Wags wrote:
I don't like loud noises, but there's this certain sound that causes me to panic. Any alarm sound, specifically the alarm ringtone on the iphone, will cause me to panic.. It's a very weird feeling, and I freeze up and "die" inside. But even if the sound is very low, It really bothers me. It feels like my body is frozen and I feel like I have to faint. So whenever I hear something similar to the iphone alarm anywhere, such as TV, I freak out, even if it's very low. Is this common within AS? Sounds that bother you that aren't loud or intense?
Also, just to add, it's really JUST the iphone alarm ringtone. Unless another alarm sounds similar to it, it doesn't bother me unless it's really loud.
I have the same issue with doorbells - it feels like somebody is tasering me in the neck and goes right through my spine, into every nerve in my body, even it's a doorbell on the television.
I changed the ringtone on my phone because, even though I preferred a more traditional phone-ringing sound, the only one available was so jangly that it made me jump every time it rang and I'd get so tense and stressed out by it, I couldn't answer the phone.
When I was married a few years ago, my wife would get mad at me because if she walked into a room behind me and spoke suddenly, I would jump - she acted as though it were some personal insult, that I was jumping because she was frightening to look at, but it was just the sensory jolt of something appearing suddenly from off the radar.
I've always been a bit jumpy like that, because my sensory nervous system has it's input receptors turned up
too loud, and sudden input, whether it's sound or light or touch, is very literally physically painful. That's what autism is.
Life turned up too loud, so that everything is
too intense.