I live with, work with, and am myself part of, the autistic population. So I gotta agree - sometimes, higher sensitivity is a real detriment.

It’s not fun being light-sensitive. I’ve had days where I’ve worn sunglasses indoors, with the lights off and curtains closed. The vast majority of my days aren’t that bad, thankfully, but it truly sucks when light causes physical eye pain and headaches. I’ve got a great eye for detail (and have been called “eagle eye” throughout my life), which benefits me in a number of ways, but unfortunately it also means I get distracted by things others don’t notice. I can’t just “ignore” a lot of things, and when those distractions impact me disproportionately, I’m left in the frustrating situation of guiding others to see (or hear, or feel) the things that are super obvious to me - it feels like leading a child by the hand.

I’m also sensitive to touch (I can’t stand light touch, but I can detect ticks on my skin before they bite) and have the ability to hear novel speech sounds that modern science claims I should’ve lost the ability to detect decades ago (which, okay, is a cool feature to have. But it contributes to being easily-distracted.) All in all, I’ve never known any other way of experiencing the world, but I do know that most people have difficulty understanding my atypical point of view. Which leads to me preferring the company of fellow spectrumites, and others who understand and accept sensory differences.