Autism or not, we all have sensory issues. But many a time we are not aware of them because our brains have the ability to ignore or mute them.

We are designed in a way that we are ‘unaware’ of all the noises, smells, and other things that can cause us to have sensory processing difficulties.

Our brains are designed to know what to process, when to process it, why to process it, at which speed to process it, and for how long.

We even know how to separate foreground from background noises. At times we can be in loud-noise places but not be affected by them because our brains have a ‘filter’ in them.

But that is not the case with children and adults with autism, especially those who are hyper in comparison to those who are hypo.

An autistic brain doesn’t have that filter and can’t sift through information. What it does is process everything (foreground and background noise) at the same with the same amount of volume.

To me and you, background noise may be subtle and almost inaudible. But to a person with autism, That is absolutely not the case. Matter of fact, that volume is as loud as hell.

But what is background noise?

Background noise is a less important feature of scenery as opposed to foreground noise.

Examples of background noise

Do you know that tick-tock sound your wristwatch makes that you almost don't know it's there because it is so damn inaudible?
The sounds of birds chirping outside, and the sound made by the leaves on the tree when the wind blows.

Those are background noises, these, our brains are able to shush in a way you'd think they aren't there, except they are. We don’t hear these noises or sounds because they are supposedly less important and aren’t part of a whole.

Hypersensitive people with autism can, however, hear these sounds and noises as if they are being amplified.

Here’s a tricky part

Unlike foreground noises that can be avoided, turned off, or reduced to a more reasonable amount of volume of your liking and preference, you CANNOT switch off a background noise. Never!

Why? You ask.
Because background noises are natural, well, although not all of them. But most of them are. While you may be able to muffle your wristwatch with a pillow or whatever, gag your phone by putting it on silent mode whenever you feel like it’s making a racket.

You can’t tell the birds outside to keep it down, nor the leaves on the tree to shush, and those other night-creaking sounds to zip it, can you? You can’t switch those off.

Now, a person with autism hears these noises day and night; all the time and all of them. Imagine hearing the BIRDS, the WIND, the LEAVES, and the CREAKING SOUNDS, and I haven’t even included the foreground noises that take place during the day.

WHEN WE TALK, OUR CELL PHONES RINGING, OUR RADIOS, OUR TVs, TYRES SCREECHING, CARS HONKING, SOME CRASHING, etc.

Now, try to imagine this mother of chaos happening in your head all day every day, and night. When will you get the time to rest, let alone process this whole backlog of information that keeps piling up so fast like it's on steroids?

Do you think your brain would be able to take all that? Hell, not. That is why the brain decides what goes in and what doesn’t for its own sanity and peace of mind (pardon the pun).

Ever seen a person who has experienced trauma but ends up not remembering zilch about it? That’s because the brain “weighed” that experience and deduced that it would be too much for it to process.

What does it then do? It blocks the memory. But an autistic brain is not wired like that at all. Again, it’s especially that of a hypersensitive individual.
Okay, but what are hyper and hypo?

On the autism spectrum, after the different types of autism and their levels, we get two sides of it: the hyper side and the hypo side.

Hyper-autistic individuals are the ones who are impossibly sensitive to one or two or all the senses or experience sensory processing difficulties.

Hypo-autistic individuals, on the other hand, are “dead” to any or all of their senses. The reason I am using the word dead is that they are non-responsive just like a dead person would be non-responsive to anything.

Ever heard of the English proverb that says, "No point in beating a dead horse?" That’s because the horse is dead! So, it can’t feel anything no matter how hard you may try to strike it. So, you’re just wasting your energy, literally.

Hypo individuals on the autism spectrum are like that when it comes to sensory processing. There’s no processing of any sort happening in their brains because there is nothing to process.

So, what’s the solution for this noise-sensory processing difficulty?

The solution depends on how the individual with autism deals with their sensory processing methods because there are two ways they deal with this.
The first ones like my son, process this by being loud themselves. What they do is make all sorts of painful, sharp, and loud-to-your-ears noises. The reason they scream their lungs out is so they can counter, deaden, or suppress the other noises

Now, this sensory processing of theirs is a double-edged sword because it works for them but will hurt your ears like hell. Trust me, I know, here’s what to do:

Put some earphones on them, play them a song they like, put it on repeat, and up the volume. That way everybody wins, and this process actually works faster than watching your autistic loved one scream and run around like a madman. This method is for those individuals who “fight fire with fire”, so to speak.

Another method is also with earphones, but this time instead of putting in some music, these individuals prefer silence. Therefore, use noise-canceling earphones instead.

These earphones are so amazing at killing unwanted sounds. They are brilliant. So, you see? Different strokes for different folks, literally.

In the next posts I will be talking about other autism sensory challenges, so, do stay tuned in because you don’t want to miss them.