Sound sensory issues (not loud sounds)

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I hope that doesn't happen to me. I use it every day. Do you have any techniques for blocking out unwanted noises?

The faint sound of voices outside or in adjacent rooms drives me up the wall and makes me feel very paranoid.

Telephone ringers, especially the electronic (non-bell) ringers. I leave my phone ringer turned off and use a homemade red light flasher instead.

The sound of tires on the pavement of cars passing on the street outside causes me to hear voices whispering (a common Aspie trait attributable to an effect called Pareidolia.. search for the word here... thanks for that info... it was very comforting to finally understand why).

The sound of idling car engines outside does the same thing to me. We had a big snow storm back in January and I kept hearing car engines and voices outside... it drove me nuts. When I finally looked outside several hours later I saw all cars stopped dead in the road and going nowhere, including two city buses. But they never did shut off their engines... for hours. I've heard that the Japanese shut off their car engines at every red light.

Whining voices (thanks for the reminder DeaconBlues... that affects me too).

TV Commercials, especially the current one from Dateline NBC with that snippety, judgmental line of "case closed".

My NT half brother was highly sensitive to sounds as a child and if you ran a can opener or barely rustled a paper bag in the kitchen on the other end of the house, he would always awaken crying and screaming his lungs out.

I really do wish I had a white noise machine because white noise and similar broadband sounds (even loud) soothes me. I used to ride C-141 cargo jets on 13 hour flights back and forth to my work location and anyone who has been on one of these aircraft knows that it is LOUD inside with a wide variety of sounds. The buzzing sound of the engine turbine blades with a cold engine cutting through dense air as the plane climbed to altitude was very soothing and intriguing to me as was the loud rushing sound of gases passing through the engines at altitude several hours out. I even like to recall that sound in my mind when I am having sleep problems and it helps to ease me off to sleep. Now I did not particularly care for the loud, shrill, pulsating sound of the hydraulic pumps though. That would drive me batty until they shut them off.

Yes, I do actually, I use my iPod.

I love my noise maker. Except I hate it when my phone makes it make this annoying sound.

Whew! A therapist had once asked me what I do for relaxation, and I had told him about just laying hands-free and on my back on my open-pipe, no-windshield Harley at 85mph out on the open highway ...

... and of course, my Aspie trait of "low sensitivity to situational risks to self and/or to others" helped make that possible!

Nothing better.

That's going on my birthday wish list.

The humming, buzzing, and whining noises of electronics are awful. I also tend to dislike clicking sounds.

Absolutely. It's the quieter noises that make me craziest. Hearing chewing, at all, literally makes me instantly angry. Shuffling, like someone dragging their feet. A person wearing so many bracelets that they clink together. Quiet humming/singing that's too low to understand. Slurping. Breaking glass. Quite a few things drive me nuts, and I had no idea anybody else had this issue until I came here.

Me, too. That was the only way I survived working in an office.

Ah, it seems we were born just a tad over 3 months apart. I too used to ride motorcycles, but I could only dream of owning a Harley... just loved those panheads though. Mine was a '69 Triumph Bonneville after my Triumph 250 seized up on me on the expressway. I put 30000 miles on the Bonny, then traded it for a '69 Mustang, then two years later traded that for a 1958 Fender Stratocaster. Still have the Strat, worth about $25K now and some odd 20 years from now when I move on to the Happy Hunting Grounds it will go to an Aspie who means very much to me and whose interest is music. If my dad had only known that the $1000 I paid for that Bonneville would later turn into the best investment I ever made, he might not have been so dead set opposed to it.

One of the main problems why I am doing school from home next year.

I have pretty severe problems with many sounds, despite loving music.

Yes, it is not always the volume, but more importantly the type of sound. Florescent bulbs for example ... but I am with you, I HATE paper related noises: paper bags at the store, cheep paper towels, pages turning in an old book, etc.

I am also most sensitive to buzzing electronics. Usually they are things that are plugged in but not even on. Other people tell me that they can't hear anything at all.

Ticking clocks seem to be a common one, I can't stand them either and if there's one at night I can't sleep. Also alarm clocks; I can relate to what you say Syrella and Ojani about them. I have a small travel one which is quieter than most but if it actually wakes me (thankfully this is rare as I'm usually awake already and turn it off before it goes off) I feel anxious for quite a while afterwards. Also I hate the sound of other people breathing, why do some people have to do it so noisily?! Oh dear that last sentence makes me sound seriously misanthropic!