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Hmm, I've heard that sensory overload can be physically painful for same people. Might be that, but I'm no doctor.
Are you autistic? Sometimes autistic people respond to stimuli differently than others and find it hard to articulate - maybe what you think of as pain is actually just a very intense response to this specific type of audio at a time when your body is at rest.
Wait, you're telling me it isn't painful for everyone?
It's generally not, though certain types of stimuli can cause pain through their own merit either directly or indirectly.
Bright lights that cause prolonged squinting, loud sounds (obviously), etc.
I recently learned that touch can also cause pain. Like just general touching that results in overstimulation that feels like pain. That's not common.
I imagine it's kind of overloading the tickle and itchy pathways or something, which feels painful?...
Oh man, I have all of these! Pain in the head behind the eyes when the alarm goes off, prolonged squinting with certain kinds of bright lights, I get physical pain in my head from specific outdoor sounds like a very loud motorcycle exhaust.
But most striking of all, I have the pain response to tickling. If someone tries tickling me anywhere on my body my back spasms and my diaphragm contracts, my vision goes black and I have to concentrate to stop myself from yelling and screaming. It's not the same as regular pain like a cut or bruise or a burn, is more like someone tasering me.
I've always been pretty sensitive to tickling since I was a kid, but it got way worse after I got a pinched nerve in my back about 10 years ago.
I was also very mildly on the autism spectrum when I was a kid, then I was neurotypical from puberty until my early 30s, now nearly 40 I'm back deep into the spectrum.
So you're telling me that you can use smth like a drill/angle grinder or go to a concert without ear protection and not feel pain?
No, loud volumes are one of the things I mentioned explicitly that cause pain inherently.
You should be using hearing protection when using loud tools or attending concerts.
I can use a drill, jigsaw, or circular saw and not feel pain; yes.
Don't think this is just a me thing, as my family seem fine using them too.
I got a very light tendency to sensory overload but to me it's not a pain, I respond to annoying sounds, and I am a little bit more sensitive and have a little bit stronger reactions to it. And when I get overloaded, my brain kinda shuts off, I can't reason, I get very angry and I can't properly communicate anymore.
Imagine someone is punching you randomly every minute but you can't do anything about it. You start getting irrational. That's the exact feeling.
What I'm saying is, what OP's describing is very different and they should definitely see a doctor about it, because even for a sensory condition it doesn't sound normal.
That is exactly what it's like for me. For me I find it worse with dissonant sounds. I can be in a loud city without problems because it's almost white noise I can tune out. But if it's annoying sounds or a lot of different sounds it's like a stimulus overload and my brain shuts down and I get irrational and angry.
I finally started recognizing it's something I do, so I can at least alert someone I'm with that I'm overloaded so give me a moment (preferably away from the stimulus) and I'll be useless until it passes.
Hey. You're describing me.