I'd known that people with ADHD occasionally have hypersensitivities, but hadn't thought of being a texture-eater as being part of that. I get odd looks when I tell people that it isn't the taste of onions that gets me, it's the texture. I seem to have the ability to find a finely minced piece of onion in food, even coleslaw. My step-mom used to think that she was pulling one over on me when she'd put the onion through a blender to puree them. It was years later when she told me that she'd been doing it all my childhood. The look I got when I said that it was never the taste, but is texture, and that she was doing me a favor so I could have them without gagging. It's not just onions either, it's also mushrooms tomatoes and peppers. (there goes the majority of Mexican foods. sigh...)
I am also hyper sensitive to clothing tags, jewelry and it seems to get worse as I get older. I can't wear any of my jewelry any longer, unless it's for only an hour or two at the most. I can't wear a watch, and I can feel when a single hair falls onto my shoulder or arm. (I keep my hair very short because I can't stand it in my face.
I can usually smell...
- A head that hasn't been washed in 24 hours;
- An unwashed face;
- Rotten eggs on a clean drinking glass that others think smells fine (my parents have the same 'skill' / problem);
- Phosphate in cheap wine (funny story about this: I won a free bottle of wine in a wine bar from a waitress who thought I was being overly-fussy; proved her wrong by distinguishing between wine that came straight from the bottle and wine that was pumped from a container using a chemical mechanism for preservation; it was eerie, however, that there were perhaps 150 people in that massive wine bar, each seemingly enjoying their chemically-pumped wine immensely; hypersensitives may just make great wine tasters.);
I can hear...
- People chewing with their mouths closed. It irritates me. At the age of 2, my niece would tell as though she were being tortured if her father made a particular sound with his lips, barely audible, but audible to her, from another room. That's when I knew we were wired this way. I often wish she had only inherited out positive traits. But alas. Now someone else in my life shares this strange idiosyncracy with me;
- Low, baritone-like vibrations from things happening far away. If they don't have a constant rhythm, they are impossible to ignore.
It may be that our senses are more sensitive to stimuli, but it may also be that the raw data we take in are in the normal range--perhaps others can selectively ignore what we cannot. However, this wouldn't quite explain, on its own, the smell of rotten eggs in the glass.
Screaming is unbearable, but I can handle loud music, provided that it's kept at a constant volume.
Maybe we're plagued. Maybe we're exceptionally gifted, not with a sixth sense, but with 5 ultra-powerful ones.
Thanks for the mention of beach sand. My friends think I'm so strange, because I love the beach (in theory) but absolutley hate the texture of sand on my feet, and take great pains to avoid it by wearing platform flip-flops, walking carefully and slowly, and washing my feet in the ocean when any sand gets on them. I also can't sleep without socks or ever go barefoot. (When I was a child, sock seams gave me a lot of trouble, too. If they weren't lined up just perfectly, I would say that they "hurt" me, because I didn't know the word for "uncomfortable" or "irritating"). The feel of smooth concrete on my feet is the WORST, although as an adult, I don't encounter that sensation so much.
I've focused mostly on sensory issues dealing with my feet, but others also apply. With my hands, I cannot bare to touch burlap or certain types of cotton fabric, such as stiff low-thread-count sheets. Peaches, apricots, and dry potatoes also cause me issues (although I can touch wet potatoes without cringing). Cloth in my mouth is the worst thing I can think of (I hate it when I'm watching a movie and a kidnapper shoves a sock in his victim's mouth. I think that would be more traumatic for me that the kidnapping itself).
All of the textures I've mentioned above inspire in me the same sort of uncomfortable, tingly, cringe-worthy, hair-standing-on-end sensation as the fingernails on a chalkboard response that is so familiar to "normal" people, and that example is usually the only one I can conjure to help said "normal" people understand my tactile quirks. Thanks for posting this entry and helping me feel a little less strange and alone in my sensory issues.
I can so relate to all of these things. Many with ADHD really don't know how common it is to have these kinds of hypersensitivities.
There's a fascinating thread on all this at http://www.momswithadd.com/profiles/blogs/adhd-and-hypersensitivities
Terry
This is amazing! I was once diagnosed, in my late 40's, as ADD, but the dr. died shortly after and I haven't pursued it.
But...clothing tags! Too tight clothing! One of my early memories is my mother getting angry at my complaining that the mandarin collar on my new church dress was too tight. I was five or six. "You're so peculiar!" she told me. And she told me that a lot over the years.
