Listening to someone when there are other sounds around you

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Very hard. Quiet restaurants are hard enough on me, noisy cafeterias are agony. I cannot understand how the people who chat with TV AND radio on can live. Not just sound, either - my sisterinlaw, when visited, keeps here TV running. It is muted, with captions going. I am always much distracted.

One conversation, two people in an enclosed space with no lzawnmowers or jets - I can do that.

I hear the voices as tones if I can't hear the words. I just get overwhelmed instead. I have had problems with every sense but hearing shutting down completely, honestly. As for the contraceptive pill... Yeah those things suck. I was on the pill in the beginning but it just was too much to remember, then I was on the shot for 2 years. Talk about MOOD SWINGS, I was considered the evil witch with a capital B. Then I tried pills again, but they just really made me moody and sick, my hypersensitivities would kick into overgear and I had even more problems with feeling sick from my reactive hypoglycemia. I just don't use anything now.

I had the same problem when I was younger as well, and was also brought for hearing tests (which came back as me having perfect hearing). For me It's just that I can't filter sensory information, my brain just takes in everything without discretion and leaves me at the mercy of my senses. I'm not sure what can help this, I've tried a few different medications for attention (and while my sensory problems are probably worse than yours) they only seem to make it worse.

Also, most people (family included) have a hard time understanding when I tell them how overloaded I get. They like to assume I don't care what they have to say or I'm just making up excuses. I've been like this my whole life, I wish they would have gotten a better understanding of it. I hate that they can't visually see what's wrong with me, its not like a broken arm or missing finger, they just can't see it like that, so its difficult for them to understand.

I have this problem and I used to confuse it with going deaf, which I'm definitely not. I got sick of saying "what?", "huh?" so I just started ignoring them or taking a stab with some sort of reply. And I wonder why I get some crazy looks lol.

this happens often to me when i am in the front room of our house and the television is on, and my spouse is in the kitchen and says something to me...she thinks i need to get my hearing checked but i do not think it is a simple hearing problem, but rather the asperger trait of difficulty dealing with multiple audible stimuli, especially when the TV sound is louder than her voice.

I was just in a calculus class today and people were rustling papers and rummaging through backpacks almost all through out class. Worst was two guys next to me that were whispering and giggling throughout the entire class.
My dilemma in these situations is that I have a huge urge to angrily tell them off, but then I would be more disruptive than they. Its going to happen someday, though, it really is I'm telling you. I'll stop sacrificing myself for the rest of the class and and....and...

This might be part of the reason that listening to somebody speaking on the telephone is so difficult. And, as may be related, when I was a small child I couldn't understand anything said on the radio.