Is Anyone Else Really Sensitive To Noise?

[Taylor30313]

Like just now my mom was eating and the sound of the fork hitting the side of the plate was like torture. I had to hold my ears and it was all I could concentrate on.

 

[Friday]

Not all the time, but sometimes, absolutely. Part of my hypervigilence.

It's harder to bleed off than anxiety, but I generally find that it's best dealt with (for me) by either putting it to use*, or putting myself to bed / treating it rather like a migraine.

* To put it to use I might go up and sit on my roof and just listen. Catalogue each & every single noise I hear. Count the cars. Identify different types by the sound of their engines if I can. The plane traffic. The boats. The insects. The birds. The bats. The raccoons in the trees. People passing. Identify each and every sound out there, catalogue it, and dismiss it. It draws a mental map for me to "see" just using sound. Learn what the normal sounds are, what the patterns are. Inside a house, to identify what people are doing by activity, the hum of all the appliances, the movement of the clocks, a spider farting 2 floors away ;) This was super useful parenting, both inside & outside, cause I always knew where everyone was & what they were up to. Line of sight is often occluded, but sound travels a helluva lot farther.

My parents are loud as hell. Drives me up the wall, their constantly crashing about like a moose on skis. Nothing I can do about that. I might be able to leave, or whitewash all the noise with music, but I'm not going to change the decibel level of their daily lives. When I'm staying with them, and my hearing goes Mach, I either take myself off for awhile, or plead headache & go lay down.

 

[Fadeaway]

Yes, yes, yes and triple yes. I have mentioned several noises that I find unbearable in previous threads but my list pretty much goes as followed. Crinkling of plastic shopping bags, foot shuffling, styrofoam, people slurping but for some reason chewing is dependent on how tired I am or if I have a headache. The clicky sound on my husbands mouse(It needs oil lol)

My husband is always amazed that I can hear certain things. For example, the other morning he was getting ready for work and I was trying to sleep. He dropped his watch on to his computer desk in the another room in the other side of our appartment. Well it was enough to cause me to be wide awake. He didn't even noticed it made a noise.

 

[J_trustno1]

YES, YES and YES!!!! I can't tolerate hiccups, loud sneezes, or other artificial sounds.

 

[shell]

Even my husband talking is at times too loud, I feel like he is shouting. When I realize I am on edge for no reason, I quite often find it is from the noise of the TV on in the background. People talking loudly reminds me unconciously of arguing, then I start panicking.

 

[notsurewheretoturn]

Oh yes!!!! Rustling of plastic carrier bags is a nightmare for me, as are car horns, someone knocking the door too loudly, kids screaming (especially in the shops), the list goes on, and on.

I like quiet, especially at night, because when I'm trying to sleep, a mouse stepping on a twig half a mile away will gave me wide away in a split second.

 

[hodge]

I've gotten largely desensitized to noise since being married because my husband is a music lover and has it going during much of the day and evening. Luckily, I like most of it. The thing that really still gets me, though, is he has a heavy step and that is triggering to me, particularly when he's coming up the stairs. He is out of town today visiting one of his sons and as I woke up, I heard steps on the stairway. I freaked, because I knew he wasn't there. But then I remembered, yeah, this is just an auditory hallucination brought on by one of my traumas.

 

[Taylor30313]

Wow! I thought it was just me. Sometimes it is totally out of the blue too. It is consistent in what sounds bother me, but not when. Here it goes-- The sound of loud eating and utensils hitting the plate, the clicking of computer keys/mouse, cars going by outside but only at night.

 

[Eagle3]

For me its loud noises in my ear, like kids screaming or dogs barking. Startle reflex aside when ANY loud noise happens suddenly, these are the noises that trigger the rage. I really try to stay away from kids and loud dogs.

 

[Jewels]

For me it different every day. I will tell you, the shuffling of feet is the worst. Sometimes the white noise at works annoys me but not always. Even the white noise machine at the doctor's office I sometimes have a hard time.
Noises right out side the window. I have black walnuts trees around my apartment and when they hit the the wall or sidewalk etc. it scares me.

 

[hodge]

Wow, Eagle3, that sounds worrisome. I hope you're getting treatment? When you say "rage" that worries me.

 

[ReachingOutJ]

Yes, but not at all times; and it depends on the noise. My biggest problem lately is my inability to listen to certain music without breaking into tears, and this particularly sucks, because I'm a musician. It is hurting me beyond belief.