Location: Texas USA Posts: 3703 Joined: 2008-05-25
12/12/08
I took a test two weeks ago for a government job with the Census. The lady administering the test said that there would be NO talking by anyone before everyone was finished with the test. It was a timed test, one half hour exactly, so I thought, "Great. Finally. Someone who'll take it seriously that we all need quiet to do the test properly." Well, wouldn't you know it, just a I was on the 'home stretch', trying to finish the last three questions, the most important Admin person present started talking out loud to the test administrator lady. This completely ruined my concentration, as the questions required reading maps and charts (something I'm slow at and have trouble 'retaining'), so although my final score was 'good', I wasn't able to finish those last three questions. And since getting hired was probably as much about whether or not they liked you as your score,... I just kept it to myself that they had sabotaged me. - jus'
I am not a hugger either and that i also an uncomfortable thing for me to do. As a family we are not a huggie family. So when i started going around with my group of friends now. They are all BIG huggers. It's took me a year to accept this. Its not like i hate it, i just feel uncomfortable. I don't mind hugging someone for a special occasion as it is custom to do it- Christmas/Birthday's/New Years Day and Hogmanany. These are exceptions
BEEN THERE DONE THAT, GOT THE T-SHIRT
Location: Island of Misfit Toys Posts: 620 Joined: 2007-10-25
[b] a friend and I were going to start a business where scantily clad men would serve hors d'oeuvres and drinks and parade housewares around so we could buy the gifts for the bridal shower in a more comfortable environment.
Can I get a job application?
Edited by reverend blamo on December 14 2008 01:33 AM
"I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused..."
Elvis Costello
Location: United States Posts: 190 Joined: 2008-05-24
Hmmm...This is interesting.
For me, I think it depends on what I'm doing. For instance, I'm a big reader. I can tune out just about anything when I'm reading a book. I literally read and understood what I was reading in the middle of a Super Bowl party full of screaming, shouting fans (well, acutally, I was in the room next door, and since I don't like football, I was reading because I was bored). Also, I'm constantly in trouble for not hearing something that is said to me when I'm reading, because I tune out everything - voices, sounds, etc. But it takes real concentration, and if someone disturbs me, I can get snappy.
However, loud parties kill me. At my friend's Sweet 16, the music was blaring so loudly that I was going insane. And I don't understnad how people acutally communicate at places like that - I couldn't understnad anything anyone was saying. ANd stupid things like tags on clothes or a collar on a shirt not done just so drive me nuts. I can't stand the sound a fan makes, or even the sound a computer running makes, either. The sounds that annoy me are the quiet ones that no one else notices, in fact. Therefore they're kind of hard to complain about.
Also, in crowds, I have a lot of trouble keeping up with the group. Other people seem to be able to look around and simutaneously know where they are going, but I can't do both. Crowds intimidate me, and when I come from a crowded place I'm always exhuasted.
Like I said, interesting topic!
I'm NOT stupid!!!!!
I find too many people talking in a room quite hard to deal with. I am so confused that i will just not listen at all. In work at the change over of shifts the office can at times be crammed with 20 people which is OTT. I have jjust found out that i am so annoying at work as i play with things all the time. For example Sunday morning at 8am i was in the office playing with a big thick elastic band. I was having a ball snapping it off my fingers and hands and wrists. My mate went ape at me as i had done it for 20 mins solid and was driving her insane. She stole the elastic band off of me and binned it heehee!!!
Oh people who crack their knuckles annoys the life out of me, also people who use the same word over and over ie "Like", "OMG", "Shocking" totally annoys me. I know i can be annoying but come on.
People who are over bearing in the way they act. One of my mates is so loud we actually switch off when she speaks as normally she will speak fine, the next she is shouting WHY!!??? we are all here and listening AHHHHHHHH.
I do love the corners of shirts and jeans and have done ever since i was 2 years old. According to my mum i use to sniff the corners of shirts. I like to dig my nails into them and still do more to jeans though- the pockets on the bum are great for that. The sensation is fab
God i now know why people call me a freak heehee!!!BEEN THERE DONE THAT, GOT THE T-SHIRT
Clocks ticking. Water dripping. Sports on TV is the WORST - screaming people, loud speakers, argh. The sun can be tricky too - my curtains are only open when it's dark. The sun is sort of okay when I'm outside, but hurts my eyes and makes me uncomfortable when I'm inside and it's shining in.
