It's my body, my senses

It's my body. I know it best. You can't tell me how I feel, what I feel. You can't tell me what my experiences are.

You can't say "its not that bad" when you have no clue what it is like for me. Trying to tell me how I can't truly feel my body spinning out of control because of such small bits of movement. You can't tell me I'm making it up, seeking attention, not truly dealing with anything, because you can't understand.

It's my body. I know what its like. I feel my head spinning. I feel the nausea setting in. You might not understand, but my body, my experiences, tell me that this happens, and its mine to say what is happening to me.

Nor can you say "you don't seek things", just because you've actually recognized now that my senses might actually be hypersensitive! Just because I sense things strongly doesn't mean I cannot crave, even if you do not know what it is like to do either and are going from a book. I know what I do, and denying what I do to fit me into your picture denies reality.

It's my body. It's not yours. You aren't the one choosing what I am eating, how I am eating it; how I am moving; what happens through my skin. You aren't the one figuring out how to live in the world, by avoiding and seeking, sorting out and adapting, and eventually determining that there are labels for these things.

When I take ghost pepper extract and drop a drop on my tongue and then follow it up with peppermint oil - will you say I will not seek anything? Because you want me to fit your stereotypes? When I can't string words together until I sit in a swing, am I making it up?

No, it is my body, and I can tell you my perceptions. I might not have the best descriptions. I might not know all the proper words, but you can't tell me that things are not happening to me that are happening to me. I'm the one who gets to say what I perceive, even if you help put labels on what that means.

Shoes with toes (and sensory requirements)

Vibram five fingers, and other minimalist footware have started to get common enough that a decent percentage of people know about shoes with toes existing, but few people I've talked to know why people use them (except that they're popular for running). When people see mine they often question how I like them if they've heard of them before, or look strangely at my feet in confusion.

I've warn five fingers almost exclusively since Christmas of last year when I got my first pair. In this period of time the only time I got close to hurting myself while walking was while I was wearing boots. Even walking on ice, if I slipped with these shoes, I was able to react without risking hurting myself at all, despite these having what people view as a sole that isn't grippy enough.

The reason is simple, these shoes let me feel the ground through them. Normal shoes, I'm walking on a platform that isn't actually on the ground and have no way of knowing what is going on under my feet through touch. I'd recommend these shoes to people in general for this reason, but would do so even stronger for people who, like me, need to put effort into managing sensory integration.

ASDs, do tend to come with sensory "issues" - hypersensitivity, hyposensitivity, integration issues, or so on. Beyond that, I also identify with SPD (despite not having been diagnosed with that) - Sensory Processing Disorder. For people with both an ASD and SPD the borderline between the two is incredibly blurred. Both ASDs and SPD however cause people to have different sensory requirements than the norm; hyposensitive or hypersensitive, and avoiding or seeking input, the requirements are different.

Personally, I'd consider myself hypersensitive (without question) and seeking (though I avoid things that are headache triggers). Despite hypertasting, spicy food is something I eat rather than avoid; despite hypersmelling, I'll use something that's 50% peppermint oil when someone else would use aromatherapy levels; despite hyperfeeling, I want the input of as much detail of what's under my feet as possible.