Posted this on facebook and thought I'd share here too.

What it's like in my world:

It's finding things too loud in the morning just after you've gotten up, because your brain hasn't had a chance to adjust a bit yet. It's finding things too loud at a lower volume than most people would and it hurts your ears.

It's not being able to block out little noises around you, particularly if they're repetivitive - noises like people picking at their finger nails, materials rubbing against each other - even if there are much louder noises (music/tv) blocking it for most people. The noises get under your skin and can make you angry and fidgety. It's having trouble hearing what's being said in semi-noisy situations because all the other noise around is just as loud to you as what's being said (particularly frustrating when other people standing right next to you can hear it fine and your hearing is actually perfectly normal, you don't have hearing loss).

It's not wanting to be touched at all by people you don't know and being incredibly 'conscious' of the feeling when you are. It's when being touched fairly lightly makes you shudder - and why you hate having dogs or cats come near you, because they brush up against you or lick you and it DOES NOT FEEL NICE. (I'm lucky with this one as a lot of people with hypersensitivity with SPD hate pretty much any touch. I'm mostly okay with it as long as it's not a light touch and I know you. I particularly like hugs. :-)). It's getting the shudders from touching particular textures and even just looking at some textures and shuddering.

It's almost never adjusting to bad smells, no matter how long you're exposed to it, and gagging from it. And being a picky eater because you either really hate tastes and they make you gag or you really like them, there's very little inbetween. And things like chilli or mint that are very strong just taste disgusting.

It's finding crowds overwhelming and not being able to control your reaction. It's having to think through everything you might do out of your normal routine to evaluate how much of a risk it is and automatically avoiding things that could potentially be an issue because you're brain's been protecting itself that way since you were a kid. It's getting literally sleepy from too much sensory input, even if it's the middle of the day. It's needing more sleep than the average person to cope. It's having to really think through movements of your body to avoid the clumsies and concentrate really hard when following physical instructions. It's feeling your body vibrating after you've used the exhaust fan in your bathroom or been on a rough road or even just dealt with a group of kids for an hour and a half.

It's sometimes just finding everything or one thing in particular too much and launching into fight, flight or freeze mode and not being able to easily pull yourself out of it. It's crying or getting angry or just shutting down.

It's never having any idea how you're going to react or at what point things will get too much.