Anyone else carry ear plugs whenever you leave your house?

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Ear plugs are a vital part of my survival kit when I leave my house.

I usually need to use them in a shopping mall and also restaurants.

They are also a lifesaver for me in Airports and airplanes.

How about you?

This is one of the smartest things I've ever heard. I need to start doing this.
I wear earplugs when I'm trying to sleep since until I'm in a very DEEP sleep, the smallest sound/noise wakes me up

This is one of those things I really need to start doing.

Chalk it up to one of my many failures when it comes to self-care.

Good point.

I use them for sleeping too. Same reason.

Can't think how I left that one out?

For sure. I get upset if I forget them because they're a tiny,vital, wonderful invention that helps me deal with the noise & busy-ness outside. Also vital for sleeping & need them to even be able to feel 'wound down'. That probably isn't a good sign but just is the inevitable consequence of having to put up with random sudden loud door banging from neighbours over the years.
I would like a house with NO neighbour noise. That would be like a shushy version of heaven for me!

Noise doesn't just irritate me, it makes me jump, feel physically sick and then i'm keyed up for a long time afterwards. Being outside in a city is no fun. Being in my home is better but still not safe. Earplugs help me feel a bit safer.

I don't carry earplugs but I have an mp3 player that I take everywhere with me, without it I don't think I could ever leave the house

I thinking i may have to do the same thing. Sounds have been really annoying to me as of late. Here's looking into trying.

I take them with me for enclosed spaces that I can't get away from & if I haven't got my mP3 player, like on a train, or on a plane. Someone's child is almost guaranteed to start screaming their head off and I get v stressed if I can't leave, like I would be able to in a department store.

If I am not with someone else, I wear my noise-cancelling headphones and listen to music on them. If I am with someone else, I wear an earplug in one ear, using the other ear to listen to the conversation.

The London Underground (I live in Greater London) is so darn noisy that I cannot go on it without my headphones, and even then I have to mentally prepare myself to go on an Underground train, especially the Northern Line, which I use to get to central London! The Northern Line and the Bakerloo Line are the noisiest lines in my opinion....I sometimes wish I lived in Croydon or thereabouts so I could use the (quieter) London Overground instead. I often use the train from Kings Cross International to get home from uni because it is overground.

Me too, and noise-canceling headphones that I sometimes wear even if I'm not playing music.

What a good topic! I am incredibly surprised people are seeing the light here, realizing that carrying ear plugs or headphones with music can save many an autistic person from great harm.

Actually, and I don't know if I'm talking to any experienced users now, I use several apps for my iPhone and iPad that produce different types of noise. GREAT!

My ultimate top 3 of places I don't visit without ear plugs or music:
3. Mid-class breaks at my university
2. The library
1. The train

I was embarrassed to wear MP3 earphones in public even though I find the noise-cancelling very helpful, but my OT suggested wearing a woollen / beanie type hat to at least partially disguise them. Now I wear the hat everywhere, and have a thinner one for warm days. The acoustic muffling of the hat really cuts down the most unpleasant part of noise for me.

I would love an "anti-hearing aid" - noise-isolating and noise-cancelling headphones attached to an amplifier that feeds a subdued version of the ambient sound into my ears, after equalisation and soft clipping. Exactly this product is available to anyone using an iPhone with the Ear Trumpet app (http://www.uci.edu/features/2010/12/fea ... 101213.php), but I don't know of anyone using it.

I recently started doing so a few months ago. It's helped a huge amount. I've had people ask me if I'm doing it more because they've seen how much it helps.

No but I should. But it's rare when I need them so I don't bother carrying them.

Same here. I have been doing exactly this for about 8 years. When my first Ipod died my school/boss covered the cost of the replacement so that I could work, wrote it off as an accessibility device. I can ride the bus (instead of driving and paying for parking) and double my productivity at work when I block "ambient" noise out.

I wear headphones alot of the time while listening to my Zune because if I don't I can't concentrate or fall asleep easily. But I don't need them in public.