Trouble separating sounds?

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I've really started to notice lately that certain combinations of sounds cause me to lose the ability to focus on any one of them.

I'm still figuring out what sounds do it exactly, but sometimes it all just becomes one big aural mess. Quite annoying to people when you're in the middle of a conversation with them and suddenly you can't hear them even though they're taking right to you.

Anyone else get this?

Speech does this to me. Sometimes, someone will say something, and I just won't be able to process the sounds into meaningful information. The person didn't mumble, didn't speak too quietly or too quickly--the sound apparently just didn't reach the part of my brain which processes speech. It seems to happen more often in situations where I'm receiving a lot of other sensory input at the same time, such as crowded places. Fortunately, it doesn't usually happen too often, though I will have an occasional day where it is particularly troublesome.

This makes me wonder: Do you have a similar visual issue? Sometimes I will see something and not be able to figure out what it is, or have to look at it for a long time before I do. This happens a lot with pictures.

I get this a lot. It happens to me the most, when I'm a room that's crowded and noisy.

if there are enough people in a crowd talking, I find it becomes a general low din, distracting but tolerable.

When there are 3 to 8 conversations in the room, I find it allot worse. Hearing bits and pieces of each of the conversations stitched together into a horrible mess, quickly inducing a headache.

I've had to quite a few people on this one. What you're talking about is a common symptom of CAPD, or APD (Central Auditory Processing Disorder).

I used to have this problem really bad as a kid. I couldn't read in environments that my peers had no problems at all with. Sound distracted me too much. Other environments that most of my peers had no problem hearing in, I had a very difficult time hearing in. A lot of the time, I would just act like I could hear them, because it was too troublesome to go, "What?" all the time. I used to also be very sensitive to sounds.

Some of my issues with sound have faded, but a lot remain.

Yes, I have those issues. Especially with speech. For me it doesn't even have to be a crowded place. Two people speaking at once is enough for me to just hear that they speak but not get what they say.

And I can't focus, read or write surrounded by noise. and that noise doesn't need to actually be 'noisy'.

Yes I have these issues. I have noticed it particularly whenever I have been working in an open plan office and the floor is noisy. I cannot hear the people near me properly. Also when watching TV and noises from outside can be heard too. It is very disorientating too. I have often wondered if this is another aspie trait.

I have that problem too. I am a total failure at a restaurant, or anywhere that I might be expected to talk with a group of people at the same time. If I'm focused on one person, I cannot automatically switch to the next one who speaks, if they don't somehow signal me that they're up next. And if water is running, or there is an idling car nearby, or anything like that, forget it.

Charles

This is just one of the many problems I'm facing right now.

I've always had this issue. I must really focus on a specific sound or (in the case of people in a crowd) watch their lips to isolate the sound I'm looking for.

I get that a lot. A book I read about APD described the problem well: 'Like sound through water'. (that's actually the title of the book!) Sometimes it sounds like the person talking opposite me suddenly is speaking Polish or something! (I say Polish because it is one of few languages I haven't picked up... grr...) It gets worse the more background noise there is. Doesn't seem to be much help/therapy for adult sufferers of this problem though.

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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 have always experenced this problem for years I thought it was normal. The time it becomes a problem if there is noise present say If I am talking to someone and someone else near me starts talking or people make a noirse it's hard to filter out all the other sounds. It's very easy to loose track of a conversation especially in a group when there is too much noise because I have trouble blocking all the noise out. In groups it can be quite a problem because I often can't keep up with people talking at the sametime I can only really listen to one person at a time.

Definitely seems to be a theme.

I experience this problem only when multiple people are talking. It used to be much more of a problem for me.

Several years ago I joined a band. Listening to multiple instruments was overwhelming at first; it filled me with emotions. Over time, it became second nature to pay attention to every instrument.

Now when faced with a decision between two speakers, I tend to choose the person I find more interesting