Pain and Autism

One of the weird realities of autism is hypersensitivity COMBINED with hyposensitivity. I suppose what this really means is that autistic brains don’t work the way neurotypical brains work and that isn’t particularly novel. But the specifics of the difference continue to be interesting to me. I am hypersensitive to many medications, to the point that I often would rather be in pain than deal with side effects of nausea, dizziness, or brain fog. This comes up when I’ve had to have surgery and it was a huge problem in trying to find me a depression/anxiety medication.

I’m also hypersensitive to dental work. When I went to get my wisdom teeth taken out and had one Novocain shot too many, I fainted and (apparently) went into convulsions. I’ve fainted more than once during ordinary procedures that doctors don’t feel the need to warn me about being particularly painful. These same doctors are often confused when they discover that I’m an endurance athlete, that I’ve done ten Ironman events, that I’ve completed more than a hundred triathlons, and many, many marathons and ultra marathons. I talk casually about losing toenails and about how little I feel pain while exercising.

Yet, I also have never been able to find a pair of running shoes that I can lace up in any way that seems normal. I have to wear them very loose and my feet flop around, which causes injuries, but if I don’t leave them loose, they hurt…