As long as I can remember, I have an unbelievably intense negative reaction to any kind of fine, micro-fiber-type fabric. Any of that fine fleece material, “flocked” items, many, many glove liners - it’s nearly impossible for me to find gloves that I can wear - and the vast, vast majority of hunting clothes. When I shop for camo hunting clothes I literally walk up and down with my hand outstretched, trying to find the items that are not made out of that super-micro-fine fleece-type material. UGGGHHH!
When I ride in my dad’s car, I can hardly wait to get out, because of his micro-fiber upholstery. (He loves the stuff and has dozens of shirts made out of microfiber, which absolutely blows my mind.) The physical reaction that I have to touching that stuff is intense. I can feel it through multiple layers of clothing. If I’m wearing leather work gloves and I touch that fine fabric, I can still pick up the vibrations of the glove against the fabric and it still gives me that SSSSSHHHHIIIIIIVVVVVVERRRR feeling up my spine that is unbearable for me.
I cannot wear this stuff. It’s out of the question. Yet, SO MUCH STUFF is made out of it.
Is there any possible way to get over this feeling? If I touched the stuff for a few minutes, a couple of times a day, for months, would I get over it? Or could I do this for years and still have such a negative reaction to it?
This can’t be a phobia, though, can it? I thought phobias are psychological. This is physical. It’s about the way I physically feel when my skin touches something.
IANAD. Perhaps psychosomatic. I knew a nurse who, after she found out she was allergic to penicillin, felt itchy after touching IV tubes with penicillin solution in them. It made her job difficult at times.
Do you have dry skin? I used to hate putting on my stupid fleece bathrobe because it was almost like Velcro when paired with dry hands.
Right now my feet are on this pad that has a fleece side and it’s ok, but normally my feet are dry and it’s awful.
I wonder if you got your hands nice and soft and touched some fleece, you might feel better about it. Perhaps a lot of your interaction with fleece has been uncomfortable because of rough skin.
This is the sort of thing Occupational Therapists are into (well, one of the things anyway). There are supposedly therapies for decreasing sensory defensiveness, but I don’t know how well they work on adults (or, in fact, at all really). You could try finding a decent OT in your area and asking them.
My son has had this problem all his life. Fabrics that most people find pleasurable to touch, (velvet, satin, velour, and cuddly microfiber materials) really put him on edge. As a tot, he would say, they “tickle his brain.” Sounds cute, but he was and still is very bothered by them. I found the link Absolute posted very interesting. It describes some of my own issues with fluorescent lighting and my intolerance of multiple sounds at once.
My thing is chalk. Anything that feels chalky gives me this electrical-tingly feeling throughout my body. A bit like the feeling of sudden goose-bumps, but all over(especially mid-back).
I’ve gotten over this aversion to a certain degree. I can, for example, rub my hands over a fleece blanket now with no problems. Playing a game of pool on the other hand takes a bit more out of me.
Many years ago I had to use a chalk board during sales meetings. At first I was so focused on the texture of the stick of chalk that I could barely concentrate on what I needed to write. It took weeks for me to adjust to that oogy feeling.
I suggest that you buy a few swatches of the materials in question and, as you said, spend a couple minutes a day touching and handling the stuff.
I wonder if any of the therapies designed to help sensory integration issues might help. A lot of kids with developmental issues cannot stand clothing with any kind of scratchiness - e.g. have to live in sweats, tags cut out, etc.
My son was treated with vigorous all-over brushing with surgical brushes (soft plastic brushex) that was aimed at making him less reactive overall. Massage might have similar benefits.
Just out of curiousity, try giving one hand a very vigorous rub-down with the other hand, some time when you’re going to be near such a fabric. See if you react as strongly when you touch it with that hand.
I don’t like them either. I can put up with them, but don’t get why people like them. I can’t even stand regular bed sheets unless I’m in a generous mood, preferring a knitted lower sheet and a cotton blanket on top.
I have been a soldier all my life (actually, I think it was Andrew (Stonewall) Jackson who said that first). I have noticed that if my hands are dusty and then I touch paper then I get the same hinky feelings the OP is talking about.
Being a soldier, I have of course, thought about being captured and tortured by the enemy. If they had ripped out my fingernails, I would have laughed and spit in their eye. But if they had dusted my fingers and made me touch paper, I think I might have melted and told them anything they wanted to know. Go figure.
I am a retired soldier now and don’t know anything that the enemy would want to know. Otherwise I would not post this.
My sister has this kind of feeling regarding cotton balls, specifically the kind that come in aspirin bottles. She hates even talking about the sensation of touching them. Recently, I reminded her that a hated, hated childhood ritual for all of us was when our mother would sit us down and use cotton twirled around the end of a toothpick (as a makeshift Q-tip) to clean the wax out of our ears. It was on a doctor’s recommendation, and she would spend what seemed like ages, really digging in deep, to the point that it was painful; and I’ll never forget the deafening “skritch, skritch, skritch” of that cotton bud scraping along my ear canal. At that point my sister clamped her hands to her ears, exclaimed “Oh my God!” a couple of times, and refused to talk about it any more.
