Is this normal?

Post Reply New Topic

Everytime I hear someone, I have to repeat to myself what they say so I could comprehend it, or they speak slower than a normal person. Today at lunch, I was listening to two guys, and I couldn't remember one line from another, and it was like, "Blah blah blah blah".

I felt a little scared, and I haven't gone through something like that. I can only understand people on a one on one basis.

Dont know if it's normal but I can't listen to two people at the same time, or watch tv and listen to someone. I find to hard to think and listen.

Me too! Try to explain this to people all the time but they never get it. I can't talk to two people at once, and I can't talk and do things at the same time.

Lol I'm glad other people have the same problem. Group setting are the worst, I find it hard to follow the conversation, exspecially if it's instructions or if it's on a topic I'm not familiar with. I don't know if I explained that well but basically I hear 'bla bla bla' too sometimes.

It's called "Auditory Processing Disorder" [Wikipedia link], and is somewhat common with us Aspies. I have it too, and whenever someone jokingly mentions a hearing aid, I tell them it's not a problem with volume, but with distinction. One on one I do fine, but if there's too much background noise, I can't make out a single thing the person is saying, particularly if they're being quieter than said background noise and somehow expect me to distinguish their voice from everything else. I don't know how NT's do it, I really don't.

I hate this, because I'm constantly asking people to repeat themselves. Sometimes there's a delayed "click" a short while as words float down and transform into a semblance of concrete understanding.

I have that problem all the time, especially when I'm trying to talk to someone while there's something on TV, or there are other things making noise in the background. Sudden, unexpected noises especially can really screw up conversations for me. I've noticed my dad has this problem too, and he has some very strong aspie traits.

Oddly, I've noticed that when i'm listening to music, I can often pick out things like the bassline or the drums, mainly because I've sort of trained my ears to do it. When I was younger music sounded all smashed-together to me, and I couldn't tell apart individual instrument sounds except in obvious solos. I still have this problem sometimes, but not nearly as much as I used to.

I have this
there's a scientific name!
Whoo helps us alot!
I was just delaying untilI i rememebered
and then shep jumped in

Yes, I feel exactly the same.


And, yeah, my husband is the person I speak with the most and no matter how many times I try to explain it to him, I still have to ask him to turn down the tv or radio when we are speaking... or beg him to stop trying to talk to me when I'm on the phone (I have received verification that this is also a very rude habit, so it's not just me being agigated and distracted by it).

Terrible since his Mom's been here, she keeps the tv up as loud as he would like to, and it's really straining me, trying to hear them or my kids with that horrendous noise in the background. When it's just me and my husband, I'll turn the tv down and tell him to get hearing aids.

I dislike loud noises extremely. I can't do two media at once. When I used to go to discos/clubs, I couldn't hear it when somebody spoke to me. I only like to hang out in small groups, or with one person---primarily because I can't follow the conversations of many.

I just don't like loud things in general.

I really like the way you put that. I have that "delayed click" too, almost like an audio DVR, where I skip back a second or two and replay what I just heard in my head, and suddenly I can decipher what was said. I'll often say things like "He needs his baby's bitter? [Replays in head] Oh, he needs a babysitter, got it now".

If I recall correctly, fathers tend to have Aspie traits without being Aspies themselves. My dad has quite a few traits, but has not been diagnosed. I doubt he has it though, but I have wondered at times.

When it comes to music, it could also be that the quality of headphones/speakers/etc. has improved dramatically over the years, in addition to the software and hardware that plays them. I'm an amateur audiophile when it comes to music in my cars, and I can say firsthand that every part of the setup, from the quality of the signal, to the radio/player, to the speakers/headphones, make a massive difference. Things were so cheaply made in the 90's when CD players were huge, sound quality didn't matter to the manufacturer nor the consumer (still sounded better than Vinyl to some). Nowadays everything's digital, and it's fairly easy to find high quality equipment to play it all.

I literally spent (cumulatively) days on Google trying to find out what caused this phenomenon. I knew there had to be a reason for it, and finally came across the page I linked to. It was only later that they started saying it's somewhat common for ASD, but by that time I already knew.

Whew! I thought I was just a cranky old bat. I even have to turn on the closed captioning when I watch tv because of the background noise both in the programme and around me.

~nodding in vehement agreement~

I go to a conference once a year, and some years, I share a room with a friend who has hearing loss in one ear. We always gather in his room, whether I'm staying with him or not, because, out of respect for his hearing difficulties, people are always quieter around him, so he can participate in conversations.

Just found this topic from another thread, and I have this too, bigtime. I find it really impairing me in most situations. I can't focus on what someone is saying to me if there is background noise -- a radio, children playing and screaming, loud traffic, loud conversation in a crowded place. It's a nightmare. I don't know how people can walk along a street full of roaring cars and carry on a conversation -- this one especially almost causes me intense frustration.

I'm amazed to find there's actually a name for it. I felt like I was the only person having the problem.


.

Compared to most other people I know, I'm 99% certain my dad is an aspie, as the traits he has are too strong to be indicative of anything else. He hasn't been officially diagnosed, but that's because he was born in the late 60s, and he's high-functioning enough that it's hard for most people to notice. As an aspie and a bit of an armchair psychologist, it's all too obvious to me.



I should clarify, it wasn't until I started playing Rock Band on a regular basis that I started being able to mentally seperate different instruments from one another in a song. I think it has more to do with how music is typically produced than anything; popular songs tend to be put together "tightly", so guitars, drums, and bass are in near-perfect sync, and without training my ears to pick out the different sounds by being able to hear what various songs sounded like with some of these elements missing (which is what happens when you miss a note on Rock Band), I had a hard time telling instruments apart oftentimes, except of course during solos. I also had no idea what a bass guitar even was until I played Rock Band, which is kind of sad when you think about it.

It also helps that I started listening to music more often on headphones around this time, and when you listen to songs on headphones, differences and subleties that would be muddled and lost on big loud speakers become clear as day. I listen at fairly low volumes though, due to my auditory sensitivity.

Yes, it is Auditory Processing Disorder. But whenever I try to explain away my struggle to absorb conversations by mentioning APD and also its prevalence amongst Aspies, I will be told that I'm "making excuses," or somebody will say "No, it has nothing to do with Aspergers! You're just not paying attention." So, I can't win, really, and I can't use it to mitigate unwanted criticism.