Sensitivity to only certain loud sounds and not others.

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I have never considered myself to have any sensory issues witch I know is uncommon for someone with Aspergers syndrome, but one thing I have noticed as I have gotten older is that I seem to have sensitivity towards some sounds and not others, sounds that don't seem to bother other people except me.

For example, fireworks, loud power tools like drills and saws, loud car exhausts, someone hoovering, my neighbor hammering away all the time really don't bother me one bit. Yet I really can't stand the sound of bathroom hand dryers, loud motorcycles, my work colleague dragging a big metal ladder around scraping it across the floor, the loud metalic banging of cars at work being driven onto the inspection ramp. These sounds drive me crazy so much so I get frustrated and feel like I need to put my hands over my ears and turn off all the hand dryers at work. They don't send me into meltdown but cause me a lot of stress.

I thought autistic people with sound sensitivity had sensitivity to pretty mutch any loud sound so I ruled sound sensitivity out and wondered whether it was due to my anxiety.

Eating sounds are also a HUGE issue for me. Even if they are quiet eating sounds, they drive me crazy when I am eating around other people as I do every evening at home with my friends I rent my flat with. We eat together in a room and as I said, no matter how quiet the eating sounds from my friends are, I start putting fingers in my ears and turn up the TV volume to drown them out. Otherwise it feels like my eyes start watering, I become overwhelmed, i will take my dinner and eat alone. My friends also noticed that when I start hearing these eating sounds I have an odd twich I sometimes do, but I believe this is called misaphonia. I have started using ear plugs so I don't have to leave the room.
Can anyone else relate?

Yeah. In my experience, I've observed that it's actually uncommon for someone with autism to have an aversion to all loud noises. I think the misconception that sensory aversion is entirely due to volume arises from the fact that when someone without autism is trying to understand hypersensitivity to sound, the closest thing in their experience is the unpleasantness of very loud noises. The same with visual sensitivity - people without an understanding of autism always put it down to how bright a light is, when that might have little to do with a person's issues. It's an alien notion to them, and they have to find some way to make it "reasonable" by their standards.

For me, volume has nothing to do with my auditory aversions. I can handle most loud noises. In fact, I love fireworks. There was a fireworks display at a church near my house last Spring and something went wrong at one point. The explosions were amazing. It looked like atomic flashes and sounded like the apocalypse.

I have a similar issue. Not to degrade the matter, but I treat it like have a dog-like ears where only particular frequencies/sounds abuse my ear's sensitivity. Certain baby/cat noises, some white noise and the like flay my eardrums and cause a deep shudder.

Yes, this is definitely the case for me, and what I'm sensitive to isn't even the same all the time. I have particularly hyper-acute hearing, and some of my triggers are extremely high-frequency sounds which most other people don't hear at all, and they don't even have to be particularly loud; for example, I once had a big problem with an ultra-sonic cat deterrent that a neighbour put in their garden. At the same time, I was fine playing bass in ear-splitting punk bands, and can enjoy gigs sometimes so long as they're not body-shaking loud.

There is also something called misophonia, in which the triggers can be extremely specific; often the kind of "body-sounds" which Roo95 mentioned.

Nightclubs are a tad intimidating for me due to the combination of odd-sounding music and people cramped together like sardines. Conversely, however, a stadium or arena packed with 1,000-90,000 screaming fans is perfectly fine for me, probably because the people are reasonably spaced apart plus the open space necessitated by the playing area likely helps some of the noise escape. Unfortunately, most women with AS are more sensitive to this kind of noise than AS men, making it too overwhelming of a date for them Also, I was absolutely terrified of my kindergarten-2nd grade school's fire alarm, yet at that age I was perfectly fine at Buffalo Sabres hockey games when the goal celebration horn went off and the fans started cheering. Go figure!

I hate when people chew when sitting right next to me. They make smacking noises in my ear when chewing. Even worse is when they lick their fingers afterward. It drives me crazy.

Yes, there are certain sounds (not even always loud sounds) that really bother me, and some other sounds that don't bother me. I can relate to the chewing and smacking - my roommate does it louder than anyone I've ever heard, and I can't be in the same room with her when she's eating.

I also hate the sound of people talking on cellphones, especially in my apartment or the bus where I can't escape it.

I live near a school. None of the sounds that the kids make bother me except for that extremely irritating high-pitched SHRIEK! Hearing that all day long bothers me.

And yeah, hand dryers in bathrooms are hugely annoying.

Though there are some loud sounds that don't bother me. I love going to concerts where my favourite bands are playing. And I play in a band myself.

What sucks right now is that I'm temporarily unable to wear my usual earplugs.