Sensitivity

I got sidetracked onto the subject of the characteristics of a hyper sensitive person, and started thinking about it, because most of the sensitivity that is discussed is physical responses to environments. I've known for some time I'm counted among this group, but for the life of me, I couldn't think exactly what my sensitivities are. I thought about some personal struggles from the past to figure out if they could help me pinpoint what exactly those might be, and even though I came up with some ideas, I'm not sure I have picked up everything. So, whether it interests anyone or not, here are the items I figured out:

• Sight: Light sensitivity: I didn't know what the name of it was until now, but I've always had what is known as the photic sneeze reflex. There are plenty of memories from my childhood of running out to recess and after getting the sun in my eyes, I had to sneeze a few times before feeling relieved. There are also the irritating discomforts of the brightness of sidewalk pavement in the bright sun, and glares reflecting off of glass and windows. Strobe lighting may be irritating, depending on the speed of the flash. Visual business: Anything that has too much visual sensory input is too overwhelming for me. I don't like art that is busy, whether it's color, patterns, or objects. It's too much; Connected to that are those object finding games. Some of those are simple enough that I can handle them, but I've seen some really busy ones that I give up on almost immediately, because there is too much there to look at. Crowds: Often the more people I find myself surrounded by, the more claustrophobic I feel. It's often the feeling of being crammed in with a sea of bodies without any escape. In order for me not to go into freak out mode, I have to adjust myself by allowing myself to go from a smaller crowd to an increasingly larger one, and I do freak out. See Disneyland Experience of an Introvert paragraph 3 for the perfect example (my first visit report).
• Sound: Eating: Yes, I am one of those who gets irritated by the sound of eating, not only from the crunching, but from the swishing of the mouth--I'm getting irritated just thinking about it. I have some tolerance for loud things, but only if I know to expect them. If they occur unexpectedly, I have to cover my ears. Mechanical Sounds: For example, I used to work in a building on a busy street, and from the area that I worked, I could hear (and feel in my ear) the vibrations of car engines stopped at the red light. The low sound in combination of the feeling was so irritating, I had to work covering my ear. There's also the discovery that I made while working there also that I had an extreme sensitivity to the ring on the phone. It was so much better when I turned the volume down, but eventually I was sent to an area where I could turn mine down, but not everyone else's. That was pure torture. In relation to that, I am sensitive to the beats in music. I can often pick it out, but it's irritating when it comes from a car, because more often than not, the beat is overriding the tune, and it can often vibrate the ground. Repetitive sounds of all sorts get really irritating. Vocal tones and levels: I'm extremely sensitive to this. It's how I was always able to detect and argument-in-the-making. Raised and loud voices particularly irritate me; This is also the main reason dogs frightened me (and still do sometimes), particularly the ones with loud and sharp barks. 
• Smell: Nature (plants): While I love the mint-like smell of a walnut tree leaf, there are some that are way-y-y-y too strong for my little nose. I'm not really sure what type of tree it is, but there is one specific kind that is common in my area with an extremely strong odor when it pollenates. It often makes me sneeze from its potent levels of scent (perhaps an allergy, but not sure about that as the symptom disappears usually within an hour of exposure). There are also the common smells that so many people seem to love, such as the eucalyptus and the lavender plants that don't smell that have too strong of a smell, and don't smell good at all to me. I can tolerate lavender in a product, such as lotion, but the plant? No. Coffee: I know a lot of people love the smell of this, but I cannot. I have a vivid memory of going to a restaurant with my roommate in college when her grandparents visited, and the smell of coffee was so strong, it made my stomach hurt. I felt so sick, I wasn't sure I could stomach the food, but I tried to be polite since the grandparents were paying, but whew, how my stomach hurt! Chemical products: I'm not sure if they are considered chemical, but they sort of smell that way to me--perfume. There are a few that smell good, but the majority of them don't, and are too strong for me. As for products meant to add a pleasant odor scent in the air and chemical cleaners that spray, they definitely have a chemical smell that I can pick out that I've noticed can irritate my breathing, so I'm not a huge fan of those. 
• Taste: I haven't pinpointed a lot of these, but I do claim to be one of the lucky few who can often identify a food that has baking powder in its ingredients. I have no idea why or how, but it has always been there. I think that's the reason why I never really liked baking powdered biscuits. It would be more enjoyable if it didn't taste so bitter to me.
• Touch: Wetness: I'm not sure how else to label it, but I have always had a sensitive reaction when going from dry to wet. In swimming pools, I had to go in slowly to adjust, and even then, there was a point when I would experience shock, like a literal sensation of shock shooting throughout me as my body got exposed to the different temperature. It's not always a pleasant sensation. That's one main reason why I have always been a little hesitant to go on water rides--I have to be in the mood for those. Friction: I don't like the feeling of rubbing against my skin by some things. I remember in school when I had to write on paper, I used to get extremely irritated by the feeling of the paper rubbing against the side of my hand. I also realized this may be the reason why I never liked weeding. I mean, no one likes weeding, right? But, I found it extremely irritating to me (and my skin) to feel the plants rubbing against my arms while I weeded. Whenever I finished, I would come in to wash with my arms completely covered in an itchy burning rash covering my whole forearm, as red as if it was a sunburn (that would start disappearing once the area was cleaned--I'd say it took an hour or so to clear up). Physical Touch (human contact): Touching is a fragile and delicate, whether I'm doing it, or someone is doing it to me. I prefer the more gentle approach, and I don't like sudden contact. For example, there was one time when someone took me by the forearm with the intentions of directing me to another side of the room in order to talk to someone. It was such a sudden and somewhat forceful grasp that I totally freaked out and yanked my arm out.
• Energy: So I know this isn't really a senses thing, but I wanted to add this, because this is a particularly big thing for me. I've mentioned many times in my Disneyland posts, I'm not comfortable with the crowds that tend to gather and follow wandering characters. One of the reasons for that is the chaos that goes on with people trying to fight for a position for a quick snapshot of the character, and others trying to get in a position to get a signature, and others who want to have a chat. All that business and loudness is too overwhelming to me. That's the reason I always end up standing back and watching from a distance. Sadly, it doesn't give me a chance to talk or meet the characters, but if I tried, I'd be too uncomfortable to make it worth (our) time anyway. It's enough challenge for me to pull myself together for a one-on-one. 

Now that I've discussed those, I'm going completely off-topic, because of a fun image come up in a dream I had, so I wanted to write it down somewhere: I don't know what I was dreaming about, but only remember this item in the dream, because it was fun. It was a figurine on a vanity, rather large, a type of combination of one of those musical figurines and a clock. It was shaped like a large cupcake, painted in white or some sort of light color, and on the top was Aurora and Prince Phillip. The clock part of it didn't have anything to do with a clock face, or any sort of telling of the time, except that whenever it hit noon or midnight, Aurora and Prince Phillip would dance around that "cupcake" to the tune of "Once Upon a Dream." No winding necessary to play it, but you had to wait until the 12th hour. This wasn't part of the dream, but I thought this would also fit perfectly for Cinderella and Prince Charming.

Now on to another week and going back to the usual mundane tasks of life.

Had to use my camera to figure out
what the Matterhorn did to me
after a surprise soaking.