Enhanced senses like hearing, sight and smell seem like a real advantage and some sort of superpower, but in reality, it’s not that good and is more of a hinderance and sometimes a real nightmare.
Imagine being able to hear things that other people don’t, hear people talking through walls and noises so that only you can pick up, being hyper vigilant to every movement around you or picking up every odour no matter how light, sounds great doesn’t it?

Let me tell you why it is not so great after all.

You cannot sleep because you can hear the neighbours clock ticking and the hum of a charger plugged in downstairs drives you mad.
You cannot watch TV because your tuned into a conversation in the next room, when you go shopping noises are so loud and intense you feel sick and dizzy.
You cannot hold a conversation because you are hearing everything around you and it’s like the volume is turned up to maximum.

Add to this having your eyesight and senses so alert that even the slightest movement in your peripheral vison distracts you from what you are trying to do and the dimmest of lights are too sensitive causing headaches and dizziness.
Your sense of smell picks up the slightest odours some of them cause offence and burn your sinuses and make your eyes water.
Being very sensory to touch finishes of the set and this can be from clothing, environmental factors like wind or temperature and very often being touched by a person which even the slightest tap feels like an attack.

When my senses come under attack my cognitive function suffers, I have no reasonable thoughts and I am left with only fight or flight responses.
When the sensory attacks are over, I get an information overload as my brain begins to function again.

I often find myself wearing dark glasses, headphones and a neck scarf over my mouth and nose just to reduce these attacks.

So, you see these super sensory powers are not so great and there is an enormous difference between having superpowers and reality and the reality is that most of us with sensory issues struggle daily with light, noise, smell and touch.

Some of us more than struggle and quite often it is like a form of torture that follows us around wherever we go.

It is not just people with Autism that struggle with sensory issues, people with ADHD, acquired brain injuries and many other neurological and mental health disorders struggle too.
Although I understand in depth how and why these problems occur in myself, I still find it exceedingly difficult to live with and it still causes meltdowns today as age doesn’t seem to be a factor.

Finally imagine being a small child and not understanding what is happening and having no control of your environment, I struggle with it as an adult who understands it, so no wonder children have a much harder time.

https://neurologically-challenged.co.uk/

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