Repetitive sounds

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I never knew that getting irritated by them was an autistic thing. Thought it was just a me thing.What irritates/stresses me - The sound of a hammer banging and banging then stopping, banging and banging then stopping ,or a drill buzzing then stopping buzzing then stopping.

The loud ticking of an old type mechanical alarm clock can be annoying.

The sounds made by construction and carpentry are widely considered to be annoying by the bulk of the NT population.

However...with the help of this record...you might start to equate the sound of that work going on on your neighbor's house with...the voice of Whitney Houston!


I Will Always Love You

If you're more into classical:


Beethoven's Fifth

I don't like the sound of the clock ticking and water dripping down the sink

Yep.....especially with dripping in the sink. High-pitched sounds more than low-pitched sounds.

I get really angry if I hear a neighbour hammering on and off. Not so much if they're outside and I can see that they're constructing something. But when you can faintly hear it on and off from the house or apartment next door but not really any other noises that indicate they're doing some sort of constructive tasks, I just lose it.

I'm very easily distracted by neighbour noise, it's impossible for my brain to filter it out and ignore it. NTs who don't feel the same (some do feel the same way) make it sound like it's easy to just ignore noises but I just can't do it. I home in on the noise, waiting and listening for it - not consciously though, but subconsciously. I don't want to listen out for it, if you know what I mean. I wish the world was more understanding with misophonia and other sound processing disorders (being so there are a lot of NTs who are sound sensitive too), and one of the main questions when looking for an apartment was how badly you're affected by noise, and put the people with babies and children in one block of apartments and put childless people like me into a different block or apartments with other quiet people who just go to work and go to bed, etc.

In an ideal world maybe.

My daughter who has HFA cannot filter out any noise. I can filter it out until she makes me aware of it.

I love repetitive sounds as long as I'm the one making them.

I have misophonia, meaning I develop irrational anger and fight-flight behaviour from everyday sounds. They don't have to be loud or obnoxious like a baby crying or a dog barking. In fact, I'm better with those ones because I have empathy for the baby or the dog in distress.

Most of my problem sounds are innocent, repetitive and rhythmic sounds from humans:

- typing on a keyboard or phone
- squeaky shoes or high heeled footsteps
- crinkling a snack bag (I'll need to kill you for that)
- fidgeting or moving around in a chair
- chewing, slurping, breathing, clearing throats
- heartbeats
- talking (too much, but sometimes talking at all)
- eating takeaway (scraping chips in the container)

Other killers include:

- paper bags (I can barely touch them because of the sound)
- weather, traffic or news on TV and radio
- styrofoam squeaking or rubbing (firing squad please)
- doorbells
- dogs chewing their feet
- televisions on in the background
- quiet music in waiting rooms (I subconsciously strain for it)
- food sizzling in a pan
- cutlery hitting bowls or plates
- snow shovelling when it scrapes the ground
- bells and alarms

I know these aren't all repetitive but to my misophonic brain if it continues more than a second or two, it's repeating endlessly and I need to scream, melt down, sit on the ground with my hands over my ears, cry, or flee. Not gonna lie, many of those make me feel violent. I have to get away asap and it can take me a few days to calm down.

Having bilateral Tinnitus for 14 years hasn't helped. I haven't heard silence since January 2008.

I hate listening to someone else on a telephone. It's just a bunch of intermittent "mhm".... "WHAT?"...."aww"

It's more the noises that stop for a while and then start again that get on my nerves. If a sound is simply repetitive with no interruptions, it's easier for my brain to filter it out. Not that it's always as simple as that.

I agree. Those are horrible. I just didn't know how to list examples.

I'm not too bad with a ticking clock so long as I'm not trying to sleep.
As it is I can't sleep without earplugs and total silence (beyond Tinnitus).

Dripping water would drive me mad.
When my dog scratches at my door I nearly throw a fit.

Ticking clocks drive me crazy. Dripping water and sirens also bother me.

dripping water
fan blowing on loose paper

i get repetitive sounds in my head too. not sure what that is.
and i see things when my eyes are closed....like kaleidoscope. always repeating motion