Dealing with over-stimulation at work

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Sooooo, a long standing problem I've had (and one of the many things that has lead me to believe I'm probably autistic), is getting easily overwhelmed and over-stimulated by people talking loudly and/or a lot of people talking simultaneously. Usually not a problem while I'm sequestered away at home with my partners, but at work and on the transit to and from, I find myself sometimes edging on a meltdown because I can't handle all the talking. The office I work in has a very open floor plan and while that's great for other reasons, it does tend to encourage and facilitate lots of talking.

What can I do to help mitigate my suffering with this?

I really don't like to rock the boat so telling everyone to be quiet is not really an option; plus I'm a supervisor so I also don't want to 'abuse my power' and make everyone feel uncomfortable to where they can't talk around me at all... I've tried using a noise generator that's supposed to drown out voices, but tbh my brain keeps trying to listen to the nonsense from the generator too and doesn't really work... Music works sometimes, but not always, and since I'm a supervisor I have to field questions and give advice and work instruction relatively often so music or sound generators are not always viable.

(sorry if this is in the wrong place, I debated putting this in the Social Skills section but this is more specific to dealing with this stuff in the workplace)

Yeah, I live with my two girlfriends. It's pretty nice. :3

idk if earplugs are viable since like I said I have to field questions sometimes, I use over the ear headphones because they're easier to put on and take off for that reason. I'll try color noise (pink? white?) but like I mentioned before I tried a few other sound generators and they don't always work. Oh well.

https://hereplus.me/

They also make bone conduction headphones that use your temples to transmit sound rather than your ears so you can hear everything around you too; they're great for cycling. My gf has a pair and they're really cool, and I'll probably get a pair when I can afford it. The wireless ones are pretty expensive..

Thanks for the replies everyone

There is a music app called Focus@Will that I have used for about two years now, and while it doesn't down anything out, it does help me to focus on the task at hand better. It uses regular classical music (also has pink/white noise channels, and now a coffee shop one, drums, etc) that are modulated strategically to keep the brain engaged. It doesn't make a difference that I can hear, but it works.

I've self-tested the effects with Focus@Will vs. other classical music and do actually notice a difference. They have a free trial if you want to try and see if it helps.

I think that's the right character you're thinking about. There's a later episode about her having a treatment that makes her more lucid and verbal and it gave me really kinda gross feels...