Extreme sensitivity to noise, etc.

Post Reply New Topic

Occasionally I experience such high sensitivity that it seems impossible, especially given the fact that I am very frequently entirely unaware of my surroundings.

Sometimes I can hear, for example, the inner workings of my watch moving from across a relatively large room at an incredibly high volume (about that of a phone ringing). Quite often I can't get to sleep because I can feel everything moving slightly.

Is this in any way normal, even for those with AS or autism?

I have some sensitivity to noise. I can't fall asleep if I hear the TV that the people are speaking gibberish. But I can if I can listen to the news or anything as long as I understand what people on TV are saying! I also hate loud noises, like whats made by fireworks.

I also hear things other people don't hear.

It is completely normal.

It is normal.

I have a sensitivity to very low frequency sounds, you know, like "thump-thump" noise that comes from cars with high-powered sub-woofers. Really anything 30 Hz and lower. I can hear them coming from far distances and it literally shakes the walls and hurts my ears. It's not simply that I 'hate' the sound. At one point, we had very inconsiderate people living behind us who blasted this stuff as they cruised up and down the street. It was intolerable. I was using hearing protectors with ear canal inserts (those foam things) as these idiots came and went. It annoyed, but did not bother my wife.

I also have to strain to understand people through half-rate vocoded digital cellular phones. This is a losing battle, as virtually all cellular phones today are digital, and in order to squeeze as many people onto the system, the content of their voices are extremely compressed and encoded. For a while, I thought I was going deaf, but I had my hearing tested and it appears to be within normal limits.

My son also has this. Its effect is more profound on him.

My son hears extremely low music in restaurants -- no one else can hear it, but HE can.

He is also extremely bothered by alarms like the kind in gymnasiums. I think that they really hurt his ears.

Over time he has adapted to most of these things (fire alarms at school, the brakes on a bus) -- so I know that it can happen. It's those truly inconsistent things (gymnasium alarms) that are hard to adapt to.

For me, noise sensitivity is a BIG thing. There are two categories of unpleasant sensation here: Physical pain and simple annoyance. Let's assume the "simple annoyance" items are common between NT and Asperger's people, so I won't list those. Noises in a certain frequency range are a physical pain to me, and not to most NT people as far as I have been told. CELL PHONE ringers, door bells, courtesy bells on the counters of businesses, and other similar sudden sharp tones are very painful to me. Intensely disturbing and annoying sounds to me as an Aspie, but maybe not so much among NT people, might include screaming crowds at a climactic time of a ballgame, or a small child screaming, whiny-voiced "shouting" TV commercials, and other sudden noises.

On the other hand, I can stand right in front of an air raid siren, and listen to it like fine music. I only wear hearing protection at shooting ranges because it's the rule; not because the gunfire is too loud for me. It's odd that I can't find a "common denominator" among either group of sounds. I guess it's just the way it is.....

Charles

My noise sensitivity is awful. I was actually diagnosed with hyperacusis along with the AS hyper-sensitivity. To me EVERYTHING sounds loud, from a small tapping noise, to a jet engine. The tap to me, sounds as loud as the engine. As you can possibly imagine, it makes communicating difficult, sometimes impossible for me. I actually sign a little bit and read lips when people talk to try and work out what they are saying! I am actually hoping to take a course in BSL and make some deaf friends because they'll be easier to understand

If your noise intolerance has got to the point where your life is being ruined by it, then go to the doctors, you may be suffering from phono/misophobia, both an abnormal fear of certain sounds/pitches. Therapy can help

_________________
I have HFA, ADHD, OCD & Tourette syndrome. I love animals, especially my bunnies and hamster. I skate in a roller derby team (but I'll try not to bite )

I think this is a very common symptom. I hear all kinds of noises that people don't hear. I can always hear people apporachiing my house before anyone else can. In a restaurant, the sound of a coffee machine at the other end of the room is enough to drown out the person sitting across the table from me. My son, who also has AS, finds the noise of airdryers absolutely intolerable. I have taken to wearing headphones in public places so that I can block out some of the noise. On the plus side, I have great ears for music and can pick out lots of tiny details in it.

