Listening to every conversation around at once

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This hasn't happened so much in recent years but I used to have terrible problems a lot of the time with crowded places as it felt like I couldn't tune out any of the conversations going on around me. It was like I had to try and follow 20 different people talking all at once. Family gatherings or even things like school were mostly ok but crowds of strangers were very difficult. It was like I was far more hyper-vigilant.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

It's one of those things I haven't noticed in autistics I know, but I get a lot.

I do that all the time. I can't filter other conversations into background noise. I hear all of them constantly at the same time, and must treat them all as as relevant as the conversation I'm trying to have.

I have this problem too. Discussed it with a neuropsychologist if you are interested this is my thread about it HERE I've found watching the mouth of the person who I want to listen to helpful.

Yep. Feels a bit like this (skip to 0:40):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaogaLdJlNw[/youtube]

Yup.

Yes here.

Yes

I have a lot of trouble with this and it actually makes me feel sort of nauseated and dizzy at times.

For me it's opposite. I can only concentrate on one conversation at a time. I can only process one thing at a time and I have to really try hard to understand what I'm hearing or else it just sounds like noise to me.

I don't think any of the other posters can truely follow a dozen conversations at once, they can't filter out the background talking and this interferes with their ability to follow the person they are trying to listening to, which is possibly what you are describing.

Jason

I have this problem too. I am a member of a running club and before we go off, we tend to talk to each other. If it's a few of us talking and there's one conversation, that's ok. If there's many people and many conversations, I can't follow any at all.

Yeah, that definitely sounds like me. If I'm overstimulated by background noise, sometime I have a hard time concentrating on my present conversation.

So this seems like a pretty common problem then. I get this quite strongly, the worst sort of environment is a restaurant, you can be with one person, but all this other stuff is going on around you.

Jason

Maybe this is why if I go to a restaurant, it is often a Denny's - Usually I go late at night when hardly anyone is there and so it does not bother me, although once the radio was too much for me. Oh, and I happen to like their hash browns.

This is expecialy problematic when dealing with people in athority in crowded places.
Bosses, Police ect ect.