Oh? Well I love it! 
ps: thanks! 
Nope, no problem with that. In fact, I love the smell of Scotch tape and during particularly bored hours at work, I’ll often give my fingers a new set of scotch tape claws!
This thread is fascinating!
As a tot, my son used to complain that velvet and other snuggly soft fabrics “tickled his brain.” I thought then it was just him seeking attention as the middle child. Now I realize that perhaps his tiny brain was actually tickled after all. I feel kinda bad now.
So? Email him, & apologize. Never too late.
Yep, you belong here all right. Welcome!
Such feelings are well known to psychologists, who class them, for some bizarre reason, under phobias, which they’re really not. I have a phobia about spiders, but the scrunchy feeling I get in my head at the touch of velvet against the grain or the sound of a squeaking fibretip is completely different.
I don’t think science understands these things at all, to be honest. (And for those who have never heard of these reactions, I can assure you they’re quite common.)
It’s amazing, the things you can learn here. I’m really sorry for you guys who have this problem, what a bummer! It’s really hard, when there’s something that gives you a reaction that others don’t understand. It sounds to me like some kind of synesthesia.
I am only too, too glad I don’t have this. I absolutely love silk, velvet, suede, etc.
How can I possibly feel a sense of identity with you? I have a problem with some human interaction situations - the kind where somebody asks/says something, and I just don’t know what to say. Asymmetric communications - writing, etc., I can handle just about anything, but FTF and real-time? Mama, take me home, please?
Yes, of course I’m an introvert. Always have been.
WHY would you say such a thing??? yick!
Does anyone who can’t stand corderoy or touching fabrics against the grain also get the same reaction to touching (or God forbid, scratching) those multi image flicker cards, that you tilt at different angles to see a picture animate?
I’m sensitive to styrofoam squeaks…they make my blood run cold, physical involuntary whole body shudder, etc. but I’ve never gotten the effect from a tactile except occasionally chewing on something made from cloth. Like mentioned with the gloves and teeth, or nervous habit (when I can’t smoke) of chewing on things…sometimes it’s a bit of string balled up, and once in a blue moon I’ll chomp down on it the wrong way and it will “squeak” against my teeth and it almost sets off a gag reflex (being transmsitted so closely and directly to brain/ears), but never from pure tactile.
It doesn’t appear to have gone completely unobserved by scientific community though.
"They seem to experience tactile sensations in a different way. For example, we might experience touching an item as smooth or soft, to them it can be almost painful. Think of the reaction you have when someone scrapes their fingernails down a black board. "
Tactile defensiveness appears to include a wide-range of other symptoms, but perhaps the posters here have varying degrees of manifestation?
Actually, I believe the name most psychologists use for this large set of phenomena is The Willies. Really. And I think there is probably a good deal of information out there on the subject, although I’m not in a frame of mind to do all the looking. It is a plenty common sensation, as the flurry of posts attests, however. As I remember, though, despite its being common, it’s not very well understood, as the flurry of posts also attests. xo, C.
So… despite being the OP, I’m now VERY tempted to buy my girlfriend a velvet sort of top. You know, so I can rub it the wrong way while being rubbed the right way… …owie owie owie oh my! :eek:
heh…Part of my reading/quick research lead me back here (love it when that happens):
Wonder if the cited study is the same BrandonR is trying to remember.
I can’t find anything about experts calling it the willies, although it appears to be a common layman’s descriptor, along with heebie-jeebies, setting teeth on edge, etc.
wow im really late to the party…but im so glad i found this thread.
for years this has plagued me. and people have often mocked me for it.
im currently studying a costume degree, and cant use velvet, corduroy, suede or chenille.
ive been known to well up…close to crying over velvet. haha i know it sounds insane, but reading other people who have similar reactions to the stuff means i can shove this under their noses screaming SEE ITS A THING!!!
cheers
**sh ca ca **, welcome to the dope. Glad you found your validation…
…even if it’s 6 1/2 years later!
Dental gauze in the mouth does it to me.
Welcome. If you’ve got the texture sensitivity thing that bad, maybe you should switch majors to stage lighting or some other similar arty degree that doesn’t involve fabrics.
FWIW as a child I had the same velvet sensitivity the OP talks about. It was mildly aversive, way short of painful. More like tickling. And somewhere around age 12-ish I stopped noticing it. I’ve had no such sensitivities since.