Extreme gag reflex?

I'm pretty sure I have SPD, or if not, I am at least a highly sensitive person, as I can relate to a lot of the symptoms described and have all my life (I'm now 18).

Some of the things I experience:
- loud noises that don't bother most people hurt my ears and make me physically uncomfortable
- I get motion sick easily
- prolonged exposure to noise (even background noise), motion (even very slight motion), or any kind of physical input exhausts me to the point of making me physically ill
- my eyes are very sensitive to light so I often have to wear sunglasses even on overcast days
- I get severe stomach cramps and diarrhoea from eating certain foods or when I'm anxious
- I'm very ticklish, and often uncomfortable with people touching me especially if it's unexpected or I'm not relaxed
- fragrances and smells give me a sore throat
- certain textures in food disgust me
- I'm extremely irritated by tight clothes, straps, tags, scratchy bits, etc.
- I feel like gagging if there's anything in my mouth apart from food, or anything to close around my neck, or my throat's sore/uncomfortable
- very minor stimuli cause my heart rate to speed up wildly
- my body temperature can fluctuate quite drastically depending on my emotional/psychological state
- I find fast/sudden/unexpected motion, such as on a train, elevator, any kind of transport really, unpleasant as it gives me strange physical sensations
- I have trouble distinguishing between thirst and hunger (not sure if this is an SPD thing, but I'll mention it anyway)

The list goes


Reading some of the posts on here, I realise my SPD (if that is what it is) doesn't impact on my life nearly as much as it does for other people. I'm so used to my sensitivities that I just put up with them or have found ways to deal with them. An exception to this rule is a strange thing I've experienced my whole life...

Whenever I get a cold that has any throat symptoms at all (and so far all but 1 of the colds I've ever caught has had throat symptoms), I throw up for 24-48 hours, can't swallow, eat or drink anything. At the end of that timeframe, the throat symptoms vanish completely and are replaced by pretty severe congestion and a horrible cough which often goes on for several weeks. My overall cold symptoms seem to be worse than most people's (I never have a "mild cold"), but it's the first couple of days that are the most weird.

Doctors don't know what to make of this at all, and it's hard to make anyone understand what it's like to go through it. I'm emetophobic so it's particularly traumatic.

I've never heard of anyone having even slightly similar symptoms to mine with a cold, and it makes me feel very alone. Surely *someone* else must have the same issue! I can't be the only one!

Anyway, since learning about SPD, I'm wondering if my problem with colds could be due to the same hypersensitivity that makes me gag easily, etc. I'm putting this out there in the (probably vain) hope that someone who's experienced the same thing will find it.

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