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Has anyone ever used the term "diminished perceptive filtering?

I just thought of it (or subconsciously picked it up somewhere, I dunno) and I think it makes sense to my experience. I don't believe I necessarily (just) have heightened sensory sensitivity, it's more about not being able to adjust my levels of perception that well. Thoughts?

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Dr. Figuring-things-aut
Dr. Figuring-things-aut
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sounds very descriptive of my experience, it's often the complexity of e.g. Sound that gives me trouble. Background noises or conversations are not filtered out for me.

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neon_mate
neon_mate
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@AutisticDoctorStruggles In German we have the expression "Reizfilterschwäche", which would translate to something like "stimulus filter weakness". Which fits for me quite well, because I too cannot change how much I perceive either, which distracts me from the conversation or thing I desperately want to perceive, because everything else is equally loud, bright or fragrant.
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Kim
Kim
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@neonmate
What ever it is, there's always a word for it in german. 😂

Nice, though "weakness" has a more negative connotation than I'd like. I'm probably just being picky right now tho 😅

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neon_mate
neon_mate
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@AutisticDoctorStruggles I personally find your suggestion of an English expression quite fitting too. But what I personally find appealing about the German expression is that "stimulus" covers a wider range for me, t.ex. it might be more difficult to also tolerate heat, cold or bright sunshine as well. But maybe "perception" covers this as well, I am not a native english speaker.
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Kim
Kim
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@neonmate @AutisticDoctorStruggles What I think I'm getting at is that there are two aspects to this.

There's overwhelming stimulus, like annoying lights, heat, and other offensive experiences. They're immediate and somewhat obvious when you don't have reflexive masking (like I used to).

Then there's perception; processing noise, auditory, visual, sensory yes, but it's the next step in the pipeline where things are sorted by importance and builds your mental model of reality.

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Kim
Kim
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@AutisticDoctorStruggles Sound is a big one.
I was just out and wanted to pick up a parcel on my way home. I took off my headphones as I entered the corner shop. There were a few people inside and a lot of movement, and I felt disoriented as I stood in line. I put my headphones with music back on and I'm suddenly able to process visually with a lot more clarity and regained composure.
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V'ger
V'ger
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One of the things that cause mental exhaustion for me and that I'm just starting to get a hold of are sounds. Up until this year I've never really noticed, how much external sound affects my energy level. I've mostly noticed how loud everything was when there was suddenly no sound. A classic is the neighbor who is mowing the lawn and then suddenly stops. Even though I don't "notice" the noise, my body ist still reacting to it. I'm tensing up.

I also never liked to go grocery shopping. There's more to that, but noise also is a big one. Since I'm using earplugs or earphones I can navigate the store a lot better.

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Kevin Davy
Kevin Davy
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@vger Same! The sheer release of tension and relief when I first started using earplugs and headphones just went to show how much sound had taken its toll without me realising.
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Kim
Kim
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@pathfinder @vger
This is so familiar. I've been aware if it for a long time but thought everybody experienced it. 🙃 My example is hissing water radiators; I remember trying to get to sleep as a teen, not noticing the hissing until it stopped and I realized how tense I was as it gave such an instant release.

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Kevin Davy
Kevin Davy
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Sounds about right. It's not that our senses are better, it's that the input from them is always set at max and short of artificial means, there is no way of adjusting that.

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Shiri Bailem
Shiri Bailem
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@Kim I haven't heard it phrased that way before, but it sounds like the symptom description of one form of Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) which is extremely common among autistics.

SPD generally involves us having one or more hypo-sensitive and/or hyper-sensitive senses.

Hyper sensitivity being where we can't filter out that sense as well, and Hypo sensitivity is where we can't filter it in as well (ie. it has to either be a strong input or we have to concentrate to notice things with that sense; we very often stim with our hypo-sensitivities).

This is where you get the more valid stereotypes of us having issues with textures (tactile hyper-sensitivity), lights (visual), and sounds (audio, but also see another subset of SPD called Central Auditory Processing Disorder).

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Kim
Kim
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Interesting!

That's usually what is talked about I think, but I'm trying to figure out if it makes sense to separe the sensory overwhelm part from the processing of "noise"/overlapping signals.

"Central Auditory Processing Disorder" seems relevant to my experience tho.

https://mstdn.social/@neversosimple/112681956107875766

Kim

2024-06-26 08:23:19


@neonmate @AutisticDoctorStruggles What I think I'm getting at is that there are two aspects to this.

There's overwhelming stimulus, like annoying lights, heat, and other offensive experiences. They're immediate and somewhat obvious when you don't have reflexive masking (like I used to).

Then there's perception; processing noise, auditory, visual, sensory yes, but it's the next step in the pipeline where things are sorted by importance and builds your mental model of reality.


This entry was edited (4 months ago)
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Shiri Bailem
Shiri Bailem
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@Kim I think it's less of a "this is a distinctly different condition" and more "sound is so central to our daily lives this is more notable"
@Kim

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Shiri Bailem
Shiri Bailem
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@donzo42 @Kim how many combinations of letters are available for up to 10 letters? lol
@Kim

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