Babble - Anyone else?

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Does anyone else find it hard being in a room with lots of people talking like a restaurant for example or a social gathering? There this babble of voices that's quite disconcerting like you are being bombarded by several radio stations that are on at the same time.

It can be hard to concentrate on what the people you're with are saying because the babble intrudes upon your ability to concentrate on what is being said to you.

I have this problem. Supposedly, most people are able to filter conversation in situations like that, but I can't do it.

I think I also have a problem with directional audio. Someone could be behind me and say "Hey how's it going." or "Hey, did you hear the news?" and I have trouble figuring out if they're talking to me or any of the people next to us.

Yes I struggle in a group of people.
I usually end up quieter than usual as I’m trying to figure everything out.

Had a fair few comments from my closet friends who notice that I tend to retract into my shell

Yes, I can't filter out noises. It's all pretty much equal. I've been on dates in loud restaurants where the noise seemed to wrap around me, and it was like the woman across from me was on mute. Probably the light and constant motion of the crowd didn't help either.

I'm also like that. It's hard for me to filter out background noises and other conversations. It causes sensory overload and sometimes shutdowns/meltdowns.

It's the same for me but it doesn't bother me. I just go into " stand-by" mode and put a stupid smile on my face. Luckily Mrs Trueno is complicit, she'll tell people "he can't hear a word you're saying". If I'm on my own I'll often tell people... don't expect a conversation, I don't do that sort of thing. Or, as a last resort "Lo siento, no hablo ingles."

I considered hearing loss . Never had it officially tested. Tried a couple of online hearing tests. One which had you stating what was said in different situations with background noise suggested I had moderate hearing loss. Another where you had to turn down the sound till you heard a voice barely without necessarily making out what was said ,say when you heard a tone at different high pitch frequencies and select words said at normal volume suggested I had normal hearing.

https://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/ ... r-hearing/ suggested I did not have hearing loss. I think a major problem for me is filtering out background noise.

I am wondering whether there is an auditory processing disorder connection with being on the spectrum.

I have problems with my hearing but don't have hearing loss.

All of a sudden I cannot understand what people are say, it sounds as if they are speaking a different language.

I cannot concentrate with background noise either.

I was told by a learning support specialist that my hearing problems are similar to my light sensitive issues and it all stems from the brain not the actual organ. In others words a brain processing issue.

Our brains are wired differently to the average person so who knows what extra difficulties that can bring.

But sensory difficulties are very common in Autism so it is no surprise to me.

Yes, I have this problem a lot, and it's definitely not a hearing problem (my hyper-acusis means that I can hear many things that most people can't.) The burble of lots of voices is a sound that I actually find rather disturbing; I quite often have to get away from it so that the anxiety doesn't lead to a melt-down. I struggle with any kind of background noise, but the sound of voices always seems particularly difficult to deal with; they don't need to be so loud as say, music or machinery, before I struggle to isolate the voice of someone that I'm trying to listen to. It sometimes leads to a kind of partial shut-down where my ability to understand words stops working properly, so I sometimes wonder if my brain is over-working its language circuits trying to comprehend all of the voices even though there's only one that I'm trying to focus on.

I also have this problem. There are two notable thresholds. Once the background voice babble rises to a high enough decibel level to pass the first threshold, I have significant trouble staying focused on the person(s) with whom I am speaking. The problem is one of attention, not hearing. I can still hear what the person speaking to me is saying, but I have to exert a tremendous amount of mental energy to keep myself attending to the conversation. My facial muscles also tense up, creating a grimace that is unwelcoming (to say the least). The facial grimace all but ensures that no one will want to come up and start a conversation with me, particularly if they don’t already know me. Most others in the environment do not seem to share my difficulties. So this first threshold definitely creates social challenges for me, as it causes me to disengage (at least to some degree) from everyone around me.

If the background voice babble noise rises to very high levels, then it passes a second threshold. At that level, the noise is so high that it is objectively difficult to hear the person with whom one is speaking. Everyone in the loud space will be seen leaning in and shouting close to a person’s ear in order to be heard. This second threshold creates fewer problems socially because even NTs are struggling to hear and be heard.

I have that problem. Sometimes its like I cant filter all the different sounds so they become one loud annoying noise, and other times I pick up on everything simultaneously and they don't make sense in my head because they're all coming from different sources.
Kinda similar: I also can't read and listen to someone talk at the same time, I can't write and talk at the same time cause I'll start writing what I'm saying not what I'm thinking, and I can't listen to music and have a conversation. Or watch TV and have a conversation. My parents annoy the crap outta me when they start asking me things while Im watching something, and they don't understand why I have to rewind to before they started speaking.

I also have problems filtering out one conversation among others or other noise.