Yes, I can hear my neighbors cat upstairs walking around overhead. When my neighbor walks it sounds like a herd of buffalo. The low frequency sounds of footsteps overhead drives me to distraction some days.
I have air filters going that help with their white noise so that sudden sounds are not so startling. No one else seems to hear the footsteps. Sometimes my neighbor paces endlessly late at night, it isn't loud, but the low frequency seems to echo in my head and makes my ear drums flutter. There are times when I want to jump up and pound on the walls, but-- I don't, because people can't help walking around in their own apartment. The building is made of wood, so it really can't be helped. I just have to find ways to cope with it.

Thump, thump, thump....

Yet there have also been times when something happened outside that apparently everyone else heard, and I didn't hear it at all.

Also I have at least a 30% hearing loss in one ear, and a smaller percentage of loss in the other. So, I'm, I don't know, slightly deaf? Hmm.

_________________
Never assume you know what I'm thinking, just ask for clarification.
"Not everything that steps out of line, and thus 'abnormal', must necessarily be 'inferior'. " -- Hans Asperger (1938)

I recently registered with a new doctor. She claimed knowledge of Aspergers ... including our noise sensitivity.

There was a LOUD buzzing noise in the room ... she couldn't hear it.

At the moment I have an image of her face in my mind ... the look in her eyes worries me. I intend to press her further about my noise sensitivity next time I see her:

She may "lose it" and get "angry" at me ... as people often do when I claim I can hear loud noises when they can't hear a thing.

I've only recently taken steps to try to get myself "officially" diagnosed as having Aspergers - she is the third doctor I've registered with in the last 9 months.

I can't stand it, when I'm walking along the sidewalk, and than all of the sudden, some young man drives by, with his rap music, blasting from his car radio. That music, at that volume, makes me jump out of my skin, and it's really hard, on my ear drums.

I listen to rap music, on my own terms, on YouTube, but I don't like hearing it from a car radio, when I have a pleasant song, playing in my head.

Some noises don't bother me and others do a LOT. I can listen to loud music and it's fine, but I have to block my ears on the train because I hate the sound of it going along the tracks. It's like fingernails down a chalkboard to me.

I too have extreme sensitivity to sound; in fact my life revolves around trying to minimize the effects that sound, and particularly inorganic, mechanical sounds have on me. I wear ear plugs almost all the time, and have a set of ear muffs as well that I keep handy. I live in the basement of my house with soundproof windows, and expose myself to the outside world only a couple of hours a day, primarily to run in the trails. I am presently looking into soundproofing a room in the top floor of my house.

So, you are not alone in your anguish.

Noises that I can't identify used to frighten me, and still do. I call them noise monsters. Had neighbors years ago who enjoyed tormenting me with as much noise as possible. When I complained to management or called the police, the neighbors retaliated. After about a year of that, I had a breakdown. Took me years to recover. Even now sudden loud noises from neighbors set me off into a terrible anxiety attack.
After a decade of therapy, I learned self-talk, where I say over and over, "It's only noise. It can't hurt me, it can't get at me, it's only noise." So neighbor noise wasn't so threatening after that, especially if I got to know them and didn't believe they were trying to annoy me on purpose.
Sometimes my hearing ability is so sensitive I can hear the grass tapping the fence when the wind blows outside. Crickets are deafening!

_________________
Never assume you know what I'm thinking, just ask for clarification.
"Not everything that steps out of line, and thus 'abnormal', must necessarily be 'inferior'. " -- Hans Asperger (1938)

2 days ago I went to the audiologist to confirm tinnitis, something I've had since infancy and never until now had diagnosed. I have hyper-sensitivity to sound aswell. I have never known silence, although I have deafness in the 6000Hz frequency range.

Noise drives me crazy. I live in the country and have meltdowns when I go into or through a city. The noise of civiliztion is just too much for me to process. Air-conditioning systems are the worst. Some days, this little town is too noisy.

The sound of babies and children also triggers meltdowns, often in public places. It's either meltdown or scream profanities at the mother and at least I have the sense to leave the poor mother alone.

Normally I am just a little sensitive to sound and people comment that I have good ears. But when my mood disorder flares up for some reason, it's so bad that even someone talking to me feels like a drill through my head.

I don't know why a mood disorder would trigger extreme sound sensitivity!! !