Touchy
I’ve always been sensitive to touch. As a child I often used to wear my socks inside out so I couldn’t feel the seams. I didn’t like anything round my neck or wrists, and I found it impossible to ignore tickly clothing labels.
This sensitivity, particularly to ‘gentle touch’, has remained consistent throughout my life. Fat Sister often strokes me gently in a deliberate, mischievous fashion, teasing me in a way that only siblings can.
In the last few months though, this tactile sensitivity has increased dramatically. I can cope with firm touch or consistent pressure, but lighter or irregular touch makes my body squirm with discomfort. This is particularly noticeable when my carers are helping me shower. Having my hair and body washed has become a gruelling ordeal – I’m even finding the sensation of the water itself difficult to manage.
I’ve got no idea why this has changed, and it’s certainly taking some getting used to, for me and for everyone else!
So to all my friends and family, please don’t worry if I overreact to your touch – I’m just recalibrating.
Festive Outburst
“Frosty the Snowman is corresponding with his Union.”
jojojones73 says:
My son has hypersensitivity to touch from his dyspraxia and a hypersensitive gag reflex to food textures. He’s now 14 so we don’t insist on tomatoes and strawberries getting eaten. He will only wear soft clothes and likes his hood up. Good job we live in windy north wales, recalibration is a good way of looking at it, he is just calibrated differently. I will try explaining this to my mother who does not seem to want to understand.