Would you feel anxious if you lived on a very busy street?

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I live on one of the busiest in this town and every time I have to go out it's like I'm being ravaged by the unceasing torrent of vehicles. There isn't 5 minutes where no car can be seen on the street, even in the middle of the night. Now mammoth vehicles are also violently shaking my back room, my only refuge.

Oftentimes I'm in denial that I even live on such a busy street, and I'm not entirely sure but I think it's becoming the source of my neurosis. To say the least, I mostly stay indoors due to this, and that makes it feel as if I'm under house arrest.

To add a spice of injustice I never even owned a car, so I just take in all the exhaust and noise that others produce (who probably own multiple and live in some secluded geography).

Have you considered getting a white noise generator of some kind? I'm not sure exactly how they work but it may help with the noise.

I wouldn't like that. We lived on a very busy road once and we had to keep the windows closed or we wouldn't have been able to hear the TV or each other. I'm glad we don't live there any more.

I hope one day you can move somewhere quieter.

I'm housesitting for an old boss of mine (from the job I had for the longest - only 4 months, and it was 12.5hrs a week). He lives in another area of the city I'm in. Where I live, I'm right up against a forest - there is nothing behind my house but forest and mountains. It was only last morning when I realized how -quiet- the area I live is - almost no sound from autos, no sound from dogs, no sound from children (no sound from them anymore, that is - there was once a house with a bunch of out of control little kids, but thankfully they got evicted).

At the place I'm housesitting, there is no noise from kids or dogs, but a LOT from the nearby roads - I barely slept, but I barely sleep anyway, so it didn't really bother me not to sleep so much (2.5 hours instead of my usual 4-5)

I have mixed feelings about this. I also live on a main drag, so cars whiz past all the time. The bad thing is, when I'm in recording mode, it's difficult to use my microphone or monitor audio properly because of the traffic. Also, the people across the street are noisemakers. Either they play their stereo too loud or ride their tiny noisy crotch rockets every so often.

But there's a positive to all this - and that is the noise. When I was younger, I thought an ideal living space would be on a deserted island or rural farm. After my years of depression, and a serious suicide attempt, I've come to realize I need people around me. Supervision, if you will. I don't want them in my life, but it's good to know they're within arm's length. Isolation is probably deadly to me. At least with all the traffic noise there's some semblance of normality.

Again, let me be succinct:

YES!

Matthew.

I've been living in the weirdest small town for nearly four years and wish I'd gotten out of here two years ago. I live on the corner lot of a friend (who is the reason I haven't left yet & kind of got myself stranded, sticking around to help a guy with physical disabilities & running out of resources. He has no one else who gives a damn). He has a trailer I can escape to, but it's right on the corner and talk about noise...? Next door, there's an arrogant man who blasts his stereo. Bass is up so high, feels like a 6.0 earthquake. Useless trying to talk to him..he's so full of himself. About one block East is a wacky blonde Step-mom (she thinks she's incredibly sexy) whose husband is at least 20 years older and has two sons (youngest is about 19). These people party like crazy and drive dirt bikes and ATVs up & down the road at high rates of speed.. or at least they did until recently, when they got tickets for excessive speeding and at least one got a DUI. Was quieter until yesterday, when one of the sons started driving some sad old Harley up and down the street. The engine misfires and this beast is so loud, I'm sure it needs some form of muffler. Neighbors directly across the street are quiet & keep to themselves. I'd love to clone them!

Diagonally across the street and about 1/2 a block West is an old guy who refers to himself as "a maintenance drinker" and "Loadie". He can have one drinking buddy over & sounds like he's got a dozen people there. Until recently, I thought the old guy was OK & his "friends" were taking advantage of him. Found out he's a contender for the King of Manipulators..just spreads lies behind the backs of people who believe he likes them. He just can't handle being alone. Creepy dude! He tried to entice me into a romance, then revealed his true meanness when I told him "it isn't ever going to happen." About one block south is a man I refer to as Osama Ben Romeo. He's even older than the creepy dude, but would be handsome if he wasn't flat out drunk every day. Women hang out at his house because they've worn out their welcome everywhere else. I've resisted his charms, because drunks really do get on my nerves. He cranks his stereo up loud once in awhile & plays a lot of top-40 crap from the 80's. Then there's the guy whose property I'm living on..very nice person, early 50's..and his spine is disintegrating. He's going to need a hernia operation pretty quick..reckon he'll need help until at least early September & i'm going to get out of this town once he's on his feet..even if I have to hike out. He's on some wicked medications and spends much of his time flat on his back watching movies..has the sound up so loud, I want to scream.

