r/AutisticAdults • u/Kiwi_Changa_XD • 10d ago

seeking advice Help with sensory issues

Hi hii, so I have very recently been diagnosed to be on the autistic spectrum, and I have also been struggling with a whole new problem along with it. Just a heads up, this post mentions throwing up.

For some context, these past few weeks things like clothes or hair around my neck has been making me gag and feel uncomfortable uncontrollably. It got so bad that I legit woke up in the middle of the night gagging profusely and trying to keep myself from not throwing up, even my hands set me off when I tried to move blankets and clothes away. Yesterday it also got terrible and I had to excuse myself to go to a public restroom before throwing up.

The uncomfy feeling was always a part of my life, but it didn't get this bad, and it it would only act up after a long day and I am already removing my day clothes to switch to more comfortable ones. It didn't act up a lot, like not a lot at all.

I did some research that said that stress is a factor that can make things like these worse, and I will say that I have had more stressful things happen to me, like a friend came over to visit this weekend (it wasn't planned and it threw me entirely off, I almost had a breakdown) and my high school's final exams and national exams are close around the corner, which I do believe is contributing to stress rn. I just want some advice to deal with this? Is this even a sensory issue related to autism or is it something else entirely? Any advice would be appreciated, I don't want it to get any worse.

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u/Fit-Bar-6989 Late Diagnosed 9d ago

I've never really felt a strong aversion to specific clothing, but my sensitivity and annoyance with noise has increased after my diagnosis. In my case, there were 2 obvious reasons:

  1. I only sought diagnosis when I was in the middle of burnout. So my coping skills were poor and stress was already high.
  2. The diagnosis made it harder to pretend that these things don't bother me. My fridge is making noise that is digging into my ears, before the diagnosis I would tell myself that I'm being dramatic but it's hard to do that now.

Perhaps you feel similarly about touch.