I can't wear certain types of fabric. Nylon, wool, leather. In fact, I think the only type of fabric I own is cotton, except underwear. Makes bying clothes a little hard sometimes, when you absolutely LOVE the design but just know it would drive you crazy to wear.
Smells of for example gasoline or nail polish remover gives me instant headache symptoms. I can't figure out if this is all in my brain or not. But I do know, that I feel it's real.
Snoring however calms me, and makes my brain go into sleep mode. I love having boyfriends that snore. I should put that on my list, hehe.
I've always been aware that I'm more sensitive than others. I'm not sure if it's that big of a deal. I think it's an essential part of who I am. And if I start to hate that, I start to hate me. You know? I hope I make sense.
Location: Texas USA Posts: 3703 Joined: 2008-05-25
12/17/08
I'm with you on these, Ert. Fingernail polish remover and gasoline give me an instant headache. Sometimes it escalates and I end up pacing the floor, hoping that the extra strength Tylanol will 'kick in'. And I put the TV on mute when sports comes on. Here, it comes on on ALL channels simultaneously, so the only way to get away from it would be to watch an info-mercial on some obscure channel. Even switching to Spanish TV doesn't help, as they are just as "fanatic" and loud, only it's about soccer instead of the usual fare. - jus'
Edited by justfoundout on December 18 2008 02:28 AM
Yeah, I just turn it off too when there's sports on, but sometimes just flipping the channels is enough to make me cringe. There's like 5 all sports channels in my cable subscription, but I deleted them.
Oh, and David Letterman. The acustic is AWFUL, people screaming and clapping, combined with screaming instruments from the band. Can't watch that.
Location: Co. Durham, England Posts: 107 Joined: 2009-09-07
sensory overload does bother me too - I am unable to hear people talking in busy rooms, as I can't tune out everyone else's voice in the room and concentrate on just one, hence I tend to spend a lot of time smiling and nodding and hoping to heck I'm doing so at the right time!
I have always had a very acute sense of smell as well, in one of my jobs I could tell when my boss came out of the house on a morning (she lived on site) as I could smell the cigarette smoke of her first cig of the day from over 100 meters away on the bottom stable yard, AND she'd be having that first cigarette INDOORS in the static caravan (for americans - mobile home) we had at the top of the farmyard site as a break room. (As she wasn't allowed to smoke in the main house)
My colleagues always found it incredible that I could suddenly state "she's here" before they had even heard or seen her.
I get very annoyed at being touched too much, while I enjoy hugging my boyfriend, it irritates the heck out of me if he strokes my hand or arm etc as it is nothing more than irritating annoyance to me. I appreciate the lovely gesture but it doesn't just tickle, it makes me want to rip my damn skin off! I have to stop him doing it as politely as possible while restraining myself from batting his hand away outright.
Wonder if my apparent hypersensitivity to sharp pain (needles) is related? so many people insist injections don't hurt, especially when you can't see them, but it just isn't true for me - it's agonising pain even when I don't know it's coming.
A case in point - I have needle phobia to such an extent now that I have to be knocked out with nitrous oxide gas at the dentists so that they can inject my gums. Bearing in mind I am UNCONCIOUS by the time they inject me - the pain of the injection (which I have no way of anticipating in that state) still gets through, and apparently I will thrash about and fight them off while still apparently out cold, and even scream out loud.
The wierd thing is that my needle phobia only relates to when the needles are coming at me, or into human flesh. I have worked as a veterinarly assistant before and on hundreds of occassions I have injected dogs, cats and many many horses both intramuscularly and subcutaneously without a problem.
Kirsty
I have determined that my sole purpose in life is to serve as a bad example
Location: United States Posts: 1481 Joined: 2008-11-14
Kirsty - You probably react so strongly to being injected even under nitrous oxide sedation because the gas doesn't actually put you completely under the way general anesthesia does. You are conscious, you are just in such a subdued state of consciousness that you do not remember it afterward.
Whenever you get your wisdom teeth removed, it's the same way -- some people will be "aware" to some degree of what's going on when they have them removed, able to remember hearing voices or feeling some pressure, because they have a higher threshhold of conscious awareness and are harder to keep sedated in that fashion. Also, if you have ever been knocked out so a doctor can re-set a broken bone, it's the same way... a patient will have to be restrained from thrashing and will scream and cry while the bone is being re-set, because they ARE conscious and it DOES hurt... they just don't remember it at all when they 'come to' from the medication.
