Fear of sudden loud noises?

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Do you still have - or did you use to have - fear of sudden loud noises?

I still do, but not nearly as bad...note that I say sudden noises...like sometimes if there's a loud bang outside my place, I might jump a bit, but not always. One reaction I ALWAYS have, and can't seem to control, is if a car backfires (or similar noise) I will jump backwards and on the ground, in a crouched position - my girlfriend at the time thought it was weird and she still brought it up again well after. And I'm not in a rough area or anything, I'm in Canada, so the odds of such a noise being a gun are quite low.

When I was a kid, I also had that reaction. In particular when I was 6-7 years old, I'd go to kids birthday parties and I absolutely dreaded the popping of the helium balloons, it freaked me right out; some kids would deliberately or accidentally pop them through horseplay, and I'd jump each time - on one pop I ran at the kid screaming "DON'T DO THAT!! DON'T YOU DO THAT!! !" which was met by laughter. Soon after, I found myself being invited to less and less birthday parties until I wasn't invited at all. Go figure, eh.

On a handful of occasions I witnessed a car accident which was a sudden loud bang, but on the times where I could see it was going to be a collision I didn't react quite as strongly - but where I only HEARD the noise, I jumped and spun around, some people stared at me as if I was some crazy weird drug addict or something.

I'm not sure why I'd still have strong reactions to sudden loud noises, or if it's an Aspergers thing - I know that many of us have problems with ongoing sustained noise, like the hum from machinery or something - I never had that issue though, I'm very good with filtering out white noise.

I jump at sudden noises its probably the suddenness of the noise.

When I was younger I used to be scared of balloons and I wouldn't walk past a classroom that had them hanging up in the room, also if they were on a children's tv show I would hide behind the lounge chair luckily I grew out of it.

I hate balloons. A lot.

My kids are the same way. We are all fine with fireworks, because you know it is going to happen. But we all hate sudden, unpredictable loud noises.

Yeah... I've always had a reaction to that... particularly fireworks (even though the boom was predictable, they're still sudden and make me shudder)

I can't say that I've had such an adverse reaction to balloons in general, but I can definitely relate to the association with the popping... A popped balloon was always one of my least favorite sounds growing up! Unless I was doing the popping, interestingly enough...

My son hates sudden loud noises like a motorbike going down our street, but he loves fireworks, I think it's because he knows that it's going to happen.

I used to hate balloons popping and loud fireworks as I child. I still get startled by revving motorbikes and sirens on emergency vehicles.

I can vividly remember two occasions when I freaked out as a child and both related to loud noise - one involved a demonstration experiment with electrcity in The Science Museum which created loud bangs and the other was visiting a light house which was sounding its fog horn.

Oh, and I really hate those "bangers" that kids buy and throw on the ground....

My dad found both responses very funny

on the airplane yesterday, somebody slammed a stowage door and I flinched visibly, to the point where one of the passengers took some amusement from my reaction, and I replied to said passenger, "I sure hope there are no similar noises when we are up in the air!"

I never thought about it 'til now, but I used to be terrified of balloons! I'd do anything to avoid them, and beg that they only be half-inflated if they were absolutely necessary to have around. Of course that was because of the unpredictability of their bursting.

For other UNPREDICTED sudden loud noises, I don't feel that it's a fear, but it's a startle to have one. And I hate being startled, and when it happens, my heart can go into an arrhythmia for up to an hour. Predicted loud noises are no issue at all. In fact, I am a firearms enthusiast, and do lots of shooting. I also love fireworks (whether at a show, or if I set them off), and one of my special interests is enormous Cold War era air raid sirens.

Charles

I do not think it is a unusual or particularly a trait for people on the spectrum although people on the spectrum have it a lot more intensely. Most people are ok with the phone ringing and dogs barking. I jump for a loud phone and really really really hate dog barking. If someone clanks or drops dishes in the sink or dishwasher my dad goes nuts. He thinks that they have been hurt it is so loud for him.

Yes. My reaction to loud sudden noises isn't always due to anxiety and sensory issues with the ears, but also nerves and fear. I hate the feeling of shock, even if I know the sound is coming. In fact that makes it worse.

Sudden sounds like barking dogs, electric bells, car horns, police sirens switching on when passing, and smoke alarms often make me anxious and unsettled when I'm in an environment where one of these sudden noises might occur.
I cannot be enclosed in a small room with a dog, in case something happens to make the dog bark, like somebody knocking at the door. Dogs normally hear these sorts of noises before humans can register the noise, and so the dog will react about a quarter of a second before a human does mostly, so the dog will bark before I get the chance to put my fingers in my ears. I can't always tell when a dog's going to bark, so sometimes a dog might do three barks, then a pause, then another bark. It's just torture for my nerves!
I was always afraid of being near a bell at school, and I think it basically ruined my whole school life. As I got older I felt too embarrassed to go round with my fingers in my ears or with earplugs in, and I also felt too embarrassed to tell other kids how afraid I was of the bell, so I used to avoid the bell a lot - which then looked like I was alienating myself from the other kids, which I wasn't at all. So my fear of the bells made my AS look more severe than what it really was . I did wear a watch with the right time, but it still didn't help because I would continuously stare at my watch and getting all worked up if I was near a bell, like I was waiting for it to go off. I just could not put my mind on anything else, the fear was that extreme!
I always avoid walking past a bit where taxis wait, because they always sound their horns to attract their passenger's attention so they know when their taxi is there. I hate walking along jumping at car horns because it might make me look like a spastic. People often laugh when I jump from a loud noise, like if someone sneezes loudly and I jump. They don't laugh horribly but I still don't like it.
I hate it when a vehicle with a blue flashing light on the top is coming towards me in the street because I know a loud siren might sound at any time. If the siren is already on it's not so bad (though it is loud and irritating), but at least it won't make me jump. But if it's not already on but the lights are flashing, fear runs through me, and I'm walking along thinking, ''come on, get past me, don't switch the siren on, come on, are you past me yet???'' It's such a horrible feeling.
The smoke alarm in my house causes problems. I have to put in earplugs to bring my dinner out of the kitchen because I fear the smoke alarm might go off after the oven has been on. It has been known to go off after cooking, even if we can't smell anything burning. Once I walked out of the kitchen with my dinner, without earplugs in, and my brother dropped a fork on the floor, and because I was edgy in case the smoke alarm might go off while I was walking past, every noise I could hear jolted my nerves, even if they weren't loud. So I jolted and nearly dropped my dinner on the floor, then I yelled at my brother and called him a clumsy s**t. He just laughed, thinking I was mad.

Yes, having fear of loud sudden noises does end up making me look mad.

I was terrified of balloons. And toilets flushing and fireworks and firecrackers and airplanes flying over my house. I wouldn't plug in appliances for a couple of years because I plugged in the vacuum cleaner and it was on and electricity arced out of the wall and the vacuum made a loud roar. I always cringe when walking in and out of stores that have those scanner things by the doors in case they go off.

I still am afraid of sudden noises, and have been since I was little. I guess my fear of balloons stemmed from when I was very little, when I held a balloon animal too tightly and it popped, scaring me. I also get startled by the sounds of fireworks (although I love watching them), barking dogs, and alarms.

Loud noises such as balloons popping, fireworks and car exhausts backfiring terrify me whether expected or not. I have never grown out of this!

I had the balloon phobia when I was younger, but worked my way out of it when I was a in my 20's.

For a while, balloons were my interest and I learned a lot of decorating techniques and I now do professional party decorating for extra income.



I'm currently working on my fear of heights that I didn't have when I was younger by building a 150' high radio tower myself.



I'm only like 30' up in that picture, so I have a way to go yet.