‘I felt like my senses were under attack’: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of experiences of hypersensitivity in autistic individuals

Abstract

While atypical sensory processes have become central to scientific explanatory models of autism, such models usually do not explicitly address first-person experiences of sensory processes by autistic individuals. Detailed phenomenological research of this subjective domain is nonetheless essential to ground explanatory accounts in the actual experiences and challenges faced by autistic individuals. Therefore, our study consisted of an interpretative phenomenological analysis of 18 semi-structured interviews with autistic individuals about their experiences of hypersensitivity. Overall, our analysis showed how hypersensitivity pertained to disturbances at a basic level of bodily self-experience and also affected other crucial phenomenological experiential dimensions such as the subjective perception of time and space, sense-making processes, intersubjectivity, and moods. Hypersensitivities were described by participants as intrusive experiences of being vulnerably exposed to overwhelming stimuli that invaded their bodies and were simultaneously related to an invasive, chaotic, unpredictable or threatening perception of the (social) environment. Our study highlights the impact of hypersensitivities on experiential domains outside the strict sensory register, thereby providing further evidence for altered sensory processing as a potential core mechanism involved in a variety of autistic symptoms. Our study also indicates the clinical importance of therapeutic interventions that act on a fragile sense of embodiment in autism.

Lay abstract

Research shows that the way autistic individuals perceive and process sensory stimuli differs from those of non-autistic people. However, while current research often focuses on what sensory differences in autism are and which neurocognitive processes may explain these, it often does not explicitly address what it is like to experience the world through the senses of an autistic person. To explore this understudied dimension, we conducted 18 in-depth interviews with autistic individuals in order to better understand how they personally experienced hypersensitivity from a first-person perspective. Participants described hypersensitivity as a feeling of being bombarded by intrusive stimuli that seemed to invade their bodies and from which they had difficulties distancing themselves. They also indicated how due to hypersensitivity they often perceived their (social) environment as invasive, chaotic, unpredictable or threatening. Hypersensitivities were thus not only described as unsettling bodily experiences but also related to challenges in perceiving, understanding and interacting with the (social) world. By focussing on the subjective dimension of sensory processing in autism, our study thus highlights how sensory difficulties are not peripheral features of autism but play an essential part in the daily challenges faced by autistic individuals.