Hypo and Hyper Sensitivity in Autistic People

Autistic people tend to be either hypo or hyper sensitive. Hyposensitivity is the under-responsiveness to stimuli. So, someone might not be able to tell if they are hot or cold. Hypersensitivity is the over-reaction to stimuli. So someone might feel hot and sweat even when it’s not that hot.

It’s important to note that an autistic person could be hyposensitive to one thing and hypersensitive to another. It can also fluctuate. One day the feeling of a certain texture might feel wonderful and the next day it could feel horrible.

Autistic people are likely to have different sensory experiences. We tend to be either hypo or hypersensitive to light, noise, touch, smells and tastes.

Lights can literally be physically painful for autistic people. They may appear brighter and make our brains struggle to process information at the same time as coping with the lights. On the other hand, if someone is hyposensitive to lights, their colour perception may be different.
Think how hard this hypersensitivity to lights can be for autistic people. It can give us frequent headaches, make it hard for autistic kids to focus at school and cause meltdowns when there is too much to process.

Noise. I think it’s fairly common knowledge that autistic people and loud noise often don’t mix. It can be so overwhelming to just walk through a shop. But what is less known is that it isn’t just the volume of this noise. It’s the difficulty filtering out certain sounds.

Imagine this:
You’re in the office. Someone speaks to you. Imagine if you can’t hear the words they are saying. Or you can hear them, but can’t make sense of them. The keyboards are tapping, someone is chatting across the hall, the wind is whistling outside, the sound of the air-conditioning is droning on in the background…all these noises are the same volume. Or the tapping is louder even though it is further away. You can’t make sense of what someone is saying even though they are less than a metre away. The sounds are all muddle.
Imagine how hard that would make things.

What is even less spoken about though, is hypo-sensitivity to sounds. Some autistic people can’t hear certain sounds. Or they might find noisy experiences enjoyable. Their experiences are just as valid.

Touch. This is incredibly relevant when we think about clothing. Autistic people are often very particular over which clothes we wear. Maybe it’s a certain brand, or a certain material, or the same t-shirt because it’s the only one that doesn’t itch. Hypersensitivity to touch can also result in finding others touching you really hard. This can make relationships more difficult to navigate. Being touched, even gently, could be physically painful. This hypersensitivity is why I’ve hated hairdressers my whole life. However, autistic people can also be hyposensitive to touch. This can be more serious since it can lead to someone self-harming or not realising when they are injured.

Smells. Some autistic people have a very limited sense of smell (hypo-sensitive), whereas others find smells extremely strong. An autistic child may find sitting in a classroom impossible because the smells of perfume or pencils are too overpowering.

Tastes. Autistic people do have a reputation of being fussy eaters. This is because often food textures are too uncomfortable to put into our mouths. Or flavours are so strong we can’t manage them. Hypo-sensitivity to taste is less common, but still something that some autistic people experience. Maybe this means they love spicy food or super strong flavours, in order to seek sensory pleasure from flavours. Occasionally this can mean eating non-edible things, like soil.

Although sensitivity to sensory things is probably the most common form of sensitivity in autistic people, it is not the only form. Autistic people can be highly sensitive with regards to emotions, feelings, empathy, tiredness and so on.

Many autistic people feel things extremely deeply. Something which may not affect somebody else could drastically effect us. Rejection could be more painful. We may get upset more easily. This could also be due to different processing systems. So many times growing up I’ve bene told I’m “too sensitive”. I get upset extremely easily. Small things just seem to hurt. Small things seem to hold more weight to me. When I’m hurt, I struggle to move on. Sensitivity, fixations, difficulty filtering out things…who knows why.

Hypo-sensitivity to things besides sensory experiences also occurs. For example, hypo-sensitivity to hunger and thirst cues. Not knowing when you’re hungry or when you’re full. This can make life complicated. (I recommend setting alarms reminding you when to eat and drink if you struggle with this!)

Hypo and hyper-sensitivity can really affect our lives, and it would be great if more people could understand this.