Questionable Quirks

Quirks, foibles, having a “thing” about something… when does it turn from an easy way for your friends to tease you to an Issue that needs Treatment?It’s a question I’ve been toying with recently. I have a few notable “quirks,” and have had them for years. Anyone who is close to me knows that, when I’m around, the following things are Not Cool:

1. Ripping or tearing paper or layers of cardboard.
2. Chewing loudly, or talking while chewing.
3. Playing with buttons or asking me to do something that involves touching buttons.
4. Using strong-smelling paints, or petrol.

(They also know that if I laugh too much I’m likely to lose control of my thumbs, which some of the more unscrupulous are likely to take advantage of.)

Why shouldn’t they? Because I’ll have the following involuntary reactions:

1. I get goosebumps: mostly on my arms and back but occasionally all over.
2. This is just distressing and feels awful to hear. Eeeee.
3. Gives me a creepy, yucky feeling, like the aftermath of an adrenaline rush.
4. It makes my teeth hurt. Seriously. My teeth hurt just thinking about the smell of radiator paint. Yeuch.

Obviously I realise that I can’t go through life smacking down the Loud Chewers of this world (much as I’d like to) or banning radiator paint (OW). So I have a few coping mechanisms:

• Avoidance: I do not wear cardigans, or dresses with buttons. The only clothing I own with buttons are jeans, and those are metal buttons. If touching buttons is unavoidable, I cover my fingers with cloth or a towel.
• Leaving the room. The next-best thing, but not always possible.
• Blocking out the noise: with headphones, earplugs, or failing those, just covering my ears. Or putting on the kettle.
• Distraction: usually another sensory activity, such as scratching, or tapping my feet.

These help, but they aren’t always possible, they don’t always work, and it’s rare that I get through a day without having to use one. Mostly, these are daily occurrences: often occurring multiple times a day. And it’s starting to get annoying – even to me.

I know most of us have these type of quirks – who, for example, is indifferent to the sound or feeling of nails down a blackboard, the sound of a plate being scraped clean, or the smell of a well-used bathroom? It just seems like I have more of them than usual, and that they’re getting more difficult to cope with. To be very clear: I don’t have OCD and I don’t have any phobias: I’m not afraid of these sensations, nor do I think awful things will happen if I experience them or if I don’t initiate one of my ways of coping. I just (“just”!) have a very strong dislike of all these triggers and how they make me feel, and I will do whatever is reasonable to avoid or ameliorate them.

So, I’ve done a bit of research. The closest thing I’ve read to a description of these behaviours and reactions is adult Sensory Processing Disorder, but it’s not a perfect fit. In some ways, it’s possible that my reaction to ripping paper, strong-smelling paint, and buttons could be auditory-tactile and tactile-emotion synaesthesia. The more prosaic, and probably much more likely, explanation, is that this is all within normal limits and there doesn’t need to be a label for these quirky reactions of mine: but maybe I do need need to get them under control before  they start controlling me.

 

So, Wise Ones of the Interweb: do any of you have “quirks” like this? Should I offer myself up to the neuroscience lab, take myself to my friendly local hypotherapist, or keep on as I am, knowing that in a world of quirky people, I barely register?