So in short, you're still having a conscious, phobic reaction to the needle being injected into you, it's just much more tolerable for you because you can't remember it afterward.
Edited by CheshireKat on September 08 2009 08:15 PM
"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." - Eric Hoffer
scrapheapchallenge wrote:
I get very annoyed at being touched too much, while I enjoy hugging my boyfriend, it irritates the heck out of me if he strokes my hand or arm etc as it is nothing more than irritating annoyance to me. I appreciate the lovely gesture but it doesn't just tickle, it makes me want to rip my damn skin off!
This is a problem for me too. I cringe when people try to hug me without warrant, or you know just touch me in acknowledgement. It's not that I don't appreciate it, my body just can't take the surprise of it I suppose.
I have no problems with touching people when I know it's coming, or when I make the initiative to do it. I hug, pat and play all day working with kids, so I'm always challenging myself to be a bit more open to sudden touch. Again, I have no problems with hugs and touching in general, just when it's out of the blue.
I guess my brain doesn't give clues to my body that something good is coming (you know what I mean... being touched by other people and hugs are good for most people, sets off positive chemicals in fact, and there's studies that show that no human fysical contact can be harmful), so my body think it's an attack? It's a theory I have.
Edited by ert on September 09 2009 06:34 PM
ert, when somebody I don't know well touches me, I freeze and feel very uncomfortable until they "leave me alone". A crowded bus is a nightmare because I have to sit next to strangers which I hate.
I was bullied a lot in school, pushed (even beaten up once or twice)and told to go away all the time and I sometimes wonder if that could be the reason.
I don't like noise, especially if noises mix, such as someone talking and music playing at the same time - it drives me crazy and I have to leave.
I dislike the sound of rattling paper or plastic bags, don't know why but I never liked that sound.
I'm a violin so stop trying to make me sound like a piano!!
Dyscalculia doesn't bother me as much as all the nasty accessories that came with it
Location: United States Posts: 1481 Joined: 2008-11-14
Ert - It does sound a lot like your body is "misinterpreting" the sudden contact as being an attack rather than something pleasurable. All humans are hard-wired to crave contact with others, with the exception of certain people with mental disorders that affect their social interactions (namely autism spectrum disorders). But for average, healthy people, it is normal to want to touch and be touched, and studies have shown that we are as a whole happier and healthier when we have those contacts throughout the day (it doesn't even have to be a hug, just a touch on the arm or shoulder or another friendly gesture can partially satiate that need to make contact).
But we are also hard-wired for survival, which means that our brain, specifically our sympathetic nervous system, is on a hair trigger to alert us to danger from a mile away. If it wasn't, we wouldn't still be around as a species. We have no claws, no fangs, no wings, no venom... we are essentially useless creatures, except for our huge brains. If we had never developed a brain that allowed us to see danger coming and take effective measures against it (generally running, then later in human evolution, creating tools to fight back) we would've been eaten up a long time ago.
It sounds like your brain is just on "hyper vigilant" mode all the time - constantly seeking out threats, always aware of your surroundings and ready to respond with extreme speed to any potentially risky situation. A hundred thousand years ago, that would have been really, really handy, and while it is still a good survival mechanism now, it often causes more problems than it solves in our lives today. Are you generally a high anxiety person? Do you find yourself jumpier than others, or more prone to nerves? If you are, it would make sense, since anxiety is a sympathetic nervous system response.
"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." - Eric Hoffer
Location: Texas USA Posts: 3703 Joined: 2008-05-25
9/9/09
I know that this is only partially on-topic, but...
The lady at work who does 'scheduling' and keeps track of 'tardies', 'absences', and 'Paid Days Off', etc. (a 'numbers' person- you get it.) has always had the knack of being blunt, a little bossy, and a little presumptuous (like when she told me that if I tried to change my weekend schedule, I would loose my job!), but she hadn't done anything particularly obnoxious for at least a week. So, today, I asked my supervisor to let me go home two hours early (for a test), and I got his permission to leave without penalty, as they didn't have enough work for everybody who was there. Then, I needed my time card from the 'numbers lady', but she was talking to another Rep. In order to gently interrupt, I put my arm around her shoulder and gave her a little hug, which she seemed to really like, but she didn't 'get the hint' that I was standing there because I needed her attention. So, she kept talking to the other Rep. Finally, I said that I was leaving and needed my time card, which she quickly produced from her file box.