It may seem strange that a town with a population of maybe 200 could be so lacking in privacy, but it is. Seems like 2/3rds of the people in town get some form of check (SSI, typically). I don't want to take this route. The majority of people here are bigots, rednecks, drunks and I'm one of the few people who hasn't spent time in jail or isn't covered with tattoos..and understanding someone with Aspergers? Forget it. The only fortunate aspect of being an Aspie in a place like this is that people are afraid of what they don't understand. There's very little work available and mostly minimum wage, Part Time, no benefits, "Must Enjoy Interacting With People" gigs`. Everybody wants to know everyone else's business. When people bug me, I make up outlandish rumors about new people coming to town and plans for a nuclear reactor..that sort of thing or tell them I've got to make a call to my lawyer (I haven't got a lawyer). If I didn't do this, I'd revert to my usual brutal honesty and simply ask these people if they haven't got any hobbies, because there are a few I could recommend.

I walk outside and anyone driving or walking down the road either waves, comments or stops to chat. I really dread the "stop to chat" business and try like mad to avoid or escape these moments. The high desert is pretty in it's own way but it's not an environment I feel at home in. I'm happiest walking along the ocean, out in the woods (Atomsk has one great housesitting gig, there!). I would NOT like living along a very busy street unless I was in a large city where people behaved in a civilized manner.. As things stand, I'm living in one of the noisiest places with the least privacy imaginable and have grown to dislike the place immensely. I'm going to try to get an official Caregiver licensed by the state of Arizona to come in and check on my friend..no one in this town has the decency to look beyond the barbecue or the beer can, unless they stand to make a profit. I'd write a non-fiction novel about this town, but no one would believe me!

That would definitely make me anxious. More than being annoying and the fact that I can't sleep if there's noise, it'd mean that I'd never get time just to myself. I can only ever really relax when I'm alone. Cars, voices, footsteps - those would all be constant reminders that there are other people close by and I'd probably go through every day tense. Not very conductive to health, probably.

No I live on one

I don't mind dealing with busy areas if I'm just there for a while. But I think living on a street like that would be a different story. I can feel quite anxious in my home when its too noisy or if there is any arguing going on. I remember staying at a friends house a few times years ago now, and he lived on a fairly active street with a bar right across the road. The sound of the cars, along with noisy people coming out in the early hours of the morning shouting and arguing was quite unsettling. I much prefer the quiet.

No, I don't think I would like it at all. I live in a lower income neighborhood and can't stand hearing the rednecks in their pickup trucks and old cars with no mufflers running up and down the street at 3 am or the drug dealers and their big, booming stereo systems that they like to play at the same time. I also have inconsiderate neighbors who have loud parties and big, barking dogs that tend to be put out in the yard right when I want to sleep. My solution has been a giant fan that is fairly loud and makes wonderful white noise. I have actually worn several of them out over the years as they are the only way I can drown out the noise and sleep.

I'd hate that; too many people 'freak me out'.

I would hate hate hate that! Right now I live in a pretty quiet area, but I can see the glow of a nearby city over the hillside, and just knowing that I'm so close to a city drives me crazy, even though there are farms on the actual road that I live on.

I bought my husband some noise canceling headphones for when he mows the lawn...I was really impressed with how well they work. You could try something like that maybe. If I were there, I would probably just live with ear plugs in.

I'm on a busy street but I guess it's not too bad. There is an enclosed porch between the living room and the road that helps muffle the noise a little and my bedroom is in the back of the house.

I live near a college and a bar and sometimes it gets noisy, especially on party night. It's not bad now because the kids aren't there.

I couldn't live in a busy street. I like living in the city because it's easy access to everything, but I live on an estate, so the roads aren't busy or anything.

We do get the neighbours kids and their parents hanging around and playing outside which is ridiculous, because there's a huge field with a skate park, playground, basketball nets etc, just a 15 second walk away! Why don't they use that?!