Clothing textures would make nuts - itchy, tickly, claustrophobic in a way. When I hit puberty I hated bras, and still do. The first thing I do when I get home is rip the damn thing off, usually by pulling it out a sleeve, because I can't wait to take off my top first.
I love to go barefoot; always, always did around the house and yard until I developed plantar fascitis and was forbidden to do so...what a pain.
I have to have at least a sheet over me, even in hot weather. Never knew anyone else who did.
I prefer to sleep alone, because I can't sleep unless the covers are tucked in snug around my shoulders and neck. Having a husband in the bed means the covers can't be snug, there's air coming in under covers, and I can't stand it.
Tight waistbands! yes! My now 90+ mother brought up new underwear recently, and I mentioned that I wear hip-huggers or bikinis because having two waistbands on top of each other is too uncomfortable. She basically said I was an idiot to feel that way. Always, always have felt that way.
Noise! Loud music! It took several tries to get through to my ex-husband the fact that opening the house door to be hit (that's the sensation) with the sound of his stereo or movie turned up to maximum sound was physically painful to me. Finally he learned to turn down the sound when I was around, but it didn't keep that "hitting" me with the pain of the loudness from hurting for at least a moment.
Oh, and smells - until allergies damaged it, my sense of smell has always been the strongest in the room, first to notice any odor. Hated cigarette smoke as long as I can remember, and used to plead with my parents to stop smoking.
Thank you for this; I've always believed I was just peculiar, that nobody normal oculd ever put up with me and my strangeness, and experience - 2 failed marriages - has tended to bear this out. So good to know there's a reason for it all.
Hi.
I can't stand cool air sneaking under the sheets around me while I'm sleeping either. What's worse is I tend to toss and turn a lot in my sleep and that always winds up pulling the covers out of place. I wear socks to try to compensate, but I hate the seams. Also, has anyone here ever tried to deal with using a C-PAP machine? I find it impossible...
- I can't stand pantyhose, they make me mad.
- Can't stand the sound of chain saws or weedeaters. They scare me badly- even if I know they will be on. It's not just startled, I'm scared of them.
- I can't stand to wear shoes in which my toes can't wiggle. I won't wear them. It makes me very angry.
- I can't STAND to put my hands on courdroy.
- I can't stand to take clothes out of the washer and put my hands in them to turn them inside out for the dryer.
- I can't stand for my hands/feet to be dry. If they are dry I have to get them moisturized somehow.
- Consequently, I can't stand for my hands to be dirty, but my feet don't bother me at all. Because of not liking my toes restricted I rarely wear shoes at home.
- If people pat me on the back (like saying "good job!") it HURTS. It stings bad.
- I smell everything. Things that no one in their right "nose" could smell.
- I can't STAND to get spots on my glasses when it's raining.
OMG I am 45 yrs old and have adhd I am hypersensitive to sounds i cant stand when someone eats something that is crunchy it just echoes in my ears. I can be in the back bedroom and my husband will be in the living room eating chips or cereal and I can hear him crunch it drives me crazy. I also am hypersensitive to litter box odor and I get motion sickness and the smells of perfumes give me a headache. Its nice to know that it isnt just me.
I was finally diagnosed at age 39 with ADHD and when I saw this--just like when I was first diagnosed, so many things now make more sense. The feeling of handwashing dishes without gloves nearly makes me vomit and my dry hands touching paper makes me crazy, why I cannot stand to have my foods touching on the plate, the things I smell and hear which no one else seems to, why I feel sick and no one else does when my office on the 40th floor sways in a wind storm, why I can't stand being barefoot or wearing shoes without socks or nylons...THANK YOU!
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oh yes I'm hypersensitvie to MANY of the things you listed
I can't stand the smell of cigarettes or car fumes, I get easily car and boat sick, I'll even get dizzy if I keep my head down for to long or if spin around a couple of times.. I'm deffently hypersensitive to sounds especially to ticking clocks. I'm often too hot or too cold. I crave beeing barefoot, so from may to september, I wear flipflops only and walk as much barefoot as possible. I'm claustrophobic and I just can't stand wearing pantyhose;) I do sometimes feel that hugging and kissing is uncomfortable but mostly I'm extremely cuddly, but only with my boyfriend, it seems to me I have to be close to the person to be ok with hugging or kissing he/she