutions for a Sensory-Friendly Life.
Thanks for listening, friends.
Disclaimer:
This post reflects my personal experiences and perspectives as a late-identified neurodivergent adult. While I aim to share helpful insights, I don’t speak on behalf of the entire ADHD or autistic community. Neurodivergence is diverse and individual—please interpret this content through the lens of your own needs and experiences. This article is not a substitute for professional mental health therapy or medical advice.