On my way home from work, I got worried that I should have had my supervisor actually 'sign' my time-card, so that no one can say that I 'left early with penalty'. So, I called my company. The 'numbers lady' answered, and she has never been so helpful in the (almost) year that I've worked there. She said not to worry about needing a signature for that at all, and she was calling me 'honey' (quite common in the Southern U.S. between ladies).
So, yes, Kat, as you said, "... But for average, healthy people, it is normal to want to touch and be touched, and studies have shown that we are as a whole happier and healthier when we have those contacts throughout the day (it doesn't even have to be a hug, just a touch on the arm or shoulder or another friendly gesture can partially satiate that need to make contact).
And, I think that what happened today with the 'numbers lady' illustrates the power that a friendly touch, in the right circumstances, can have. - jus'
Edited by justfoundout on September 09 2009 10:10 PM
Location: Island of Misfit Toys Posts: 620 Joined: 2007-10-25
I might have mentioned this before but I detest unfamiliar people touching me and have hit people for touching me unexpectedly. I do let people touch me ( jokes go here) when I am comfortable with them. I don't think this has anything to do with my LDs but more based on being a complete nut.
"I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused..."
Elvis Costello
Location: United States Posts: 1481 Joined: 2008-11-14
Haha, I think if there was some sort of International Dyscalculics Convention that we all went to, you guys would stay away from me with a five-foot pole in hand. I am a total hugger, that's just what I do. As soon as I see someone, even if it's someone I'm not super familiar with, I will hug them. When I meet you, at the end of our interaction I say, "It was great meeting you!" and give you a hug. I just love hugs!
Even beyond the realm of hugs, I'm just a "touch" person. I touch people's arms when I want their attention or am talking to them, I touch their shoulders, their upper back, their hand... I don't even realize I'm doing it half the time, unless someone says something about it. I can understand how that would make someone else uncomfortable, though I certainly don't try to make anyone feel that way around me (most people tend to feel more comfortable around someone who touches them lightly on the arm or hand, actually.)
"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." - Eric Hoffer
I am a very touchy<tactile> person too and enjoy hugs - part of it comes from the various activist/consciousness-raising and "what-is-said-in-here-stays-in-circle" kind of group activity I've been involved in since college. Part of it is my experience with d/Deaf, including my own husband - deaf w/o HA's. Some of it now has to do with my hearing status. And a large part of it is just that I am an intuitive, tactile person. It is very natural for me to get someone's attention by touching their shoulder, or if I feel some emotion from them, giving them a bit of a light touch. This past weekend someone I didn't know was sitting in front of me at the UU congregation I sometimes go to. It was Sunday talk and one of the things commonly done in UU is share "joys and concerns" if desired, so ushers go around w/mic's and give people who show interest chance to speak their thoughts. One woman did and her thoughts were very sad and powerful. After she sat down I reached forward and gently squeezed her shoulder.
Now, if I know - or consider possibility, based on behavior - that someone has an ASD or is DeafBlind/deafblind/has low vision , then I wouldn't be so much <or at all> touchy with person, especially when not knowing them. If communicating w/d/Deafblind I would try to involve some tactile to my degree of ability and depending on how they desire.
My folks have also always been very physically affectionate with me. They do not really show affection for each other but hugs and physical contact and expressive gestures are very common in my family.
Location: Texas USA Posts: 3703 Joined: 2008-05-25
9/10/09
So, at our International Dyscalculia Convention, it will be RottieWoman, Kat, and Jus' doing the spontaneous 'group hug' along with various and sundry patting. For the rest of you, we'll provide a sign-up sheet, where you can tell us 'when', 'how' and 'with what intensity' we get to hug and touch you. ;-) - jus'
Edited by justfoundout on September 10 2009 08:30 PM
Location: United States Posts: 1481 Joined: 2008-11-14
Rottie - My family was the opposite, there has never been very much hugging at all. It is peculiar that I turned out such a touchy-feely person given that my mom was never inclined to be affectionate towards me.
Jus - Hahaha, I love the sign-up sheet idea. We'd carry it around and announce on the mic, "Alright _____, it's time for your hug! Come on up!"
"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." - Eric Hoffer
